Hey, you gotta start somewhere! There's nothing wrong floros, they just aren't very aggressive and they create a very oddly-shaped light-sphere. Their effective range is around 4-6 inches at best. You really need to keep active growth areas in this realm. There are many tricks to take maximum advantage of long florescent tubes that are awkward to work with. There is a way of getting more light energy from long florescent tubes where you want it. Get foil tape (2' wide for T12 floros, 1' wide for T8s and make sure it has a clear adhesive) and very carefully stick it on the back side of your florescent tube which faces away from your plants and towards your reflector, directly on the bulb, be sure to avoid folds bubbles and wrinkles. Make sure the tape falls an inch or two short of the end caps as the bulb is hottest here and you definitely don't want the metal tape to create a short between the usually metal caps. If you got the tape on there nice and straight with a minimum of imperfections they will be noticeably brighter on the side facing your plants. This works by reflecting the photons directly back out the front side of the bulb instead of them coming out of the backside, hitting whatever reflector you have and then making their way back down to the plants. Its a bit tricky to do right, but yields a major advantage and can extend the effective range of a tube up to a respectable 8 inches. Many plants are also compatible with the supercropping technique, which is great to use on sprouts and the like before they go outside to get them nice and squat and bushy with massively thick stems which will support huge growth once in the great outdoors. You can check out the details on my indoor tomato thread I've linked to below. Oh, also, welcome! I've not been on the forums long myself, but I think you will find its a very supportive community.

Here is a link that might be useful: tomato diary

Last year, I grew about 50 pepper seedlings using nothing but shop lights so they will work. Just be sure to keep the lights no more than a couple of inches from the tops of the plants, closer is better. There were times where some of the leaves actually touched the lights - they don't become hot enough to hurt the foliage.

Another thing that will really help, and this is mostly true regardless what kind of lights you have it repotting the seedlings. Tomatoes and peppers both have a propensity to getting long in the stem when they first germinate. When my plants get a couple of inches tall I repot them into a larger container, up to the bottom of the lowest leaves.

Good luck in your endeavor!

Mike

I started my seedlings under a similar set-up (one cool and one warm color fluorescent) for a few years and always did fine. There's nothing wrong with them, they just don't put out as much light. This weekend I picked up a 150w high pressure sodium light, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it compares! Just keep your plants nice and close and I'm sure you'll have luck.