Budget First time grow critique

[Saratj1]

I decided to try my hand at this. I grow coral, and the more I learned about reef tanks , it seemed very similar to hydroponics. So I thought I'd give both a try since I have some of the equipment.
I am growing in a closet using a bubble bucket/dwc kit off eBay. I got a 400w mh/hps combo off Craigslist for $80 with a nice timer , I tried talking him down to $60 (he wanted $100) but he started whining about the timer, so we settled at $80. He wasn't lying though it is a nice timer, still a cheapo setup but nice for my purposes. It's an igrow 400w mh/hps switchable and dimmable ballast with both bulbs and batwing reflector. The timer is inter dynamics .
The bubble bucket consists of a 6" net pot lid on a 5 g bucket, a 4x4 rock wool cube, some hydroton, some veg &bud nutes, a bubble stone and air pump with black hose. It was around $40 shipped. Seemed like a good deal. I swapped out the cheap air pump for a better one I had.
I have a reverse osmosis / deionizer filter already. So water quality is excellent, I ordered some cal-mag supplement per reading on here. I am currently using a liquid ph test kit, I have ordered a cheap digital ph/tds meter from china. My water comes out at about 7.0ph so I put about 20 drops of ph down to 3.5 gal and that got me down to around 6.0 ph.
I've ordered some regular white widow seeds from nirvana but I've already started growing with some bag seeds. I got three sprouted. Most of the seeds were immature or broken they were taken from more than likely a brick of Mexican schwag. So if I mess these up no big loss.
I sprouted in paper towel. I then transplanted to the rock wool cube. I started the seedlings under a 10w led, then after a week put them under the metal halide. I stretched the plants some by having the light about 3ft over the plants. I have since lowered the light to about 1ft over the plants. I also have the water level at about 1/2in under the netpot.

Here are some pics if you have any questions, comments, critiques I would love to hear them thanks for reading.

These are about a week old.
Attachment 288725Attachment 288724Attachment 288723Attachment 288726

Saratj1 Reviewed by Saratj1 on 12-28-2012. Budget First time grow critique I decided to try my hand at this. I grow coral, and the more I learned about reef tanks , it seemed very similar to hydroponics. So I thought I'd give both a try since I have some of the equipment. I am growing in a closet using a bubble bucket/dwc kit off eBay. I got a 400w mh/hps combo off Craigslist for $80 with a nice timer , I tried talking him down to $60 (he wanted $100) but he started whining about the timer, so we settled at $80. He wasn't lying though it is a nice timer, still a Rating: 5

[Saratj1]

I was thinking about using this DIY led light for a while to save some electricity it's a 50w hybrid (blue/white) led. It is 10000k white with 460nm blue. Would this be good or too blue? It also has 3 more 10w LEDs for a total of 80w
Attachment 288727

[Saratj1]

Ok I'm trying the led for a little while. Lets see what it does :::fingers crossed::: Wish me luck. If the plants start looking bad I will swap back to the metal halide.
Also for anyone interested in DIY LEDs I got all the parts from eBay , here's a part and approximate price list

50w blue and white epistar emitter 36v 1.5a - $20
Large aluminum heatsink about 22"x 12"x3" & approx. 10lbs. $45
36v 1500mA led driver - $16
Power cord from rrod Xbox 360 - free
Misc- solder, thermal paste, wire, terminal, ect $15 from radio shack

Here is a pic:
Attachment 288730

The plants are doing so well so far I kinda feel like I shouldn't swap the light, but I would like to use some DIY led stuff that I have laying around. And this is kinda a practice run anyways so maybe I'll learn something.
If anyone would like to lay some wisdom on me it would be appreciated thanks.

[Saratj1]

I checked on my babies this morning and the leaves are curling. I did a search and came up with the light is too close and the plant is getting cooked. It's curling its leaves to sweat off some water to cool itself. This may be because I went back to the metal halide after trying some LEDs and put the halide back a little close. I went back to the halide from the led because I was afraid my grow area wasn't staying warm enough with the LEDs . So I raised the halide up about four inches and misted the plants with some Ro/di with a drop of cal/mag..