[stratg5]

Every fish store I have been to in my area sells hoods obviously, but the wattage is so tiny it's driving me crazy. For a 15 gallon, the most I have found is a t8 hood with 17 watts max. I could buy a dual lamp t5 but that would cost me 80 dollars. Right now my 15 gallon has a glass cover with two 17 watt lamp fixtures on it which looks a bit ridiculous, and my 5 gallon has a clamp on with a bulb in it that has some huge amount of wattage because I can't find a normal amount of wattage. It is really becoming frustrating that I cant find a hood that has much more than 1 watt per gallon, any solutions?

 

[stratg5]

That's because your insisting on a "hood". Unless you buy one and adapt a light to fit it
you will not get one. First you have enough ligh to grow most common plants/w one T8 bulb in a 15g tank. Aqueon makes a "full spectrun" bulb for that which is very bright.
Second a clamp on regular light fixture can use CFL bulbs and only cost $10 at Home Depot. Paint the outside of it black and hang it over the top of the tank. Just get the 11-14W bulb in 6500K or you will fry your tank. People just take off the clamp and put a shelf bracket over the tank to hang it from.

You have a good point. I guess I'll have to go diy. I think most hoods are for the casual enthusiast who wants some low light plants or no plants at all and just needs the bare minimum lighting. Why would they include a 40 watt fixture if most of their customers aren't going to use it? I guess I will just have to keep going the route I'm on. On the 5 gallon I bought a reptile light fixture with clamp and just clamped it on the rim, it has a pretty bright light in it though. It's a spiral fluorescent daylight bulb but I think it's 23 watts and is a replacement for a 100 watt bulb or something like that. The thermostat reads a consistent 79 degrees though so that's good.