I just wanted to make a quick blurb about lighting here as it’s a pretty common question I get asked about. I grow indoors in tents so my recommendations will be regarding this type of set up and may not be as useful for people growing in different set ups.
I use Barrina brand bar grow lights in all of my tents. I use them on the ceiling of the tent and under each shelf. I do this because it gives me the most precise control of light levels throughout my tent and allows me to create different light “zones” throughout my tents to accommodate different plants. In my experience using single light sources in tent situations makes it very difficult to get light levels consistent or finely tuned in different areas of the tent. I also experience a lot of petiole etiolation when I had a single source with many of my plants “reaching” towards the light.
I currently use a combination of t5 and t8 strength lights depending on the shelf spacing and some other factors. The t8 lights are much more intense than the t5 lights and will therefore require a larger shelf spacing. The t8 lights also generate significantly more heat than the t5 lights which can be problematic in certain situations but can also be used to your advantage if your grow space tends to be on the cooler side.
I use a cheap light meter off of amazon to measure the light levels when I’m setting up my shelf heights. I use foot candles (FC) as my reference as it is easy to understand and gives a nice quick rough estimate of light levels. It’s also widely known and can be measured even on cheap light meters. There are more advanced, more scientifically relevant measures of usable light such as PAR and PPFD, however these require more advanced detectors and for my purposes are not necessary. Of note some phone apps do offer par and ppfd measurements but they require the use of a home made diffuser (usually a strip of computer paper) to give accurate measurements, and I found that to be quite tedious for no real advantage to my plants.
I will go into the individual light levels for different species that I target under their respective dedicated posts, but here are some general targets that I aim for to get optimal growth speed and aesthetic appearance. All of these light levels would be considered low light in a broader sense but I’ve broken them down into more precise subcategories specifically for low light velvet anthuriums.
All seedlings: 150-200 fc
Tier one: Lowest light/deep shade species (dress, kuna): 150-200 fc
Tier two: still low but these species can handle a bit more light (carla, antolakii) : 200-300 fc
Tier three: this for me is species such as papillalaminum or besseae aff which look best in lower light (tier two range) but can handle a bit more (300-400) without sacrificing too much aesthetically especially when mature.