sprouting question

okay so this is my first grow. it's in a small fish tank about 2 maybe 2 1/2 feet wide and 1 feet deep. I have put foil on the sides (instead of mylar) of the tank to reflect the light. im using rockwool cubes. this is a very low key tank, really, just used to grow my sprouts. It's just being used until we can set up our actual room in the new apartment. its going to be hydro
It is 75-80 degrees constantly. this humidity is about 50. i've got the 3 sprouts on 18/6 light cycle. i only have a 20 watt reptile flourescent (once again, until we get the apartment setup going) i have a better light but its too big for my closet. i put a fan on them for about 30 minutes a day. it's big so its hard to position to blow on the plants and i'm going to get a very small one to blow on them during the light cycle. i did feed them twice a day, but now only once a day because the rockwood was absorbing the water slowly. i have a ph of about 7.2-7.6 (im going to invest in ph pen soon). The water has very very small amounts of nutrients in them.
Here is what it looks like (disregard the other plants. those were a test)



yeah thats the background so here is the actual questions

These sprouts are a week old and they grew really fast upward. so i had to move them lower. the plants look stretched out a bit and dont seem like they're developing like other pictures of one week olds i have seen. they dont have more than one set of leaves and the leaves they do have are very small.

Plant 1. This was the best looking one until today when it got knocked over. Then i took it a step farther and accidently ripped one of the round leaves off.



Plant 2. This is now the best one. My only thing is it seems too tall for what I've seen.



Plant 3. This one really stretched and fell over, but it started to grow back up itself so i think there might be hope with it. I'm trying to help it grow up.



So any suggestions on how to help the plants be healthy would be greatly appreciated.

Foil causes hot spots.... try to replace it with Mylar or even a car windshield reflective blind.

Your PH is too high, You'll be lucky if Nitrogen is absorbed by the plant.

Your lighting is too weak, the seedlings are stretching to get more light and can't support themselves.

Your set up is ideal for hanging CFL bulbs. You need to get some light down in there. I'm not sure your plants are going to make it stretched out like that.

dude those are extremely stretched you need to get those cfl's within 1-2 inches away from the sprouts I would start over those are horribly stretched and are not going to be able to keep themselves up

the small 2 foot flourescent is a cool bulb so its not producing any heat at all. can the foil still get hot spots?
i have a 4 foot flourescent fixture. 100 watt with warm a cool bulbs that is too big for the closet i have now. i'm going to get ph up and down on monday at my hydro store.

will cfl's work better? they are low wattage too.

yeah get a couple 23 watt cfls 6500k spectrum and put them about 1 2 inches away from them it might be too late since there stretched reallly really bad just a couple cfl's is all you need for seedling stage..

oh and i have more seeds germinating as we speak. so i can get more going.

will the plants be less inclined to grow upward when the cfl is right on them?

cfls can be put more close to the plants.I would add cfls under your shoplights that way you can light the closet up.

Chances are, you'll mostly need PH down. Foil should be fine for a strict CFL grow. White vinegar has a PH of 3.0 and can be added to your water to lower the PH. I also add about a teaspoon of h2o2 (hydrogen peroxide) per gallon of water to oxygenate roots and prevent any algae.

Woodyweed said:

oh and i have more seeds germinating as we speak. so i can get more going.

will the plants be less inclined to grow upward when the cfl is right on them?

Click to expand...

Yes. The reason they stretch is because they "see" the light but are not getting enough to photosynthesize so they stretch to try reach more light. Eventually they fall over and die. Hang some CFLs down into your aquarium and keep them close.

okay i'll get a cfl or two tomorrow.

could i get just one at higher wattage or should i stick with lower wattage and quantity?

its more efficient to get alot of lower watters than one big one yeah and put the ph in check man i use white vinegar to ph my tap water instead of exspensive ph down get a cheap ph water tester from pool supply its better than nothing i use about a tablespoon of vinegar for gallon of water to ph it into the 6 -7 range

alright well ive got my ph right on the money at 6 and i'm gonna go out tomorrow and get some cfl's to put in there. thanks for the advice