just wanted to give you guys an update plus i have a few questions (surprise surprise)....these seeds were planted on nov 5th so we are at 7 weeks this coming monday dec 17th. The strain is white widow from buydutchseeds.com The tallest one is just about a foot tall and the leaves are almost touching the aerogarden hood. i need to change my lighting soon, more on that in a second here are my questions/issues:

1. PH in this thing is a bitch. I have had a digital hanna meter for about a week now and my readings are all over the place. it came with 7.01 clalibration solution and every time I put the meter in there I have to re-calibrate by a lot. my real issue is that the ph spikes suddenly for no reason. I will change the water (which I do about three or four days) I will use a gallon of spring water (the aerogarden only holds a gallon) with fox farms grow big at approx 1/3 - 1/2 strength, then add a little bit of ph down to get to around 5.3 - 5.5 ph, everything will be OK for a day, but then my ph will suddenly shoot up to 7.5 overnight. is this normal? any suggestions? should I change the res more / less frequently?

2. Yellowing Leaves. As you can see from the pics, I still have yellowing leaves. not sure what this can be due to, I am using the correct nutes now, and ph is somewhat under control. Should I be removing these yellow leaves? if so, where should I cut them? how about the ones that are half yellow / half healthy?

3. Venting. I am adding an 250W HID to this setup in a few days (HID is late due to shipping issues) and the more I read in this forum the more i realize how important venting is. this setup is in a 2' x 9' closet, and that closet is in a room that is 25' x 12' (big room) and i have central ac/heat which i keep the fan on all the time. the door of the closet will be open when the HID is on. in addition i am going to have a table fan blowing on the HID. I would love to have a vent fan in that closet but it's not going to happen, at least not for this grow. do you think this will be sufficient? any suggestions on anything more I can do?

4. HID light. I bought a cheap 250W HPS/MH conversion from inside sun. I ordered and paid for it two weeks ago and still have not received it. latest word is that it shipped yesterday. Their shipping / general sense of urgency is beyond slow. I am not sure how the product is going to be because it was so cheap, but I "upgraded" to the new ballast from the refurbished one, so hopefully that was a good idea. anyone have any suggestions/reviews on this product? I am not expecting much.

5. Flowering. my plan is to run that HID for a few weeks with the MH bulb, then switch to the HPS and start flowering. do you think this is a good idea? are these plants old/big enough? this is my first grow and i'm not so much concerned with the largest yield possible, I am much more concerned with producing smokeable buds. and not failing. I would like to get one or two grows under my belt then upgrade some of my equipment (starting with the aerogarden). so, anyone have any suggestions on when to start flowering these bitches?

as always, thanks for the help...enjoy the pics