Hey SS, sending a big Mahalo (thanks) your way as my first full harvest is approaching. I used the ratios that you suggested of Botanicare nutes and the results are looking good. I might be able to pass along a couple lessons learned to other newbs. Mixing strains can be a problem, like when my G-13 Haze was happy-healthy with the nutes, the Pineapple Chunk was getting leaf spots which went away when I increased the nutes/Cal-Mag, but then the leaf tips on the G-13 started to burn. So finding strains that have close requirements would have helped. Also the growth rate and harvest time the same would help. The lights have to be adjusted up for the highest plants so the slow ones won't get as much light as they otherwise could, further slowing their progress. And flushing before harvest is a problem is some of the plants need another week or 2 when some need to flush now... You get the idea, similar plants in the rails will make for better results.
And regarding the venting of lights, heck yes, if you run 600-1000 watt lamps you would be nuts to not have vented hoods. Firstly, exposed bulbs are a serious safety risk, please look this up if you need the details. Second, connecting the vent intake to a fresh air supply, like from another room and then exhausting to either another room or outside uses 'clean' air, not stinky air from the grow. These lights make so much heat that you need to vent that heat somewhere and the only practical way is with vented hoods. Trying to counter the heat with an AC is a tough fight to win. It is not an efficient way to win this battle. You might need to supplement your cooling techniques with AC, but first step is to get the bulk of the heat managed by venting it thru the hoods to somewhere else.
SS, I really appreciate your taking time to post here as your tips have helped me with this great hobby. Glad to see that you are mending fences with SB, been quite an online story developed there with you and he. I think that conflict is normal when you get people working at a high level on a complex problem and getting past that human stuff really grows us as people. Being a spectator in this arena has been a learning process that really is fun. Once again, thanks.