i started a grow room about month an a half ago in my closet that about 3'3'8'. i got 3 two week old clones and started them under a few 27watts 6500k cfl's and two 40watts fluorescent for the first month i had the lights 24hours on, about 2 weeks ago i cut the lights back 22hours on 2hours off, and this week i will cut them back again to 20hours on 4hours off. As of now there are 9 27watts cfl's, 7 are 6500k and the other 2 are 3500k. i have my three main plants, but i've also add two seedling ones about a week an half old and the other is about 5 days, also cut two clones off one of my main plants that are about week old. 3 main plants are in 6*6*6 pots and the other 4 are in 4*4*4 pots using fox farm soil. i keep a 10" fan running when the lights are on, everything is on a timer. the lights are about 4 inches from the top of the 3 main plants. the three main plants are around 14" tall. one problem ive been having is keeping the water ph levels down, i bought a ph tester from the fish store with some ph downer. ive been using water from my sink and the ph levers are around 6.8/7.0 so i add some ph downer and can get it around 6.2/6.6, but then the next day the ph levels are back up to 6.8/7.0, so i tryed boiling the water first but then that diddnt help. so my problem is keeping the ph levels down, i dont wanna keep adding ph downer every day, after so much ph downer in one gallon jug of water wouldn't that effect the plant? so all in all im looking for some suggestions, tips, advise, comments, anything that can help me grow like a pro. any questions please ask! thanks for your help.
Honestly , your ph out of the tap isnt that bad. Foxfarms soil comes premixed with dolomite lime that is a natural PH buffer to 7.0. The only reason plants in soil need a higher ph is because of the dry period that experiance. Nutes lower ph , water raises ph. So when your soil dries out , the nutes will accumilate and naturally bring the PH down , then you add water and it goes back up to 6.8 the only reason they use a lower PH for Hydro is because there is no dry period or it is not long enough to naturally lower the PH from 6.5 to 5.5 , or because some Hydro mediums are designed to not accumilate Nutes(ebb & Flow) so you must give it proper PH because it will not self buffer. IMO 7.0 aint too bad , As long as you don't overwater and allow the pots to dry out. Make sure you let the water sit our for 24 hours before feeding to get rid of any trace amounts of chlorine. Bringing your PH down a bit like you are Also seems fine to me , as long as your not useing an ungodly amount ( PH down can kill plants in LARGE amounts). Have you seen any first hand problems with your plants , are they looking bad? If so you might be overwatering ... post us some pics. K+ man I've gotten away with useing tap water about 7.5 ph when growing in FFOF... But i would suggest RO water , because it's clean , not because it's PH is lower. ( though it may help)
three different plants with problems, with white shit on the plant is from salt, some one told me to add epsom salt to the water to help with magnesium deficiency, that was about a week ago
What kind of soil , Epsom salts can kill plants in large amount as well , I suggest calmag+ for cal or mag def. Are you nuteing what anything , @ what PPM Do you let the pots Completely! dry out inbetween watering , this can cause yellowing , but it looks like something is burning your babies up. give me as much info as you can temps, humidity , type of soil , additives used (other than epsom salts) How do your roots look , pearly white? rotting roots can cause a horrible drop in PH *edit* UMM you sprayed your plants with epsom salts!? I would ahve jsut added it to the water , feeding like that is feeding directly into the veins, it's like shooting up and can be overdone VERY fast wash off as much of that salt build up as you can , think about flushing as well as something has gone wrong. IMO the most easy fix for soil is a FRESH transplant into some Fox Farms or other high quality soil. rinse of what dirt you can , you may experiance a little wilting from stress but it should go away quickly.
few more pics to get a better picture, i will post more updates tomorrow i have to check and see what i excatly i have