1000w 14 plants 5 strains 2 gallon E&F turned modular DWC

I'd like to start off by saying I welcome any and all feedback anyone may reply. My sytem is less complicated then it sounds but it started off as a 24 plant Greentrees ebb and flow (fill and drain) system with 2 gallon buckets. Long story short i was set to use it and the control box with the timer that controls the water pumps and the floats is shot as well as 10 of the buckets so i converted it to a 14 bucket modular DWC (2 gallon bucket mini dwc?) Anyway it works the same as a modular DWC but the scary thing is that the system can only hold 8 gallons of nute water at a time and that could be a big problem once they're in 12/12 but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
I'm running Floranova Grow as my only nute at about 1000ppm when mixed with tap water. ph is 5.8 when fresh no ph up or down (Love Floranova for that) and ph is 6.2 by the time i dump it and mix a new batch (once every week). I am currently on day 25 of veg and the average height of the plants is 18" all but a couple are topped and some are heavily trained as i managed to keep them all within 6" of each other regarding height. I will be switching to 12/12 on day 28 as i am afraid of running out of space.
Strains:
4 Girl Scout Cookies
3 Critical Kush
3 Strawberry Diesels
3 Cheese and
1 Death Star
all feeding from the same nutrients under the same light (what could possibly go wrong?).
Vegging under 1000w Hortilux Blue metal halide and will be using 1000w Hortilux super Hps for flower as well as Floranova Bloom. The distance from the bulb to the farthest plant-tops is 32". Closest is 28" and i am using a yieldmaster II reflector without the glass and i only plan to use if heat becomes an issue. Below is a picture of the first day i transplanted to the hydro system as i was quite late at starting a journal

Here they are today

And below are 2 plants which I have had to train the most in order to keep the canopy even. On the left is a cheese and GSC on the right (wish they were all like this)

Found ya! Lol lookin good man

Update time it's day 27 and I will be switching them to 12/12 tomorrow so here's a couple more pictures before the real show starts

Heck yeah! Lookin good right there!

Long story short I am pushing the switch to 12/12 back a couple days due to my timer taking a crap. I also forgot to mention in my earlier posts but i was mistakenly using a nearly 3 year old bottle of FNG with same age Diamond Nectar and Floralicious+ which was causing major ph problems and a couple of my GSC got red/purple leaves and overall slow growth so I ditched the whole set and decided to run only FNG during veg (new bottle) and a new bottle of FNB (will probably have Liquid Koolbloom also but haven't decided)

Speaking of old bottles, what is your take on bottles that are left out in light and not black? My cyco bottles are grey in color and I was curious about light penitrating the bottles and messing up my girls food

k_elliott99 said:

Speaking of old bottles, what is your take on bottles that are left out in light and not black? My cyco bottles are grey in color and I was curious about light penitrating the bottles and messing up my girls food

Click to expand...

Even if there is not light penetration (which there could be) they are absorbing thermal energy and heat will fuck with your nutes. For best results keep them in the fridge (could make my floranova last 5 years) take them about an hour before you want to use them so they aren't so cold.
but in any case if left in your grow room put them in something opaque or at least in the shade

It's day 31 and the last day of veg. I removed minor growth from the bottom 30-40% of the plants 3 days ago that weren't getting good light to minimize popcorn buds.

Lets see some pics

k_elliott99 said:

Lets see some pics

Click to expand...

Holy cow they look awful big man! Good work

k_elliott99 said:

Holy cow they look awful big man! Good work

Click to expand...

Thanks but the tallest girls are still under 2 ft. i think it's just that my little 2 gallon buckets make the plants look bigger by contrast. If these were in 5 gallons they'd look pretty munchkin Lol

DWC enthusiast said:

Thanks but the tallest girls are still under 2 ft. i think it's just that my little 2 gallon buckets make the plants look bigger by contrast. If these were in 5 gallons they'd look pretty munchkin Lol

Click to expand...

Yeah if I dodnt have my 2 babies tied down they would be about 18 inches tall and im way over due for flower! Good luck with them girls

Thanks and good luck to you too I just hope I don't run out of vertical space as i only have a 7 ft ceiling

DWC enthusiast said:

Thanks and good luck to you too I just hope I don't run out of vertical space as i only have a 7 ft ceiling

Click to expand...

Thanks man, I got a 7 foot ceiling as well and I keep my veg room light at 6 foot and my flower light which is 1000w hps against the ceiling even when they are babies!

k_elliott99 said:

Thanks man, I got a 7 foot ceiling as well and I keep my veg room light at 6 foot and my flower light which is 1000w hps against the ceiling even when they are babies!

Click to expand...

i keep my bulb 32" max from the canopy and i let them grow until they're about 24" from the bulb before moving the light up to 32" away again. after the initial stretch phase of 12/12 is over i keep the light as close as possible without burning anything

You might want to rethink running your light so high up you are not using optimal placement throughout growth here is a chart that I use

DWC enthusiast said:

You might want to rethink running your light so high up you are not using optimal placement throughout growth here is a chart that I use

Click to expand...

That chart is cool but being that close how do u keep the sides of the plant getting light leaving the light that close?? I found when I place my light higher up it helps to feed the stuff around the sides a little better