first crack at hydro help plz 250w HPS Ebb and Flow Bagseed

High All, I\\\'m new to the community so let me just say it is a pleasure to post here I\\\'ve already seen a bunch of helpful people giving good advice so I\\\'m excited to get feedback. This is my third grow and second that will reach maturity hopefully. I\\\'ve decided to try hydro and I am actually already 4 weeks from germination so I will recap what has happened so far. 1st 3 weeks: Medium Rockwool 1 inch cubes to 4 inch blocks once roots showed. I forgot to soak the rockwool and I think I had pH issues because of this.Light: 32 watt flouro tubes (2 x 4 foot)Nutrients: I started them on nutrients which I realize is a bad thing...I don\\\'t know the ppm because I only recently got my TDS meter.Water Schedule: Too much I think (Ill get into this later)System: Started ebb and flow switched to drip back to ebb and flow Strain: Bagseed <img src=\"images/smilies/frown.gif\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" title=\"Frown\" smilieid=\"13\" class=\"inlineimg\" />Temps: ~70day 60nite with flouros pH~5-6Unfortunately I have no pics for this stage of growth but I will summarize what happened. I started in the RW and watered probably too much...After a week they had probably 2 sets of true leaves. Everything was fine then I noticed drooping, yellowing, dark, dark upper leaves almost purple, rusty spots. I couldn\\\'t decide if it was a watering issue, nute burn/deficiency so I basically switched my approach daily because I kept changing my mind on what was wrong. I flushed after 2 weeks and went to 1/4-1/2 strength humbolt base nute system seedling dosage. Growth continued regardless of yellowing and drooping at times. Around the end of week 3 2 plants were very stunted, 2 were well, and 1 was very sick looking. I decided to narrow things down and bought a TDS meter to see what I was really running for ppm (I had been careless about evaporation and didn\\\'t know about rising rockwool ph and ppm over time with different watering schedules). Anyway, the ppm was around 600 in the res and over 1000 in the rockwool! The pH of the RW was up around 7. I flushed and got the ph of the rockwool equal with the res and the ppm of the rockwool under control. (It stays within 100-200 ppm of the res between waterings). Now things stayed the same...I tried a drip system but to no avail. Now it is the beginning of week 4. One plant is about 6 inches the sickly plant hasnt changed just growing small sets of leaves. The stunted ones are growing. And branching is beginning. I read up on overwatering since lowering the nutes hasn\\\'t changed a whole lot and read that RW cubes should only be watered every 3-4 days. I decided to experiment with the two sickly plants. I pulled them carefully out of the big blocks of RW and buried them in hydroton and put them on a different flood schedule. (ev 4 hours during lights and I\\\'m still experimenting with this). I want to do hydroton but I want to see if the first two transplants make it first because I think the rockwool situation is at least under control for the other plants.I will post pics after I take some tonite and I will also post the new specs of what I\\\'m running now in great detail. For now heres some questions.1) How often should I flood the plants in RW buried in hydroton (they are 1 inch RW blocks with roots hanging out). How high should it flood relative to the RW blocks). I\\\'m worried about the roots drying while RW remains too wet is this an issue? I\\\'ve heard 1 hour on 2 off all the way down to 3 15 min cycles? is there a max/min time roots should be submerged?2) What ppm should I run for these aged plants (4 wks and I will post pics in an hour or so). 3)Is the RW going to create ongoing problems if I didn\\\'t treat the ph issue by soaking.4) Random question what are the leaf pairs growing out of the nodes are these growth tips (branching) I had them last grow but they were just the bud points I had no branching (was a shame of a grow 1 plant 3 grams <img src=\"images/smilies/frown.gif\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" title=\"Frown\" smilieid=\"13\" class=\"inlineimg\" /> )5) Why are my leaves sometimes droopy (usually b4 nite) sometimes held up firmly and also why do the tips sometimes curl but not droop is that a nutrient overload sign ? My thinking is that droop is watering issue curling is nute issue.Anyway I will post pics shortly and a description of my system as of now (4 wks) and they I will begin updating regularly.

 

Here is my detailed setup as of now 4 wks.Light: 250w HPS w/ reflector air cooled by ~160cfm 30w inline fan 18/6 about 30 inches from sprouts and 20 from 4 week olds System: 4 inch flood table 135 gph pump rubermaid res (plenty for tray)Medium: RW 1 inch in hydroton and also some with just 4 inch blocks RWFlood sched: for 1 inchers every 4 hrs 15 min for 4 inchers every 24-36 hrs.pH: 5.0-6.0 res 5.5-6.5 medium b4 flood (was much higher fixed recently)ppm: res ~600 recently medium b4 flood ~700-800 (was much higher i think i had salt buildup a week ago)Room size 2x5x8 (depthxwidthxheight) 80 cubic feetCirculation: 160 cfm inline cooling light and serving as exhaust, cracks in door (about 1/2 to 1 inch around most of door) for intake, 9 watt ~60 cfm cooling ballast and circulating exhaust only on during day for time being but there is airflow thru cracksTemps: day 70-82 nite 65-70 res 70 1 hour b4 lights out Aeration: 5 inch airstone on 15min per hour because its loud and annoying is this enough?nutes: humbolt base formula and 2-.8-.2 additive at around 600 ppm not sure what strength it is relative to recommended but ppm is 600water source: spring water in emergency and 175 ppm tap let sit for 3 days or more and adjusted ph and ppm as necessarywill post pics in a few min...

 

ps why is my text not showing up in a list format i was hitting enter btwn paragraphs ?!?!?