Hey everyone, So I just inherited one of those Eclipse 5 gal hex tanks that I' plan on using for a Betta, It came with a 15W incandescent bulb, should I replace this with a fluorescent bulb if I want some easy low light plants?
or is there another inexpensive bulb you may recommend?

What wattage would anyone recommend?

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90 gallon, 1 Iridescent shark, 2 Pleco, 3 Goldfish, 5 Cory cats, 2 Nerite snails
5 gallon hex, Blue Crowntail Betta, 1 nerite snail,

you might try wal mart they have the CFL bulbs that can fit in the fixtures that will grow plants pretty good, i have 2 of them in the 10g tank and doing really good i have

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What happens if you get scared half to death, twice?

Uncle Wally's, check in the fish dept. (as noted above)

CFL's work well in a small tank. If you buy at a Dept store try to get something close to 6500k. If you buy at a fish store than it will probably be in that range.

I got my bulbs at Walmart, but they were sold out in the pet section so I got my CFL back with the rest of the bulbs. They are marked as daylight and are 6500k. They were very inexpensive.

I agree with others, CFL work well. The pigtail shaped ones are the most efficient, but are a bit larger around and wouldn't fit in my fixture when I used one. To grow plants you want one that says something like 'daylight' or 6500K, you don't want 'warm white' or 'soft white'. They come in a variety of wattages. When working out the wattage go by actual wattage and not equivalent wattage.

Yes, you should get either a daylight balanced CFL at WalMart in the pet dept. or even better a small, LED from the regular bulb section in hardware. The ones I found are about the size of an "appliance"bulb yet only uses a couple of watts. If they are not sold out it's the way to go.