Problems with plants - help??

Hey guys this is my first indoor session and i just setup my closet with a 400w hps posted about 2-3 feet from 8 plants potted in 8' containers. I used fox farm ocean forest soil and added a bit of vermiculite (starting to think i should have added perilite instead)

most of them are various kush strains green/bubba/purple

OK so first of all these are clones that i purchased at my local medical dispensary and they were nice and green and healthy when i bought them and already had nice white root systems. They were in rockwool cubes that i just planted straight into the fox farm ocean forest soil.

little by little they started looking worse so ive been adjusting how much fan air is blowing at them, how far the light is, how much water i give them and i can't seem to get a good balance. the room is kept between 76-81 degrees usually. not sure about humidity but i think its pretty dry

at first i thought this was an underwatering problem because the plants started to droop a lot and the leaves started folding in on themselves and drooping down and getting brittle and turning yellow. Also forming little tiny shiny silvery lines on some of the leaves and shiny spots. this was weird because i had been giving them plenty of water. I'm using bay area tap water and the only thing i could check was the PH and it looked like just below 7 although it is kind of a cheap soil tester with probes. So i thought the water was find so i kept using it. Well the plants kept getting worse and did some research and found that they were getting too much water (i think) so i stopped watering and let the soil dry out and low and behold they started to look better. and pointing upwards.

They began to look ok but the soil was getting really dry and i was afraid to give them more water because of what happened before so i let i dry out some more only for like a day and a half. So they were pretty dry and last night i watered them with a little bit of B vitamin solution mixed 20% with water and woke up this morning to a dismal looking crop. leaves started to twist and droop again and growth seems like its VERY SLOW. the tips of newly forming vegetation are browning at the very tips like they are being stunted. a couple of them are older than others so they vary is sizes but don't seem to be growing like they should. its only been a week and a half but i figured i would see more growth.

i've had these clones for about a week now. these are what i think could be issues

1. the fox farm ocean forest i used might be a little strong for newly rooted clones
2. i didn't add too much vermiculite about 15% but i'm beginning to think that there isn't proper drainage and the roots are being affected so i keep poking holes in the soil and cultivating the top soil to try to get even distribution.
3. the tap water i'm using has the correct PH but im afraid it might have some other kind of deficiency like too much chlorine or magnesium because to me it looks like chlorosis because they are getting blotchy brown spots and yellowing.
4. somehow humidity might be a factor because i have a small 6" fan blowing right onto them but it seems like it was drying them out more so i tried to move it so it wasn't directly blowing on the plants.
5. my light source is either too far or not close enough because i keep moving it up and down depending of how sick the plants look. its about 28" from most plants in a 3' x 3' area
6. the plants drooped from overwater then got better when dry then got worse after watering again. and i definitely didn't use very much water when i watered them just to see their reaction and they got worse this morning definitely stunted growth somehow.
7. transplant shock? just shock from replanting the clones causing them to be more vulnerable
8. my grow room is in a closet and because of poor circulation and lack of fans i have the door open at all times and a fan blowing fresh air into the closet so maybe something about not having an enclosed environment is keeping them from obtaining a balanced diet. this is my first indoor setup
9. i keep a bunch of shoes on shelves above my setup in the closet due to lack of space like 10 pairs. perhaps the fumes of the rubber or the used shoes are changing the air in the closet to be toxic to plants? no idea just a thought. and yes i know i am trying to find a place for them asap to keep my grow room clean.


questions:

should i use distilled water instead of tap water when watering plants? trying to keep cost down. are there better or cheap ways to fix my tap water? what is a reliable and cheap multimeter? i've got the lusterleaf 4 in 1 and it works ok. not digital though just simple sensors with 3 metal prongs

should i transplant all my plants in to soil with more drainage? im afraid this will stress the plants even more if i do it now?

my clones came with roots already throughout the rock wool cube does putting it in soil count as transplanting? or just planting. do plants get stressed from this?

does fluctuation of 3-5 degrees seriously affect the plant if it happens a couple time a day?

If i've stunted the growth of the plants will they recover? or should i not waste my time and just buy new plants?

thanks so much for any info that can be given i've invested a good amount of money to be able to grow my own medicine. here's a few pictures.
greatly appreciate any help

they are definitely shrinking so i've taken the fan off them now. not really sure what i should do they look like they are drying up and getting brittle and brown but the soil is wet. i just poked more holes in the soil for air. the top of the plants look ok but the rest look like its dying. would a transplant make them worse?

and the water ive been using is good enough to drink. tastes fine to me. i even let the water sit for a day before using it and still bad results

also the bottom stems have slightly pinkish/red lines running down them but the new veg at the top has more greenish stems. is this normal ?

O and they have been under 24 hours of constant 400w high pressure sodium for a week and a half

Not that i'm an expert , but I may suggest that you move them to a 18/6 light schedule. I believe at night the root system develops, so you may not have a real good growing root structure because of the constant light. I would try to mimic nature as best as possible. In addition you mentioned that you had 15% vermiculite mixed with the soil. I would recommend using perlite with about a 40% mixture to the soil. (40% perlite 60% soil) My experience with vermiculite is that it retains water very well whereas perlite does not. So I think you would get much better drainage with the perlite and I don't think you would be as prone to over watering. If you think your soil is pretty much screwed I don't think it would be a problem to retransplant. I have done retransplanting with plants as bad if not worse than yours , and they turned around. Good luck.

