Plants growing fast vertically but not sidewards

Agreed.

I have saw this first-hand before I purchased my power compact fixture. I
had a few bulb-like plants and one of them grew stems all the way up to the
surface and then opened it's leaves on the surface of the water.

Now with the new light, the stems are only 2-3 inches and then the leaves
open up.

Brian S.

"Michi Henning" wrote in message
...
Large internode length and stretching up are typical signs
of insufficient light.

My tank is 3 x 2 x 2 ft.
I turn on my CO2 supply, and 4 tubes of 40W florescent tubes for 7-8 hrs
daily, and apply liquid fertiliser weekly.

160W for an 80gal should be fine, except for very light-demaning plants. I
suspect
that your problem may be the short lighting period. 7-8 hours is pushing
it.
Kasselmann
recommends a minimum of 10 hours, and suggests 12-13 hours.

I'd give that a try for a few weeks before changing anything else.

Cheers,

Michi.