First Time Setup, critique me please!

Hey everyone, this is my first time grow, so far just over 2 weeks in and everything is going pretty smooth. Here's a description of my setup. I started out with 20 bag seeds that I had saved up for the last year or so whenever I would find one in a bag of danks, 14 ended up germinating and sprouting correctly, and 2 weeks in (knock on wood) all the plants look healthy (a slight yellowing on a few leaves but otherwise great). I have no idea what most of the strains are, aside from 1 Super Skunk and 1 Chewbacca plant, and the plants still have to be sexed, although I'm hoping for at least 5 ladies.

You can see from the picture my setup but here's a description:

• 4x4 grow tent, Hydro DWC system, 10 gallon rubbermaid "under the bed" container with 12 net pots suspended on the top. The plants are in rockwool cubes sitting in the bottom of the pots, and they are juuuuust in the water enough to get wet, but not completely submerged.
• Two air pumps run 4 airstones in the DWC tank.
• 400w HPS in an open wing reflector, running an 18/6 light cycle.
• I've got one fan blowing at plant level 24/7, and another fan on the ceiling exhaust port that I run if need be for temperature/humidity.
• I've got the setup on the second floor, and the temperature in the tent is usually between 75-80 degrees.
• Humidity is between 56-60%
• For nutrients I'm using the Technaflora line, B.C. Boost & Grow, etc. Keeping the PPM around 1000, I was running a little higher but a few of the plants are pretty sensitive and had some nutrient burn. My tap PPM is 150. I change the water and nutrient solution weekly, and the last two weeks I have run the plants in clean water for the day before I add the nutes, I noticed the first time that it helped with the nute burn.

So what do you guys think, am I on the right track here, is there anything you would recommend at this point in my adventure?


Also, I've posted a picture of one plant that isn't doing so hot, lower leaves are getting crispy, tips are yellowing and browning, and new growth isn't nearly on the same level as the other plants. I thought nute burn, and I'm running a much lighter solution now to see if it helps. Any idea what it is?

A couple of things, you will need a cooltube for the light, you will need a digital ph meter(5.8 ph) and adjusters and your ppm is too high at this stage and the small plant is burnt, back off to about 700 for now. Bigger fan as well.

Exactly what Buds said.
Although, I would back the feed of closer to 4-500 ppm to help remove the excess nutes in the plant and give the plants time to heal.

HPS is for flowering mate, get yourself a MH bulb. You will find your plants stretching looking for that cool blue spectrum that HPS doesnt have. Blue = bushy.

As above, your nutes are too strong. Most nutes come with a little growing schedule card, stick to this. If it doesnt, generally 2 week old seedlings and plants less than 5 inches tall take about a tenth of the full dose of nutes. Once the pre-leaves die and shed, and you have a few nodes, you should slowly increase the nutes over 4 weeks, going 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and then full strength each week. Since you have no buffer such as soil or coco, you REALLY must keep on top of your PH and nute levels. DWC is a little advanced for a first grow. Check twice daily and you will be fine. Dont forget to calibrate your PH meter with Buffer 7 at least once a week, those buggers drift all the time. Try and keep a solid 5.8 PH but dont panic unless you get out of the 5.5-6.2 range.

Keep the humidity high (60-70%) if you can, but not above 70%. One way to increase humidity is stick an air stone in a heated propagator full of water. Since you will probably have a heated propagator knocking about anyway, its a quick fix instead of buying something like a humidifier. However your 50-60% is fine, just not optimal.

Keep your fan a good distance away from the plants. Blow on your plants yourself without force, and see how much they move. If your fan is blowing them any harder than that, you will suffocate them and get wind burn. It is a bit like sticking your head out of a car window doing 70 mph down the highway and trying to breathe. They want to be gently moving, not flapping.

Most of these are mistakes i have made, so i hope you dont make them too. Good luck!

Great tips, I've got a pH & TDS meter, and I'm in and out of the tent 4-5 times a day, testing each of those throughout the day, so that's good to go. Definitely going to have to back off on the nutes, I figured that around 1000 was fine for now as only one plant was showing those signs, the rest were thriving.
The fan is a light breeze now, enough to cause them to sway and the leaves flutter around a bit.

At what point should I split the plants off into separate larger containers, should I judge on how much room the roots have, or more on the spacing between the plants?

ALSO, I'm not 100% positive on the bulb type as it was given to me, I'm pretty sure it's HPS as it has that amber glow as it starts up.