I recently moved from a house to an apartment, wherein I went from an old rickety iron shelf system on a South Facing Window that gave good enough light all day, to an Eastern facing window that gives light from 1-2 PM to 5-7PM.
While my plants seem to be mostly doing fine -- The Adelae didn't survive the trip, and the LFS in the Monkey Cup died back, and I have a bit of a white mold infestation that seems to finally be under control (things are doing a lot better than my original fears) -- I do not have any room to really expand my collection anymore.
What I'd like to do is expand into finally having some shelfs and artificial light for my plants -- ideally I'll have the "taller" plants in front of the window and the smaller ones under the artificial lights, or perhaps have the shelves in front of the window and just boost the daylight with artificial lights as well.
Therein lies my questions, as I'm completely lost. I am probably going to get the same shelf kit that Darcie mentions in her sticky post -- just a nice sturdy wireframe shelf with wheels under them (and a nice throw rug protecting the floor under that). They have them at the local Lowes for about $75 -- didn't see the wheel kit, but I'm sure it's around someplace.
My major worry is the lighting. I know I need 2 bulbs per mount in order to provide enough Lumens per shelf, give or take. Lowes in the area carries shop lights that look like they're what I want, they hold 2 bulbs and come with an electronic ballast and all that.
But all the talk of T8, T12, T5 bulbs kinda throws me off. Will the shop light fixtures usually mention that sorta thing? I didn't notice them on the boxes at Lowes, but it was just a passing glance. Are there online stores someone could point me at that would have these?
What about an Terrarium lid that can hold 2 lights? I don't think I necessarily need one -- my current setup is thriving -- but I could not find one to save my life, and the nice lady at Pet Smart gave me a funny look when I asked. Kinda a matter of personal pride at this point.
While my plants seem to be mostly doing fine -- The Adelae didn't survive the trip, and the LFS in the Monkey Cup died back, and I have a bit of a white mold infestation that seems to finally be under control (things are doing a lot better than my original fears) -- I do not have any room to really expand my collection anymore.
What I'd like to do is expand into finally having some shelfs and artificial light for my plants -- ideally I'll have the "taller" plants in front of the window and the smaller ones under the artificial lights, or perhaps have the shelves in front of the window and just boost the daylight with artificial lights as well.
Therein lies my questions, as I'm completely lost. I am probably going to get the same shelf kit that Darcie mentions in her sticky post -- just a nice sturdy wireframe shelf with wheels under them (and a nice throw rug protecting the floor under that). They have them at the local Lowes for about $75 -- didn't see the wheel kit, but I'm sure it's around someplace.
My major worry is the lighting. I know I need 2 bulbs per mount in order to provide enough Lumens per shelf, give or take. Lowes in the area carries shop lights that look like they're what I want, they hold 2 bulbs and come with an electronic ballast and all that.
But all the talk of T8, T12, T5 bulbs kinda throws me off. Will the shop light fixtures usually mention that sorta thing? I didn't notice them on the boxes at Lowes, but it was just a passing glance. Are there online stores someone could point me at that would have these?
What about an Terrarium lid that can hold 2 lights? I don't think I necessarily need one -- my current setup is thriving -- but I could not find one to save my life, and the nice lady at Pet Smart gave me a funny look when I asked. Kinda a matter of personal pride at this point.