How do you light your phyto?

[Europhyllia]

I made a big culture shelf because I was running out of space for my phyto and enrichment containers. So now I am thinking of getting a light to light the whole length of it (4ft). Right now I just have an incandescent bulb for the iso (because it grows faster when it's warm) and the light from a small tank hood for the nano.
Can I just go with a regular flurorescent strip light from Lowes? Or do I need to watch out for anything specific?

[Troy Valentine]

When I was growing alot of phyto I was using a cheap shop light from Home Depot. It was 150 watts and the brightest, yellowist light I could find. At that time I was using 2-20 gallon aquariums on an old over and under iron stand. The problem I ran into with regular T-12 flourescent tube was the ability of the light to punch deep enough into the culture to provide enough light to sustain a deep green culture. I had a constant drip into the system at that time about a gallon/day. And you are right heat played a big part in the success of my culture. It did best during the summer months.

[hobogato]

yep, normal fluorescent will work ok, but better penetrating light will work better. we have our iso cultures at school growing in containers sitting in warm water baths using a fluorescent shop light and it is growing like crazy. the nano is not being heated and it is doing fine. i just switched mine to a 6700k pc light and it really seems to be getting more dense than when i was using nfo t8 plant grow bulbs.