Fish tank propagators??

[uptomyeyesindirt]

Does this sound a little daft to any one?

having gone out and bought little propagator sets from B&Q I received the "Not on my windowsill" response from my other half. I have however discovered my own little indoor green house in the shape of my currently empty 400 litre fish tank.

Its got its own lighting with a timer so i'm guessing not being near the window isn't an issue.

Has any one hijacked a fish tank like this before and have you had any success?

[Snadger]

Does this sound a little daft to any one?

having gone out and bought little propagator sets from B&Q I received the "Not on my windowsill" response from my other half. I have however discovered my own little indoor green house in the shape of my currently empty 400 litre fish tank.

Its got its own lighting with a timer so i'm guessing not being near the window isn't an issue.

Has any one hijacked a fish tank like this before and have you had any success?

No, but toyed with the idea!!! 400 Litre sounds like some size fish tank though! Phew!
Keep us posted on how you get on!:

[carlseawolf]

hi uptomyeyesindirt
iv'e at the moment got some onion seeds in cut off 6 pint milk cartons in a fish tank outside covered by a glass lid , theres no way of regulating the heat but onion don't need heat anyway ( my daytime tempratures at the moment are 8-12 degs which is ok for onions.
to make a propagator using a fish tank you need to use the bray marie principle used in cooking.
use one fish tank with lid and a fish tank heater, put heater in tank and fill with water to cover the heater then put bricks in to keep your seed trays off the water , set heater to the temprature required for the seed germination and put on the lid , you may need to ventilate and top up water so the heater does not burn out , THIS IS JUST THEROY NEVER DONE IT !

[snohare]

I have a four feet long fish tank I use as a terrarium on my windowsill and that works great, even without a lid. In fact, too well, as I made the mistake of putting soil in it and now have a jungle that while ever interesting, refuses to be uprooted. (Complete with whitefly, spiders, weevils, insect-eating plants...someday I expect to see a tiny Tarzan swinging between the plants )
On a serious note, I may be wrong but I think you will find that most fish tank lights do not provide the necessary wavelengths or quantities of UV light that many plants need to photosynthesise. There are three different biochemical pathways by which plants can gain energy from sunlight, which one(s) they use determines whether or not you can grow them under reduced UV levels of light. That's partly why only some plants are suitable as house plants. But you can get full spectrum energy saving bulbs for fish tank lights from hydroponics outlets, and that should sort the problem. Otherwise, you are likely to find your seedlings very leggy and disinclined to grow hale and hearty.
A good, airtight lid is a must, to save beasties from compost, cuttings etc getting in/out and making a very comfy and permanent home !

[nick the grief]

it will work but the lights won't be strong enough to keep the growth compact and if you use a sodium lamp to give you the brightness they'll frazzle with the heat generated ! as to heating it there are a couple of ways you could do it using either a heating mat or a soil cable but then you may aswell build a proper propagator ( not easy to say ) in the first place.

If you're going to use it in the house I would guess that you'd need something like 4 or 5 4ft tubes to give enough light.