Today I bought 2 fluorescent light tubes labelled as "plant and aquarium, wide spectrum fluorescent lamp" There are 48 inches long, 40 watt, and the light output says 1900 lumens. I plan to hang them above my plants. Now I know that some plants won't thrive under high lighting such as my orchids and ferns, but there are some plants and seeds that I'm planning to put under the lights so I will list them.

Plants:

Jade

Lithops

Ornamental Pepper seedlings (they are about 1 1/2 inches high)

Yucca seedlings (About 4 inches high)

christmas cactus

Some seeds I have that I want to germinate:

Wild Iris

Peacock Flower

Bird of Paradise

Lavendar

Mixed Cacti seeds

chives, parsely, oregano, cilantro

strawberry

Are there any particular rules that come with using grow lights? I am unsure about how close I should have the grow lights hanging above my plants/seedlings. I am also unsure about how long to leave the lights on before turning them off and when to turn them back on again? I know that some of the seeds that I listed need to be in the dark in order to germinate, but will all of the seeds be ok to place under the grow lights once they have germinated? Any suggestions would be greatly appeciated :)