new here,need a little cloning advice

first Hi to everyone Im new here and new to growing,never fooled with marijuana but a friend gave me a few seeds and I love to grow things so bam...here I am..well I have done a little homework and I have 3 150w HPS lights and ten 23w CFL's and a room covered with white shower board..at the moment I have 3 plants at about 20 inches high 9 plants around five inches and 22 that are new sprouts with just two nodes (sp?).. my problem is I want to clone some of the faster growing plants but all my cuttings die. =/ I have tried several ways and now im tying another... as of this morning I took 4 more cuttings from one of the big plants...my set up for clonint this time is a 5 gallon bucket with two holes drilled at the 5 inch mark,one has a hose in that pumps distilled water into the bucket and the other drains back into the bucket im pumping water from.(so i keep 5 inches of fresh water in at all times)... i trimmed the cuttings and dipped them in rooting harmone and placed them through a styrofoam plate that floats in the freash water.I have the top of the bucket covered with clear wrap and its under a cfl... will this work and if not please set me in the right direction.....thanx bunches

No i dont like this method, they stay too wet in turn killing them.
Check out albfuct -batch of clones in rockwool in hydro section and learn from that. This will give you a much higher success rate.

thanks I been looking on here and yes I see this way well sucks lol... as I said this is my first attempt at growing and the learning curve is rather steep.I have rooted plants (house flowers and such) in just water before and figured this would be the same.looks like its time to invest in a humidity dome and some rockwool....prob a dumb question but where would I find rockwool?

Hydro shop, and get the 40mm cubes(about 80c each). Make sure they never get more than 50% wet, keep damp not saturated.Also dont use a humidity dome(too wet), use a clone box with heat mats . Temps are more important than rh.Keep the box at 82-86 deg by vent fan and thermostat. Cost you about $250 to make but its well worth it and you have it for years.

If your gonna keep them in the bucket i would take the clear wrap off.A dome is not needed when cuts are trying to be rooted in water(bubblers,cups,5 gl buckets)

Do you have a pic of how ya got things rigged up?

That's an interesting method. I once used a McDonalds frappe cup. Keeping the water aerated helps too.

I've probably killed hundreds of clones before I began having any measure of success. One of the most influential factors I've tried is gentle heat under the cuttings, easily doubled my success rate. I keep my clone trays on top of my cfl board but you could use a heat mat too. They're actually seed starter trays and they come with coco pellets ($6). I prefer to use root riot cubes b/c you can easily pull them out and check for roots, the pellets would be better used on seeds.

I keep ¼" of water in the bottom of the trays which needs to be replenished every other day, and I mist them twice a day. My clones are too big for the dome, but they do fine without it. The trick is, getting them to root as quickly as possible because they begin to deteriorate after a week or so, hence the heat mat. I don't put lights over them anymore and they stay mostly green (more than with lights, anyway)

So really, all you have to do is take one of those trays with clones in it, and put it on something warm. No extra lights, and mist them 2x a day (unless climate is very dry) I root 75%, which is more than I need.

I use a very simple technique and my cloning success rate is nearly perfect. First, get a small flower pot or cup. Make sure the pot you choose allows for ample drainage. Next, place a thin layer of gardening stones in the bottom of the pot. This will ensure the drainage vents don't become clogged. Then, fill the pot right to the rim with a soil/perlite mixture and add water. Once the soil has settled add additional soil to refill the pot and moisten once again. Then, take a pencil and poke a hole approximately two inches deep into the center of the pot. Now it's time to take your cutting. Choose your cuttings carefully. They should be no less than 3 inches in length and the cut should be made vertically (with a sterilized utensil) just above the nodes. Plants perspirate through their leaves, so it is important to cut away much of the leaf mass so the clone will retain its moisture. Cutting off the leaf tips seems to do the trick nicely. Next, dip the freshly cut stem in some cloning gel or vitamin B1 solution and place the cutting into the hole you've prepared in the pot. Delicately press the soil around the stem with your fingers so the cutting is firmly held in place. Lastly, place a tall wine or brandy glass over each clone and place them under some soft florescent lighting. The glass acts as a sort of greenhouse, allowing the cutting to retain moisture and providing ample humidity for root growth. Be sure to remove the glass a couple times daily to allow the clone to breathe and to give it a good misting. After approximately 7 to 10 days your cutting should take root and you will begin to see new leaf growth appear.
This is an easy and economical cloning method which has always given me great success rates. Hope this is helpful to you.

Are you going to be growing in soil or hydro when you veg/flower? If this isn't a hydro setup then i'll give you the method I use and I have a 99.9% success rate with all different sizes of cuttings. I cut from the lowest part of the plant making sure I have 2-3 nodes minimum. I use a standard cut then 45 degree the cut with a razor blade. I then make about a 5mm slit at the base of the clone. From there I dip into CloneX rooting gel, from there I put them into rockwool rapid rooter cubes. From there I go into a cheap 50 cloning tray. I then put about 1/8" of water/clonex solution in the bottom so the rapid rooters suck up the water. I've found my key to success is using the humidity dome with one of the vents open so fresh air/spoiled air can move around a bit. I also foliar spray with pH'd (6.5) ro water. I'm sure tons of people use this method or somewhat near it and again i've only had 1 clone not grow/root out of many. I'm pretty sure you could still use this method if you were going to hydro after they're rooted I just personally have no experience with it. Hope this helps

*edit As the previous posted mentioned. Trimming un-needed fan leaves and or cutting them in half certainly bumps up the time it takes for the clone to root

http://youtu.be/-iimHkskETg

http://youtu.be/90nUEUmGq98

these are a couple of very good videos about cloning
youtube is actually a pretty great resource