Maneesh Godbole

Thank you. I have relocated by LEDs to 12" above the plants now. Fingers crossed.

I have apparently hit a road block in my first attempt at indoor hydroponics.

I planted coriander and lettuce in coco peat grow medium and managed to germinate them. Yaay! Unfortunately after a few days I noticed my babies growing thin and tall. Google tells me this is called "leggy plants" and the main reason is lack of adequate sunlight.
My house does not get direct sunlight in Summer (India), which is awesome for me, but a problem for the plants.
Further googling told me that "grow lights" can fix this. Unfortunately I am not sure which ones to get.

Can I use purple colored LED strips?
What distance should they be from the plants?
How many hours should I leave them on every day?

PS. In case it matters, I am in India where summers mean ~40C on average.

I came across http://www.richsoil.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater.jsp and found it tremendously exciting and started to wonder if this technology can be used to boil water.
Has anyone done any R&D on this. Is it feasible? Are there any statistics available? I am looking for stuff like how much time and energy is required to boil say 1 gallon/liter of water from say x degrees.
Also, is there any design available (either open source or for purchase) which I can use to build my own home rocket heater?

I work indoors for around 10 hours a day average. Recently I noticed my eyes straining a lot. A quick google recommended taking my eyes away from the monitor every half an hour or so, focusing on distant objects, gazing at greenery etc.

Now I am thinking of having a potted plant at my desk. I am not able to make up my mind on which one. There is no direct sunlight. The temperature ranges from 18-23 degrees C. No idea about humidity. I would prefer a flowering plant.

1) Is it possible to have a flowering plant indoors?
2) How do I water it? Spray it? Soaked cotton?
3) Would it attract an bugs?
4) Do I need fertilizers or stuff?