The short answer is that the hydroponics stores are selling t5HO plant lights, not t8. The same t5s are used for aquariums for proper plant and coral growth. If you want to find people who are nuts about light spectrum these are the nuts. T-8s are designed for the human eye, to replace t12s. T-5s are specialty bulbs. You can get GE t5 red shift tubes for flowering or blue shift for growth. If you mix them you will have less green than if you used all people pleasing 5,000k tubes. Total lumens per watt is a useless measure if those lumens are green light that the plant can't use.

Thank you all for such quick, great, if sometimes contradictory ;) input. I realize that differences in your opinions may be because I need to give you a few more details. The plants I grow now are mostly Paphs and Phals and one Encyclia. The other plants IÂd like to grow are Bulbos, Oncidiums, Phrags, and some Vandas. I have two small east windows that are getting pretty crowded and two shelf areas where the lighting is used. The shelves in question are non-adjustable wooden shelves and the area I want to light on each shelf is about 4 ft X 16 in. Total clearance is about 22 inches between shelves. Currently humidity trays and the shoplights themselves take up about 9 inches, cutting clearance to about 13 inches, and naturally the plants themselves would fill that clearance a great deal. Of course I can adjust the height of T12 and T8 shop lights to get closer to plants if need be, but I canÂt get any farther away than probably 1-8 inches from the tops of leaves, depending on the size of the plant. If I did some more investigating into getting a T5 setup, as some of you suggest I should, my question would be: How far away do the tops of plants need to be from a T5 setup, especially low-light plants? Would low-light plants like Paphs and Phals actually be safe only 1-8 inches from a T5 set up? Also, given the shelf area described above, would I be looking for a 2-bulb T5 configuration, a 3-bulb T5 configuration, or a 4-bulb configuration? (I am using a 4-bulb T12 configuration now and would also be using a 4-bulb configuration if I switched to T8s.) If low-light plants could be safe 1-8 inches from a T5 bank of lights, certainly a T5 setup would give me more flexibility to grow other types of orchids as well, but that seems too good to be true and I donÂt want to jeopardize the plants I already have. The way I am figuring it, switching to a T8 setup would allow me to continue growing the plants I have, some of them perhaps more successfully, and maybe one or two medium light species I canÂt grow in my east windows or under T12s--plus I would significantly save in energy costs over my T12 setup. A T5 setup in the same shelving configuration might be harmful to my low-light plants, though it would expand my capacity to grow higher-light varieties. Energy consumption with a T5 would be greater than with a T8 setup. Please let me know how I might be misunderstanding things and if you would change your advice based on this info. Again, IÂm so grateful you are willing to take the time to help me think this through. Thanks, Charlie

Thanks everyone!! I like the idea of the paper/towel wax paper Irina, I might give that a try. I'm thinking I have a month or so left too. I'll go ahead and jump in. Now to just figure out which light fixture to use and watering method. I'm thinking of going with capillary mats (with wicks) for these ones since they are all coming from the same source. Any plants I get from the violet show will be isolated and if I can on wicks. I'm hoping to mostly get leaves Paul, I'm aware of the end of the bulbs. I remember that from when I grew in the past; my violet club suggested I grow the darker green plants towards the end of the stands, with lighter green/variegated towards the middle btw Linda, the shelving units you mentioned to me are lower cost on amazon/walmart right now for 59. I'm gonna order mine here within a day or two. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Edsal-48-W-x-24-D-x-72-H-5-Shelf-Steel-Shelving-Black/21685762

Wow those are beautiful NOIDS @anon-cdn!. so there is hope for T8 shoplights after all!. and here I was debating on if I should put a layer of window screening under the tubes to help dapple the light lol. but as we can see t8 does work just the way it is! thanks @anon-cdn! now I feel much better about splurging on T8 lol. I just wish T12 didn't die out they worked so well for me and everyone else on violets and u can keep those T12 shoplights lower-10 inches lol. Im doing wall shelving-where u have a shelf on the wall. above that do another shelf where u hang your shoplight from. I can do several shoplights that way and at the same time doesn't take up floor space. got the idea online lol! here is a pic of where I got the idea from, pretty good idea. this way you just take up wall space and leaves your floor space free. notice in the pic, its just a simple wooden shelf with a wall bracket. and directly above that at the proper height you do another shelf, same size and that's where u hang ur shoplight under then the chain suspends it. good idea, simple. leaves floor space totally free and same time doesn't clutter your room up with stands! not to mention this is by far the cheapest method ($3 each if that for a simple 48x12 wooden pine board cut at home depot. two bucks for shelf brackets. $20 for a t8 shoplight) where as if u use stands u got to buy a stand first (usually $40 or more...some are $119 at home depot for the edsal 48x24x74h storage shelving unit five tier) add to that shoplights. tubes. ur pushing $200. so choice is clear this is the cheapest route! :) plus I have all my floor space FREE