Ok while I was at the LFS today (actually 50+mi away) getting my black flourite sand (WOOHOO) I saw some plants that really struck my eye. I ended up with 2 onion plants, some full-size vallisinaria(sp?) Some narrow leaf red ludwigia, rotala, and the most interesting of these I forget.
The very last plant I don't know the name of, and the rotala both want a LOT of light, so due to my splurging I had to find a fast solution. The dude at the LFS tried to pitch me on a $145, 55w pendant light. It was a gorgeous light, but as much money as I've spent already, just on freaking substrate...well. I took your advice PK and picked up what I THINK is an SHO light. I couldn't find anything labeled just such. I also wasn't able to find any T5 circular lights at Lowe's, dmanning. If I had I'm not even sure what I could use as a fixture. The hood that came with the thing has a super small glass opening for a 16" light.
I went out to lowe's and grabbed a -23watt- (100 watt equivalent sylvania super mini flourescent. quickly ran it home and put it in my girlfriends old reptile reflector with a clip. It seems to produce a lot of light (once it fully warms up) but I'm not sure the 23/100 or whatever is what you're referring to. If you meant the actual base wattage (23) should be more like 50-80 then I'm obviously drastically undercutting the amount I need for a 30 gallon. This whole actual wattage crap is confusing. Ultimately I may get something like the pendant light and this little solution is just temporary. My girlfriend is already throwing a fit about the reflector hanging over the empty tank. I don't understand why its such a big deal since she housed her anoles with it when I first moved in. -.- Females. lol