First Indoor / Hydro Grow

So here are some pics of my first indoor/hydro grow, which is now in its fourth day. So far I have learned that algae grows very quickly in 4 Gallon DWC's, and that 10,000 lumens of 6500K Floro light is not enough to support 12 plants. The bigger plants you see in the pictures came from a friend of mine that grew them from seed and has identified them all as females. I currently have in 12 vegging that I will Eventually flower and 4 that I going to only veg, grow, and use as mother plants. Currently I have my 12 "bloomers" under 6 floros totaling 224W and 15,000 Lumen. 2 32w t8 tubes and 4 42w spiral cfl's. All 6500K cool lights. I am growing the bloomers in Stealth Hydro DWC bins with hydroton. I transfered these plants into the hydroton from dirt pots. My 4 mothers I left in Dirt and I have them under 2 32w 4ft t8 tube floros, also 6500K. The Bloomers I will be switching to 400W HPS some time this coming week, as I would have done so already, but I am waiting on a new hortilux bulb. Right now I am using Stealth Hydro Grow Nutes, which seem to be fine, but I am soon switching to 'fox farms grow big' because I want organic. For bloonming I have fox farms Open Sesame, Beastie Blooms, and Cha Ching. Has anyone used these fox farm products with good success? I was also wondering if anyone has run a similar setup and what I can expect roughly for yield, although it would be rough, because I'm not sure of the strain I have here, but I am very confident it is some kind of Indica. It has alot of purple in the stalk and veins if that is any kind of identifier.

So here's what I'm running if anyone has run similiar stuff:

3 4 gal dwc bubblers, 4 plants each, in 6 inch net pots.
4X3 space
1 intake, 1 exhaust, and 1 oscilating fan
400W Hortilux HPS Lighting with s51 ballast (As soon as I get my damn bulb)

Oh and just for info on CFL's and floros and lumens and all that: I had 4 2800 lumen CFL's on the 12 plants, and they were all reaching like crazy for light. I got a 2 tube t8 fixture with 2 2700 tubes, put that over the plants, then used the cfl's to add coverage around the outer leaves. The 4 foot tube fixtures make for much more even light coverage across the top of the plant (not to mention they are cheaper and more efficient than the CFL's in wattage and lumens). This is keeping the plants very happy right now, but keep in mind that the plants are really only at their second leaf set. If I were gonna veg with all floros I would have to add 4, maybe 6 cfl's every time plant grew 2 leaf sets. Friends of mine that grow have told me they veg under the HPS and just keep it at 18/6 while vegging, which is what I am doing as soon as my bulb gets here. I am also wondering about other peoples experiences vegging with HPS lighting and the differences between that and MH vegging.

My Bulb came today, and my babies are now under HPS. I switched them to FoxFarm Grow Big Hydroponic yesterday from whatever generic shit I got with my Stealth Hydro setup. They looked a little droopy this morning, but I got the new light on them about 1pm, and by 7pm they were sittin' pretty, all but one that's been a drooper ever since I moved her from dirt to hydroton. They really like the additional Lumens. The fluro setup was 4 tubes and 4 cfl's totaling a little over 20,000 lumens, and the 400W Hortilux is 55,000 They are looking really good so far I would say. I am noticing a lighter color in the older leaves, but friends of mine in the "grow-know" tell me that this is normal and they will get more yellow and die soon. Anyone on here have any thoughts on that?

Heres the before and after of the space I decided to use for my flowering chamber. I still have not decided on a final place for my mothers and clones to veg. Within the next three weeks before I start flowering, I plan on getting the vegging area setup.

Heres a good picture of my fluro rig. In this photo, it was setup for about 15000 lumens. I've added 2 more 4 ft. T-8 tubes to make it over 20000 lumens.

4X 32W 6500K 4ft T8 tubes @2700 lumens each = 128W / 10800 Lumens
4X 42W 6500K T2 Spiral CFL's @ 2800 lumens each = 168w / 11200 Lumens

Total: 296W / 22000 Lumens

This mess is going for vegging clones and mothers as soon as I figure out a permanent home for the vegging area. Total cost of this setup is about $150-$160... I could have bought a Cheap MH setup for that, however, there is something to be said for the reduced heat and increased bulb life of the fluros.

Nice Setup. I use stealth myself. great system.

Cool man, that gives idea of some possible results. I'm pretty happy with my SH purchase so far.

Things are looking good. I have had them on the FoxFarms for 3 days, and the HPS for 2, and already, they have a new leaf set starting and have shot up an inch or so. My TDS meter came yesterday, and using it I found that by closely following the instructions on the Grow Big Hydro nutes for full strength application, my tanks were all between 500-560 PPM, so this morning I did my three day water change and got all of them up between 960-990 PPM. I see some yellowing in the lower leaves, but people are telling me this is normal and not over nuting. Time will tell. I have included a pic of one very strange plant that has 3 leaf sets. Weird. Anyone seen this before? Should I clone the shit out of this or is it pretty common?