GaCat

The plants seem to do fine, if I stay up on the water changes and ferts. The guy at my little fish store (only fish) said those would do just fine in my set up. I've lost a few but, it's all in gaining experience I guess. My plants arrived today from a guy on this site, Crypt Balansae (12), Java Fern (freebie) and a lot of Christmas Moss. The Crypts are 24" long The moss will make a cool wall to hide most of the mirrored back ( had I only been thinking ).

Check with your local Pet something or other for the GLO set up ( I saw it there), if you go with the lamps I have, you might have to order them.

thai

I was thinking about painting the back of the tank black.

I can't wait to see your plants fill in. I am sure everything would look great.

I thought I had a great idea. I went to WalMart to buy some CFL bulb thinking I can add the lights to the Eclipse hood. I brought the lights home to find out that there are no places to screw the sockets to the hood. I thought there was enough plastic or space to screw the sockets to the side of the hood. The lights was also too big for the space. I should of looked at the hood and measured everything. I guess I will have to think of something else.

GaCat

Good luck with scraping off the mirror back. I started to do it the last time when I moved the tanks to a new stand I built. It'll be tough but I'm sure with patience and a few beers it can be done. I was thinking of scraping a design, leaving some of the mirror for effect.

I was planning on using the old lights from the 37g on my 20g. In the mean time while I was building a new hood for the 20, I was using 2 x 100w (26w CFL Daylight 6500K) on lamp stands. My plants exploded in growth, temps didn't rise and the effect was cool. I've got the hood almost built now and I've decided not to use it, I'm going to use just one CFL instead. I like the way the light plays out in the tank, a dome effect, so I'm designing a shelf to house the single lamp I will use.

Another option for you would be to change out your lamps. There's plenty out there with the same wattage but more K's.

Side note:
I just Googled GLO T5 HO and found the kit 10 bucks cheaper than what I paid which was $51.99.

PRJCT92EH2

They are 3 gutted Home Depot desk lamps that came with 6700K 27 W bulbs. The hood has a built in clear plastic piece that blocks them from moisture.