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I have a 10g with the typical hood with room for two bulbs. Right now I have a 15 watt compact flourescent in one side and a 25 watt clear incandescent in the other.

What I don't get is why the 15 watt is so much brighter than the 25. Is it because of the spectrum of light that is produced?

Is that 25 watt okay for plants. It alone should produce 2.5 wpg, but I somehow can't see that being the case.

If I add another 15 watt flourescent and bring it up to 3wpg, will that cause too much algae growth? I'm already getting slimy dark green algae on the side that has the 15 watt.

Flourescents will always be brighter than incandescents. Flourescents are more energy efficient (which is why you see them sold as "energy saver" bulbs in home improvment stores). When it comes to plants, don't even consider any incandescent bulbs. That's not the wpg that they're talking about. To get 2.5wpg you'll want 25 watts of florescent light...which is rather easy to do with one of these
.

Not only are incandescent watts not powerful enough, but they're also not the right kelvin for proper plant growth. Home depot has a bulb made by commercial electric (like the above pictured one) that is 19watts, and has a kelvin of 6500K and has a daylight spectrum...perfect for plants ....moreover it'll fit just fine in the incandescent socket :88).
HTH a bit .

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Thanks babelfish,
I've checked homedepot a couple of times but they only have soft white compact flourescent bulbs so I had to resort to the $16 bulb from the lfs.

Well that's not fair !
My bulbs are $7 or so US. You might want to look around @any other hardware, garden, lighting, or even dare I say it wlmrt. You'd be more than surprised the number of places I've found stuff for my tanks. Keep an eye out, they've only reciently started selling the "daylight" bulbs (last 6 months or so) in home depot.

^_^