flourescent light good for plants?

Well, flourescent or not, I don't think any type of light will help the plastic ones grow!

Flourescent bulbs are fine for growing plants, but they need to have the correct spectrum and intensity depending on the plants you wish to grow.

If you do a search, you will get more info than you ever imagined for lighting and/or plant help. Also check out the plant forum...

Good luck,

How many watts does the light fixture have?

should probably get closer to1.5- 3 watts per gallon for good plant growth.This place has tons of great plant help.

Lighting !!!

20 watts on a 20 gallon tank
That gives you 1 watt/gallon, very low light.
light spectrum(colour) is important, 5500k-6700k is adaquate for a planted tank. Sure you can grow plants with that, however you will be limited to the variety avalible. You can get some low light plants but they just won't grow as fast as if they were getting 3-4 watts/gallon. Make sure some are fast growing, they have to out compete the algea for nutrience or the algea will dominate. In order for plant growth, photosynthesis has to take place. Plants need nutrience to get to this point; lighting, nitrogen, phosphate, Iron(+trace elements), C02 and so on. You'll need some test kits to monitor these levels; ph, Fe(Chelated Iron), Po4(phosphate), KH(carbonate hardness), No3(Nitrate). As you can see it isn't as easy as throwing a light fixture on your tank and now you can grow plants.
Check out this site, do some research before you jump in.The Krib

Good luck,


Terry.

Live plants don't have to be complicated at all. If you get easy ones like java fern and java moss, you can probably just throw in them in the tank and they will do the rest. Even your 20 watts of light will be fine.

Your light fixture.

If the light isn't staying on, it most likely needs a new starter,click here , this is what the starter looks like, You will have to open up the fixture to get to the starter. To remove it, you will have to turn it(i can't remember if it is clockwise or counter clockwise). make sure the fixture is unpluged first. Take it to your local hardware or home depot store to match it, they are cheap, $2 to $3 max.

good luck.

Terry