Yes, the grow lights are different. Even though they have some of the same wavelengths/spectrums of light as natural light, its almost impossible to equate anything other than metal halides or VHO's with something approaching real sunlight. The normal strength grow lights and flourescents just can't pack the same photon punch as sunlight, even weak, screened or dappled light, which is why you need to put the bulbs so close to the plants. The Coral Life bulbs come in reflectorized and non-reflectorized to send down as much light as you want, but even those never burned anything I had. I have a 50 gallon terrarium that I was using metal halides in, and they were so powerful I had to make a "light" are and a "dark" area inside by using just one bulb instead of 2. The overshine from that one bulb was bright enough to kill the Dendrobium lodegessii cuttings I put in there with too much heat, but I have an Angraecum distichum that loved it and bloomed its head off and added 2 new leads. I took the metal halides off though and got regular aquarium hoods with flourescents, because with the halides, and theym generating HEAT that flourescents don't, and I had to elevate the hood 6" on blocks over the terrarium, so the humidity was poor. It didn't matter for a while, but now I am thinking of getting into dendrobates (poison dart frogs) and they need it humid and cooler, and the system needs to be CLOSED so they can't escape. If you are at all able, you could put your plants outdoors for the summer in dappled light in NC and they would probably like that very much. Where in Florida were you living?

I don't understand the purpose of the drop cloths, and like Larry, I'm concerned about the fire risk. Raising seeds indoors will lose its appeal really fast if your light-shelf set-up burns down the house. Tomato seedlings should be grown on at cool temperatures after the seeds germinate. The ideal temperature for them is 65 degrees. Leaving seedlings on a seed germination mat is risky and can damage them. I have a seed germination mat and rarely use it. If I'd known how easily 95% of the plants I grow from seed would germinate indoors without a germination mat, I never would have bought one. Some years I don't even dig it out of storage and use it at all. When I do use it, I move the entire flat off the mat once 50% of the cells in the 72-cell flat have germinated seeds in them. About the only vegetable seed I'll use the germination heat mat for is pepper seeds, particularly older seeds I've had a few years. I often germinate my tomato, pepper and other seeds in zip-lock bags like George mentioned. As long as I remove them from the zip-lock bag before the plant stems and roots become intertwined with one another, they don't mind being moved from the bags to the flats of soil-less mix. I find it very efficient because I'll have full flats with each cell filled with seedlings, instead of having flats with some empty cells because the seeds in them failed to germinate. I prefer to grow seedlings on for a few weeks in conditions that are fairly cool. Because the guest room where I put my light shelf faces the south and has big windows, I struggle to keep the room from getting too hot for them. To keep it cool, I close off the HVAC vent in that room so that it isn't getting any heat when the heater is on. I let them have a couple of hours of early morning sun and then close the drapes so that the room doesn't heat up too much. I keep a fan running 224/7. When you raise seedlings indoors in a room that is too hot, they quickly grow into monster plants, and that's not good for them. When they grow large quickly, they outgrow the available space under the plant lights. When that happens, what are you going to do with them? I used to move mine to my screened-in back porch, but once we built the greenhouse, that became the place I put them when I kick them out of the nice warm house. They might get warmer in the greenhouse than I'd like during the day, but then they get very close to freezing temperatures in there most nights, so that keeps them from growing rampantly like they would indoors. It is so early to be starting tomato seeds indoors that I get a headache thinking about it. You only need to start them 6 to 8 weeks before your recommended transplanting date. The OSU-recommended planting dates for tomato transplants are April 10-30, with the April 10th date being intended for folks in far SE OK and the April 30th date being intended for folks in far NW OK. The rest of us have to chose an appropriate transplanting date somewhere between April 10 and April 30, based on where we live in the state and on our local soil temperatures and air temperatures. Sometimes, in a really hot winter with an early last freeze, we can put tomato plants in the ground up to a month early and get away with it, but years like that are few and far between---maybe once or twice a decade, and it just happened in 2012, so I don't know if we'll have another year like that any time soon. I usually start my tomato seeds on Super Bowl Sunday, and that can be far too early for me in years when the air and soil temperatures stay cold deep into spring. And, it can be almost too late in a year like 2012 because it means my seedlings will barely be big enough to be transplanted early. So, I feel like it is the exact right time to start them since it isn't precisely right for long, cold springs or short, warm winters. It is right in the middle. If I started tomato seeds as early as you have, my husband would lock me in the cellar until the insane urge to start seeds now had passed. That is because he knows all too well how crazy it makes me to have big, healthy plants indoors that cannot go into the ground for another month or two. Because our weather is so erratic, even when I start them on time, I sometimes cannot put them into the ground for another 2-6 weeks beyond the preferred transplanting date. The last time we had a year like that, it just above drove me crazy, and I just about drove him crazy. So, since you started your seeds so early.....welcome to the insanity! Dawn

Yes, I go with the T8s, as many as you can get in the space you have. Home Depot has some wire shelves that are 4' long by 2' deep by 6' tall (I think its 6") that are perfect for hanging lights. Depending on the height of your plants you'll probably need to leave at least one shelf off. I have a similar set of shelves that are only 18" wide (because the space I have them in is like an inch too narrow for the 2' shelves), 4' long. I just bought some plywood to mount my new lights on so I can use a pulley system to raise and lower them. There's nothing wrong with T5s except the expense. But do keep in mind, if you go with the T5's, I'm pretty sure those Hydrofarm lights take a custom tube. If you want T5 lights, I would suggest making very sure that whatever you buy takes standard 54W T5 bulbs. Also keep in mind they give off more heat than the same number of T8s - so a fan is in order. Here is a link that might be useful: Pulley system to raise and lower fluorescent strip lights

If you are growing leave greens and herbs, I highly recommend the Philips Greenpower Production Modules. To date, they are among the most efficient LED fixtures available, designed extremely well and are not horribly expensive. They are about $140cdn each, you'll need 4 for a 4x4 space. Worth the money, they are your most efficient option. Efficiency means for every watt of electricity you use, they produce a large amount of PAR (photosynthetically active radiation). That means they produce a lot of light that the plants can use in relation to how much electricity they use. google Philips Greenpower Production Module. The ones you want are the DR/B (deep red / blue). I picked these leaves from my garden today: