Troubles in seedling town.

Hello, I'm having an issue with my marijuana seedlings. Leaves are curling, cotyledons are turning yellow or in one case brown/burnt off, stunted growth and the stems are thinning and turning darker. Essentially my plants are wilting.

I'm assuming I'm over watering but the soil is quite dry. Which lead me to believe the humidity was low so I started spraying the plants with a spray bottle of water. However, they still dwindle. I am watering every 2 days (every day until I thought there was a watering problem) with 1 and 3/4 cups of water divided between 20 plants. The temperature inside the room is 80deg F. The light is an LED, hanging 14'' above the plants and is on a 18h light cycle.

I understand that watering every 2 days is still likely too much but the soil is dry even after a day. Please see the following pictures for reference. Any comments on what to do would be appreciated.

I can't imagine a proper soil mix drying out in two days..and less than 2 cups of water for 20 seedlings?....I use solocups to start seedlings and they don't need water for the first 7-10 days on a temp controlled heat mat/veg chamber....
I suggest thoroughly watering your soil, planting your seed, and backing off....only water when the pot is as light as before watering.....patience will grow more than overtending....Then, when your seedling does need watering, water thoroughly, until some water runs out the weep holes....then leave alone again for a few more days. My veg chamber stays around 25% which is too low, I suppliment with frequent misting....
At this point, you've got to do something that may be quite the opposite of what you're doing now.....

what soil is that? and what is your ph level for your water?

The soil is jiffy pot planting mix. It's a really lightweight soil and it seems to dry out really quickly. I am watering with tap water that has sat overnight to get rid of the chlorine. It's the same water that I used to germinate my seeds.

It's been about 10 days since I planted the germinated seeds in the soil. The tallest seedling is about 3 inches and still only has the two sets of leaves. Is that normal?

The growth seems low for 9 days. Should I transplant into the better potting soil that I have? Would that be too much strain on the plants? I'm worriesld that if I don't try something different I'm going to lose them.

Any help would be appreciated!

first thing i would do is get a cheap ph test kit - you can get the dropper kits for about £/$5

the ph level of my tap water is over 8.5 even after leaving it for 2 days the ph is still 8.5 so i have to run all my water through a filtration system (just use a normal brita filter jug) this drops the ph to around 6.0-6.5

the other thing is the soil - i'm not familiar with that particular soil you mention but my guess is
1. its got too much feed OR
2. it doesn't have enough feed

check the bag it should say what is in the soil


also you say you are over watering but that soil seems bone dry..

i'm still quite new to indoor grows so i am learning too, but i would say it looks like it needs feed and better soil

ALSO another thing with CFL's you need to keep them really close to the plant (about 1-2 inches) i haven't used LED's but i'm guessing it's probably the same
14 inches sounds like an excessive distance, get it closer and get some air movement (fan) between the plant and light

i'm using biobizz light mix soil - has enough food for them for about 2 weeks (depending how hungry they are but not so much as to burn them.

soil too rich for seedlings. Burnt. I dont think u can transplant ,they are stressed enough already. Flush the hell out of soil and put them under fluros while they are recovering. Keep watering as u are when soil seems dry and pots light.

The problem was in the soil. It has zero water retention, hence why it always seemed like it needed watering. Did an emergency transplant and a few are already recovering. View the following link on a little study on the soil.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/seed/msg0414330728717.html