Also , I just noticed in your pictures that your soil definately has perlite in it. So it is probably already in your fox farm soil bag. Not sure of the ratio though.

In addition, you may also want to let your tap water sit out for 24 hours so most of the chlorine will evaporate if you are worried that the levels are too high.

I don't believe the 3-5 temperature fluctuations are not a big deal at all. Think about it , in nature its cold in the morning then the temps usually go up at least 15 degrees or more for a temperate zone. My plants get to about 62 at night , and go up to as high as 85 in the day and the are perfectly fine.

thanks so much for your input delta ive been troubleshooting all day and i think i might have found out the problem.

so i kept testing and retesting the PH of my tap water to make sure that it stays around nuetral and found that the water's ph had dropped 1-2 points. i thought this was odd so i checked the ph of water i had left out for a day and it too had dropped in ph.

so i said forget tap water and went to the grocery and bought some arrowhead distilled water to use when replanting.

i had been using a B vitamin solution because i heard this helps with root growth since these are newly rooted clones and i found that this stuff greatly reduces the ph of the distilled water! like 4-5 points! i was astonished and amazed that i had been feeding my plants this water. poor things!!

so i just finished replanting them and i don't have the resources yet to get more perilite so just cut more fox farm ocean forest with the heavy vermiculited soil i was using to try to get a smaller amount of vermiculite in each pot. then i flushed them with distilled water and poked a few holes in the soil and put them back under the light. lets see how they do..

does anyone know if using too much B vitamin solution is really bad for plants and would stunt their growth? and have these kind of affects to the leaves?

i also added a little bit of steer manure to experiment on one of the pots in case this is a nutrients issue. although i've heard that Fox farm ocean forest is packed with nutrients

in addition to Delta's advice...

perhaps lack of humidity is an issue.

train your fan above your plants, just under light for first 10 days after putting clones in soil.

it's POSSIBLE that 28" away from your 400 isn't enough, but i doubt it.

don't give up on your girls, but...

in the future, try using your FF ocean forest in a 4 inch pot, and transplant into final resting pot when you send to flower (or b4 if you want bigger plant).

find another use for that vermeculite, or designate an area in which you will be sending future products to, when you realize they are superfluous. outdoor gardens are usually good for disposal of such products.

IF you must use something to lessen the transplant shock from rockwool to OF, try a couple drops per gallon of distilled water.

if you were to use smaller 4" pots, for the first ten days, you could place them into the standard tray that every hydrostore sells (12" by something, maybe 30 inches) and get an 9" tall "mondo" dome. there are little windows at the top you can use to regulate humidity.

a LITTLE teeny amount of B wont hurt anything, but that OF soil has alot of stuff in it, and you should not need to feed them anything until they are out of their dome, and laughing, head on, at that fan of yours.

a little clone once told me she preferred an 18/6 cycle versus 24/7. told me her roots needed a beauty rest.

go to any reasonablefacsimileofalowe's and get their little digital thermometer/ hydrometer (between 10-20bucks). it has a 'probe' you can place at your canopy top, and the main unit rests at 'ground level'.

i bet your relative humidity in that space is below 50%. that coupled with the direct fan = what i believe is wilt.

if a mister/humidfier is not practical for your space. try the dome method, even if it is a homemadebuttugly "dome". your girls will only need the protection for 10 days (+/-).

my little clone friend also told me, that if you have enough space and gumption, you can use any older sisters, waiting to move to a new apartment, to help shield the baby sisters (after the short 'dome' period).

if you get bored, you could even place the thermometer/hydrometer INSIDE your 'dome' to see the dramatic difference in humidity verus the non-domed space.

once you're convinced, move that gizmo out of there and change the batteries when needed. be careful to not drop that thing, they seem fragile, and are a recurring expense.

if you stick with it, someday in the future (when you're bored) visit that space where you send all your discarded magic potions and pull out...

8 teaspoons of Clonex solution.
1/4 teaspoon Humboldt Roots.
3 drops of that B stuff.
3 drops of Superthrive.
7 drops of hydrogen peroxide.
1 teaspoon pH down (acid).

add them to a gallon of distilled water, and shake b4 use.

a turkey baster is good for 4" pots.

use this mix when you transfer cuttings to pods/rockwool, rooted "clones" to 4", and any future transplanting.

someday later, when you are really bored, look up bonsai on the internet, and use your imagination.

enjoy your journey, and try to replace as many pharmaceutical drugs you can.

thanks much for the info! im definitely going to try to start using smaller pots when transplanting because they are easier to control.

i replanted them and some of them look a lttle better but some of the tis of the newly forming leaves are browning on a few of the plants. they do look stunted and dry. im going to try to buy a humidifier but do u have any home made techniques for making a humidity dome of some kind? much appreciated