Hey dude,
Good to see your new thread. I am liking the set up.
There is just a couple of things I would change if it was my set up.
Firstly I would bring in to question the loss of energy in the form of the heater. I would drop the heater and replace it with more CFLs.
The reason I would do this is because those CFL give off a nice bit of heat which can be used for your grow area. Why not heat with more light? the plants will love you for it.

The second thing would be addressing your worry regarding the intensity of your light. You are currently using almost 250w in light alone. That is about the same as me although our LEDs are from different manufacturers and most likely contain different quality LEDs. To test the strength of you LEDs put a plant in between them and move the LEDs apart, then angle the LEDs at the plant and see which one the plants begin to turn to after a day or 2. If the plants stay in the same place then they may be of equal power.

The third thing would be the gnat problem you spoke of. It isn't really your soil type that promotes gnats development. It is normally over-watering. But believe me I have seen my share of those little bastards through over-watering. I use a product called 'Neem Oil' or 'Neem Oil Extract' to take care of them. You need to kill those little guys fast before they destroy your plant. You will be surprised the damage they can do and just how fast your plants will die. Add 3ml of soap/detergent to 1 litre of warm water and mix well, then add 5ml of pure neem oil and shake until the soap helps the oil to mix well with the water. Them spray al the plants leaves, the grow area, the water trays the base of the pots and then pour the rest into the next watering. This should kill the gnats over time. It will not kill them straight away, it confuses them so bad they die, they don't eat, have sex, fly etc.

also try to get those CFL much closer and try to make a reflector. You are losing far too much light. Try to move the LED as close as possible and be sure they are directed at the plants. The probably on have a 60 degree spread. But be careful you dont bleach the plants. You need to find the perfect distance and reading the plants behaviour will tell you that. Plants speak to us

Could you tell me the distance betwen the nodes on the plant ? the distance between each set of leaves, this can tell you if the lights are too close or too far away.

Good luck with it and keep up the good work and posts

S.L.
silent leprechaun Reviewed by silent leprechaun on . First Time Grower using 2 LED UFO's and 2 CFL Hey everyone, another newbie here. Trying to grow Nirvana White Widow in a 4'x4'x6' grow room built in a basement. Using 2 23watt CFL 5000K bulbs, and 1 Lighthouse LED 100 watt UFO and 1 ProsourceWorldWide 90 watt LED Illuminator. The first 10 days of my grow was without heat. Basement temp seems to be somewhere around 60 to 65 degrees F. Added heater to keep temp around 84F, and growth rate was better, and about 10 days after that added 6" Fan. I topped it on the 11th (last Wednesday) Day Rating: 5