seeds Is a fish tank ok for seedlings?

santis00

santis00

I have a small fish tank that is just sitting there and I need to buy a month or two of time before I can put the plants in the garage. I have only 4 plants that have sprouted and waiting on the others.
 
Is it safe to put them in a fish tank with lights over head? And if so, for how long? I am afraid they would starve for air, but it would give me a better place to put them inside for the time being.
 
Define small fish tank and how you plan to use it and what lighting you are talking about using. Too vague a description is asking for problems
 
Are they too big for Solo cups?
 
I would put them in cups with five 1/4" holes in the bottom and set the cups in the fish tank to catch the extra water.  As suggested, a small fan would keep air moving.  Then they will be easy to move to the garage.
 
CAPCOM said:
Define small fish tank and how you plan to use it and what lighting you are talking about using. Too vague a description is asking for problems
Click to expand...
 
So the fish tank is about a 2ft by 1 ft tank. I have 30 seeds sitting in some dixie cups right now but they are on my counter in my kitchen. Wife doesn't like that to much. 
 
Plan to put the dixie cups in the tank, then I can use my clamp light clamped to the side of the fish tank to give it some heat/light. I have a small fan so I guess I would angle it from the top down to get fresh air in.
 
The tank would help with lighting, or I would have to build some contraption to hold the light to cover the rest of the seeds. 
NeedsWork said:
Are they too big for Solo cups?
 
I would put them in cups with five 1/4" holes in the bottom and set the cups in the fish tank to catch the extra water.  As suggested, a small fan would keep air moving.  Then they will be easy to move to the garage.
Click to expand...
 
They are in cups, sorry I am not planting them in the actual tank, just using it to store the cups in so I can light them easier and not get aggro from the wife.
 
Should have been more clear from the start, sorry guys. No seeds planted IN the tank, it would simply hold the cups with seeds until it warms up in my garage.
 
OK, you are going to have a few problems very soon.
First things first what kind of light is it and how did you come to decide to use it? details
second how long do you need to keep them inside before plant out?
Third. is it your intention to grow out all 30 plants for plant out?
 
I think I got it now that you mentioned a clip on light.  The fish tank is so you have something to clip the light onto.  Not the greatest thing to do, but if you use one of those compact florescent you might keep them going for a bit.  Thing is, if you want something cheap on the fly you can get the old style flourescent shop lights at Lowes or Wallmart for ten to twenty bucks.  Put two hooks in the ceiling and hang from adjustable cord just a few inches above the plants.  Normal soft whites will work.

Not ideal, but cheap and just about what Burpee sells but much cheaper.

http://www.burpee.com/seed-starting/grow-lights/

 
 
ajdrew said:
I think I got it now that you mentioned a clip on light.  The fish tank is so you have something to clip the light onto.  Not the greatest thing to do, but if you use one of those compact florescent you might keep them going for a bit.  Thing is, if you want something cheap on the fly you can get the old style flourescent shop lights at Lowes or Wallmart for ten to twenty bucks.  Put two hooks in the ceiling and hang from adjustable cord just a few inches above the plants.  Normal soft whites will work.

Not ideal, but cheap and just about what Burpee sells but much cheaper.

http://www.burpee.com/seed-starting/grow-lights/

 
Click to expand...
That will get to the sprout phase but then they will get leggy after that.
 
Capcom, yep not ideal.  Figured he wanted to stay cheap cause he started talking about a clip on shop light.  I guess he could add additional 40 inch on the sides at another 15 bucks each or so.

On the topic, I have about given up on growing large plants indoors.  Have experimented and experimented.  Even went to the point of putting CFLs between plants.  I still grow indoors, but use a sea of green method to get things ready for going outside.  Sprouts under flourescents in racks against the walls of the grow room.  After a few inches, they move under a combination of HPS and MH (old school).  Thing is, when they get too tall I lob the tops off for clones and keep the canopy about the same height.

I am now of the opinion that if your indoor grow is to create mature plants and pods, that its probably better to spend your electric budget on heating a green house and letting the sun provide the light.  Tried it this year.  Too expensive due to size of green house and horrible insulation strategy.  I think the future of winter grows will be pit houses / sunken green houses but I wonder about the heat sink property of the earth being greater than its insulation value.

Winter production is one of my favorite topics.  From what I read, it can be done with colder crops even without additional heating.  So I figure maybe with warmer weather crops with much less heating than a normal green house would take.

Thoughts?
 
Your comment about thinking he wanted to stay cheap is why I talored my question the way I did. I wanted to find out in his own words how and why he made the decisions he did and save him some aggregation and $$$$ later. There is no cheap way to accomplish a winter start if you are looking at a April or May plant out. You are going to need adequate light to grow healthy robust plants or you are going to grow pepper vines.I have been there, so I speak from il experience.
 
Capcom,

I do get what you are saying.  I've already got 1000 w hps and a 1000 w mh humming away.  I find blending them is better than either one alone.  But I've also lived in a condo with a tiny patch off the back patio.  I lined plants up by the sliding door and hung shop lights.  Not ideal but it worked good enough to get a head start.

Besides, shop lights are the gateway lights.  We gotta get this young man hooked before we give him the hard stuff.

