First time hydro. Advice needed. 3x6 ebb and flow

Hey everyone. I recently decided to start my first hydro grow and was hoping to gain some advice from all of you.

Here's my set up.
4x8 tent (indoor)
3x6 tray
2 1000w HPS
40 gallon res w/ air stones
Running 6'' exhaust through lights and out roof.
6" cool air intake from room/window with dust shroom.
Temp is around 80-82 when lights turn off at 11am and 73-76 at night with lights on.

4'' rockwool cubes sitting on 2" coco mat

Hydro research veg+bloom nutes

7 stage R/o and dionizer producing 0 ppm and 6.7 ph waterafter nutes ph drops to 5.8.

2 days ago i put 18 bananarama clones into veg. With water levels at 5.8 ph and 190 ppm.

Only watered once so far. Will probably water again tonight after lights come on depending how moist the cubes still are. I flood just enough to reach the bottom of the cubes then allow the water to wick up through the cubes.

I guess my question is whether 2 1000w hps is too much for 18 plants and is just creating more heat. Should I drop it down to 1 light? What are the advantages and disadvantages?

Seconds. What kind of ppm and ph do you guys prefer for hydro. I figured I'd keep my ph right below 6 and slowly increase my ppm as my plants get larger. Then just watch them too see how much they can take.

And finally how close do I want my plants to the lights. I planned on lowering the lights tonight so that I don't end up with tall skinny plants. Right now the lights are probably about 4 feet from the lights. I was going to bring the lights down to around 2 feet from the clones but I'm a little worried about burning them.

Thanks for all your insight everyone. I will post some pictures on here soon. And any advice or things to look out for from people with similar set up would be greatly appreciated.

i run 3k for 36-40 plants.
plants like different ph depending on what stage, a little lower for veg, med for first of flower, and a little higher for late flower, but 6.1 is about the limit.

Thanks for the reply. I did not plan on slowly raising the PH but I will now. Good to know. So I should be fine with 2k as long as I can keep the the temp down. Thanks for your insight superstoner.

I ended up pulling one of the lights since the plants are still small. Once they get a little bigger and have more leaves I'll reintroduce the other light. im thinking around 3-4 weeks into veg. Do you think that will create any issues? Or should I hold off on adding the additional light until flowering. Thanks for your insight.

You would be better off to get you a t5 for veg then use hps for flower. 2k over a single tray is prob overkill.

Ok. I do have an extra 600w hortilux, air cooled hood, and ballast sitting in my closet. Id hate to buy a t5 with all the extra bulbs, hoods, and ballasts i already have sitting around. Do you think I should drop it down to the 600w during veg? Then just add the 1000 to it during bloom? Or switch to 2 1000w like I planned at bloom. Thanks for the advice.

use what you have and get what you want later. the 600 in veg and the 2k in flower will make happy plants.