growing under artifical lights

[cnarciso]

Hey guys. I recently joined here to ask a few questions about growing orchids under artifical lights. I have recently gotten involved with paphs and purchased a few complex hybrids from a local dealer. Since I was having problems controlling disease on my orchids grown outdoors, I decided to try and do these inside under lights. I purchased two shop light fixtures and alternated cool (daylight, 3100 lumens, 6500K) tubes with warm (yellow, 3400 lumens, 3000K) tubes. All tubes are standard 40W. There are a total of four tubes which hang approximately 6 inches above the plants on a PVC-rig I whipped up out of some scraps. I have read online that paphs grow nicely under 4 flourescent tubes of these color temperatures to give both the blue and red spectrum necessary for adequate growth and blooming. However when I take light measurements around the plants I barely read 500 footcandles. Most sources say paphs need at least 800-1500 footcandles to grow successfully. My question is, are these conditions ok for paphs? The setup I created looks very similar to others I have seen/read about online and which people say they have had success with; still, 500 footcandles seems really low. At the same time though, I have had the plants about 1 month and they look healthy, with leaves of appropriate color.