so far 14 out of 17 of the new seeds germinated. I think I finally have the hang of this germination thing (sound stupid I know, but obviously as many of you can probably tell I don't have a green thumb at all. Trying to get one).

I placed all 14 of them in rapid rooters and covered them with dirt. The reason I covered with dirt was so the roots would remain protected from the light (a few of them grew curly tap roots. Hoping this remedies itself) and so that way when they sprout the dirt will fall in and still protect the root from light.

I didn't pack it down, just gently through it over top of the current holes in the rapid rooter.

4 of them sprouted yesterday and I put them in the RR's. 2 of them have their first set of leaves (baby leaves, not serrated ). So I am fairly confident that these are going to all sprout just fine. Once they sprout under my T12's I'm going to move them to my grow box and slowly start getting them closer and closer to the lights. I figure over the course of a 3-5 days they'll be about 1-2" away from the CFL's.

I am going to toss all the other plants except 1. The one I flushed with the proper PH water. It has shown tremendous improvement and I'll take pictures today of all the plants so you can see how much this one has improved by simply switching the water. Really the only reason I'll be keeping it is to validate that the water PH was indeed my final problem. Also it will serve as my "test" plant.

beyond that I'll be starting over, but continuing in this thread. I think I've resolved majority of my issues