I just thought of an analogy that I think works pretty well. Many people reading on threads and forums or old articles on the net will read about having X watts per gallon in their tanks. I think an analogy to explain to them how little that matters is how many watts of electricity their TV set uses. A very old small TV set can use a lot more watts then a very large wide screen 3D HDTV(again “canâ€ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ, not will).
The other side to this is you don’t need a 80†TV in a small kitchen and in fact a very large screen only 12†away from your face while your preparing food may be pointless or annoying as you couldn’t really see what is going on. Just like having X watts per gallon really depends on the layout of your tank. If it is a very tall tank you may need to use more light to penetrate through the water.
I dunno perhaps the second half is a stretch and perhaps the analogy isn’t really necessary and just hearing from a more advanced hobbyist that “watts per gallon†shouldn’t even be looked at or considered is enough.
T5HO with proper bulbs, ballast, and reflectors through this old adage out the window many years ago and LEDs even further intensify that it doesn’t matter how many watts your light fixture is using.