Ne0.,
It sounds like you are taking all the correct steps and have researched things pretty thoroughly. You definitely want to start lite on the nutes and let the plant be your guide. I gave mine a classic case of nute burn...not bad, but definitely excessive amounts of nutes. The plants pulled through just fine, but the flush could have been avoided if I had started a bit lower on my amounts.
I usually research things to death, but this first grow was an exception to that rule. I didn't even know I was on my 1st grow until walking out on the patio one day and seeing a 2ft sativa- it's a long story. LOL
I might have been much more careful and researched more if:
A) I had known this grow had started.
B) I had been using something other than bagseed.

In fact, that might be the only recommendation I can make to you is possibly consider a trial run with bagseed before hitting quality seeds. I wanted to get a good feel for what the plants would require and how changes would affect those plants. I have 2 indica and a sativa and they all seem to require slightly different care.

Anyway, I am indeed using the 3pt.GH Flora nutes. I wanted to try Advanced Nutrients, but couldn't find everything I was looking for locally. I decided to go GH because there are multiple sources to obtain them within a 15 minute drive.

As an afterthought, I figured I would post a pic of my sativa.
As you can see, this girl is pretty stretchy and thin. In fact, I am going to have to secure this plant in the near future to keep her upright. There is about 2 more foot to this plant that you can't see (she's 6ft). This trial run has taught me a bunch about lighting and the effects of not enough light, too much distance from the lights, nutes, etc.
I might have felt bad doing this to genetically superior seed. That's OK though, I now know what NOT to do on the next go-round. Of course, once I change my lighting to HID (I'm using only T5 now), I'm sure there will be some more trial and error along with an angry plant or 2- you gotta learn somehow.

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Doesn't look to shabby, how far along is it do you think? I have tried to grow bagseed, I just havn't had any luck at all with it. I think the seeds just wern't viable, and the ones that probally were wern't germinated correctly. I've tried the soak in water trick, and also the paper towel thing, I think I might actually have some bag seeds from some crappy swag I picked up getting ready to pop out some roots, but its been about 5 days since I put them in the towel.

I just put like 30 seeds in a square towel and gave them 2 layers on each side. Rolled it up loosely and put it in a little shot glass with about a quarter of an inch of water and put it in my water heater closet where it is pitch black. I check it once a day and unfold the towel to see how they are doing, the towel is staying really damp and has started to smell a little moldy. The only difference I can see in the seeds is that they have started to swell up and I see white growth looking stuff on a few of the seeds (sort of looks a little like an algae or something) I'm assuming the seeds are finally starting to crack and its the root, but I won't know until I see the roots come out. Either the seeds are just super duper hard and the roots are having problems pushing out or the seeds suck, or there is something else going on, maybe my water sucks.

I've gotten 1 seed to actually produce a root, that was when I was using the soak method, the seed definately cracked, and I might have jumped the gun in putting it in some soil, because I week later it still hadn't popped out on an 18-6 schedule. I had it in a solo cup with some slits in the bottom for drainage, them I put a sheet of saran wrap over the lid to keep the humidity in the cup, I even went in there and exhaled into the cup and covered it back up to put some carbon dioxide in there and insure the air didnt get stale in there. That little bugger never popped out it was like a week and It was only lightly covered with dirt, after 2 weeks I was just fed up and i just dug it out to see what the deal was, the thing's root was only like a centimeter long so I tossed it.

Only thing I can think of that happened is that the seeds were just really crappy, or the temperature drop when the lights went off was too drastic(had it in a bathroom we never use, with the door close, got kinda chilly in there with our AC going). Either way I think I'll have more luck with some seeds I know are actually viable, and I'll have them in a more controlled enviroment (my grow cab) and possibly buy a heat pad as I've heard it boosts root growth and germination rates. My bad luck with seedlings is also what spurred me to get that rizotonic too, when I saw in the description to put some on seeds to boost growth and increase germ rates I was like "Sold!"

Anyway sorry for rambling on, haha.

Well, I guess she could be worse. Now that I think about it, she has been thru some tough times. It's now 28 days into 12/12. It went thru around 45 days of veg in the severe heat outdoors while being watered with water at a ph of 9.2. I guess that explains why the lower leaves were turning yellow.
**note to self- good ph meters are worth the coin.**
After all of this, I then mistakenly OD'ed this plant with nutes the 1st week of 12/12. Had to do a 12 gallon flush and figure I lost at least 1 week of progress due to plant stress and yet another rookie mistake along the way. It's been an educational grow, if nothing else.

I have a small bottle of bagseed that have been randomly collected over an extended period of time. These things could be up to 5 years old. I guess I got lucky that I ended up with 3 females out of 5 seeds. One seed was DOA and another went male recently and had to be terminated. I have a sickly skunk that I need to try and save. It has been badly stunted from the heat, the water, and a lack of nutrients. It gets a flush tomorrow and I will see if it improves. I feel I have gained some useful knowledge from unintentionally abusing my plants.
I suppose that your seeds could be bad but seems as tho something else is going on. I hate to say it, but most of my problems along the way have been PH related, not that I am suggesting that is the problem here.

Are PH strips or the fish water drip sufficient enough to test the PH of nute solutions?

I suppose that you would be OK with those although there is room for error. I tried the test drops first- I was somewhere between 6.0 and 6.4 with my nutes but had no clue what my tap water was since the kit didn't go that high. I never tried the strips. I then purchased a cheap PH pen. This worked well for a week and then started drifting very badly. I would have to calibrate it every few days. I finally broke down and spent the money on a good meter. Let me save you some trouble- if you decide you aren't satisfied with drops or strips, do yourself a favor and don't buy a cheap pen tester. Any product with a 30 day warranty is not designed to live long and function well. Just spend the money up front for a good one.