Hi there, I am a fellow noob myself. I just started my lighting project using the same shelving you have pictured except for my personal needs I disassembled it and essentially hung it from the ceiling, with each shelf being hung from the previous unit with chain. Now, hanging it is completely unncessary in most cases, your stand up unit will work just fine as it is with the light fixtures hung underneath the shelves. However, I realized one thing in the process about the lights. I bought my light fixtures from Walmart, they are cheapo light duty T8 two-bulb fixtures. They are 4' long and about 8" wide at their base and this is probably standard for this price range. You will have no problem at all hanging one fixture per tier but you might run in to trouble if you want to hang two fixtures side by side. You'll have to measure the depth of your shelving between the support legs, not to the outside edge of the shelves. You may not be able to squeeze 2 light fixtures between those legs unless one of them is turned slightly upward and not straight down which makes it less effective. You may not even need more than one fixture per shelf for what you're doing, but if you planned to then you'll have to take the width of the ballasts into account and make sure they'll fit between those legs, perhaps you can find narrower 2-bulb ballasts or maybe there are 4-bulb units that will accomodate that measurement, whatever it is. The 4' long ballasts are certainly longer than your 45" long shelves so whatever you buy in any combination they will have to fit between those legs. I hope this is making sense? Because my shelving was hung with chain and not fixed with a rigid leg I had a little flexibility, there's some give with chain so I was able to squeeze two fixtures between them, but just barely. As to the kind of fixture/bulbs you choose I'm sure lots of folks will weigh in, there are many threads on this subject. The general advice I took after pouring over them was to go with a T8 fixture rather than T12 because they are more efficient although the bulbs can be pricier but not exorbitantly so. The bulbs will last years in most cases so that's not exactly what I consider a recurring expense. The other advice I took was not to mess with the "one cool white, one warm thing" or specialized grow lights and I just went with bulbs that were labeled "daylight". There are all kinds, "neutral", "kitchen/bath", etc....and I had a little trouble finding T8 "daylight" at my Lowes but they did have them. I paid $8 for a two-pack, don't know if that's good but that was my only option. Bulk will be cheaper but again, how often will you be replacing these bulbs? I didn't need 30 of them right now. I have read many many threads about lumens, penetration, overdriving, light spectrums, etc...until I was cross-eyed. I understand some but not all. In the end, I went with something simple that seems very effective for alot of people. Good luck with your project. My thread with pics is a recent one too, I linked it below. That chrome shelf that's hanging is identical to yours, I had just spray painted it black because it was so rusty from being outdoors. I'm going to hang the other chrome shelves below that one as it progresses. Danielle Here is a link that might be useful: Chrome shelving hung

Hi Sara, I'm glad to hear you are listening to the advise provided and getting a lot with a drainage hole. Go ahead and pick up some perlite with it for you to mix 50/50 with the C&S soil you got. If you like the look of the terrarium you can achieve a similar look with a wide, shallow terra cotta pot (or any wide shallow lot with proper drainage). You can set up a nice little succulent garden in that. Also, if you don't get good light I recommend getting a lamp to provide some supplemental lighting. I use a compact florescent bulb to get mine through winter. Get the brightest one possible

Hello Ken, I think there was something in the soil mix that can decay... and probably I gave them a bit too much water. Since they are all sitting indoor, could be that there was not enough ventilation to dry up the potting soil. Perhaps some roots were rotten. God, I hope they won't come back again. I used some potting soil, pumice， akadama and some perlite to make the potting mix.

I think your plant is Graptosedum Bronze. I grow this plant and your’s looks normal to me. Mine grows long stems, looses leaves like this, and has the same markings on the leaves.