My first post were lost in one of the site crashes but I am fairly certain I was told to plant as soon as the system would support fish, the sooner the better. Can't prove that but by memory that's what I remember. As far as lights I have 3, 2 bulb, 48" fluorescent fixtures with 6500 lumen (daylight) bulbs at 40 watts per. I figure 240 watts over 12 square feet of grow bed. I tried some blue/red LED's but they didn't seem to do much of anything.