 
 
CAPCOM said:
Your comment about thinking he wanted to stay cheap is why I talored my question the way I did. I wanted to find out in his own words how and why he made the decisions he did and save him some aggregation and $$$$ later. There is no cheap way to accomplish a winter start if you are looking at a April or May plant out. You are going to need adequate light to grow healthy robust plants or you are going to grow pepper vines.I have been there, so I speak from il experience.
Click to expand...
 
Not trying to go cheap per se, however I don't want to spend a fortune on lighting when they will be outdoor plants. Once March comes I can put them outside in full sunlight during the day when the temperatures are around 60-70 so they get some sunlight. The issue I had last year is I started seeds way to late and since these do not pod like other New Mexico varities I only got 2 pods on 10 of my plants before the freeze came. So wanted to get a jump start.
 
I ordered 2 strands of LED 5630 that I am going to build to go on the rack the plants will eventually be in. Right now my storage room gets to the low 40s (with the temperatures hitting the 20s here) so I don't want these little seedlings to die. I didn't want to build this LED light twice, once for inside then again for the 4x2x2 foot shelves. But I guess I can. 
 
This is the clip on light with this bulb (not that exact one but similar) that I used last year in a pinch. Before that I used some other small lights and the plants got leggy fast, but not overly so. They liked that light, but that was before I really got into this site and know that still will not cut it. However, I figure with the LED the little ones shouldn't get to leggy, at least until I can wean them into the full sun.
 
I may just look for a small shelf to put them on or just tell my wife I will get something cleaner in the future and keep procrastinating til the weather is nicer. 
 
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OK, bad choice of words. I didn't mean to insinuate cheapness. I should have used expense-less. As there is bound to be expense.
To get peppers to grow healthy for 2 to 3 months prior to plant out they will need a minimum intensity of correct light. Reading the OP, you have 30 starts in Dixie cups, that will soon be 30 small plants in solo cups. Starting them earlier without the correct lighting may not get them any further in maturity than you achieved last year starting later.
 
I looked at the clip on light, and the bulb which turned out to be the same link to the clip on reflector. Though I really dont think it makes any difference as I just dont think you are going to achieve the success you want with that light only. You need the same lighting to (buy time) as you would to grow them for an extended period. The only way to get by with less is to place your grow in a south facing window and utilize the sun and your choice of light as a supplemental source only. Then you may buy that time.
 
I dont want you to waste your time and / or get discouraged. So have a back up plan ready, if you go forward with this.
 
Remember the [environmental] basics: :) (Must be able to maintain at least this. If yes, then your environment will work)
 
1) Temperature (if it is nice for you in a T-shirt and shorts, then it is probably nice for the plant)
2) Humidity (same as above)
3) Constant exchange of air around leaf surfaces (air flow - a gentle breeze is nice, again what is nice for you...)
4) Enough light as required by the plant(s) 
 
That is all !
 
There are a million and one ways to achieve that.
 
Best of luck,
 
mrgg*
 
 
PS: #3 is actually debatable (but HIGHLY recommended). outside link CLICK
 
 
.
 
#4 is the issue at hand though.
30 plants are going to need X amount of light, and there in no getting around that.
 
Let me sum it up this way, If you could grow 30,60 or 90 pepper plants by clipping on a single bulb lamp or two and still grow a nice crop of peppers vs. forking out a few hundred dollars on a lighting system and paying a 25% increase in you electric bills each month, Wouldn't everyone be doing that?
Growers buy the 6 and 8 tube t5s or the 600w LED systems or the 200wHPS systems because they are essential to their plants needs. And there are incurred costs to these systems at purchase and afterward.
 
CAPCOM said:
OK, bad choice of words. I didn't mean to insinuate cheapness. I should have used expense-less. As there is bound to be expense.
To get peppers to grow healthy for 2 to 3 months prior to plant out they will need a minimum intensity of correct light. Reading the OP, you have 30 starts in Dixie cups, that will soon be 30 small plants in solo cups. Starting them earlier without the correct lighting may not get them any further in maturity than you achieved last year starting later.
 
I looked at the clip on light, and the bulb which turned out to be the same link to the clip on reflector. Though I really dont think it makes any difference as I just dont think you are going to achieve the success you want with that light only. You need the same lighting to (buy time) as you would to grow them for an extended period. The only way to get by with less is to place your grow in a south facing window and utilize the sun and your choice of light as a supplemental source only. Then you may buy that time.
 
I dont want you to waste your time and / or get discouraged. So have a back up plan ready, if you go forward with this.
Click to expand...
 
I feel like McGyver right now...
 
So my LED lights came in and I found an old shoe rack that I had in my garage. This will work out ok as I now have two shelves (Small enough to put inside, still not a pleasant site but I just got an eye roll from the wife...). Plus I can move it into any other room. SO far I finished one set of lights (this is just rigged together for now, wanted to make sure it was going to work. I will work on the second set of lights for the bottom shelf. My dome fits in it, and 3 of my dixie cups (on top shelf). I put the PC Power Supply with the fan facing in to work as a fan as well.. I feel so ghetto haha! But this set up only cost me $10 for the LEDs :) I am going to have to figure out something for the dixie cups, they are not strong enough. After I cut some slits in the bottom for drainage they are getting weak at the bottom. Going to have to transplant into solo cups (which will fit in this set up as well)
 
Do you think this will be enough light for a month or two?? Other thoughts?
 
20160112_052003088_iOS_zpsdw5rwsyg.jpg
 
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