Bengee's First Indoor Grow 600w HID 4x4 GorillaGrowTent

Being an extremely spontaneous person, I have a tendency to get over excited when i get what i perceive to be a good idea running through my head. This often times leads me to hurriedly rushing into things without proper planning or consideration, and this grow is no different than usual. I will try and describe what I am doing and thinking with this project in a linear and step by step sort of way, but i apologize if things get hectic because it is my first time indoors and i make hasty decisions, often times without research. At the time of me starting this, I already have had to take out two of the three clones that i originally started with due to one not growing at all and just looking sickly and one being overly(and sloppily I may add) Fimmed to death. I cleaned up my act and grabbed some bag seed as well as the clone that survived and basically started over, hoping to see some way better results with seeds instead of clones. If you see me doing something wrong or fucking up in some way I MORE THAN WELCOME ADVICE AND CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM ON ANYTHING YOU SEE FIT, provided you know what you are talking about.
Enjoy the Journal!

Ok, so lets talk equipment, I'm on a super budget so the majority of this I bought as a package deal on Craigslist for a very pocket friendly price. Everything was extremely mint and only used gently for one grow(Pots were new)
Tent: Because of that amazing deal on craigslist, I will be using a Heavy Duty 4x4 gorrilla grow tent, it came with extension poles to raise the height to 7'11 but seeing as how it is my first grow i will be leaving it at 6'11
Light: 600w Apollo MH for veg and a 600w Apollo HPS for flower
Ballast: 600w Apollo Dimmable
Hood: 24x26 Intertech ( cool tube... I think )
Filter: Phresh RC-48 charcoal filter
Fans: Atm just using one Ventech variable speed exhaust fan
Guages: Just those cheap digital ones on Amazon(if youve read many indoor grow journals you know what one i mean)
Pots: 5- 3gallon Smart Pots, hoping to use these all the way through to harvest
Will go into more detail and have pics in future posts

On to my setup! I am pretty well broke so I made due with what I had


At first I had my light about 5 feet above my plants!!!! Idk where I got that idea but I have now lowered it to around 16 inches from the highest leaves give or take and am seeing amazing results.
I only have one exhaust fan running, I mounted it at the top of the tent and connected it to my light via ducting; the fan pulls out the hot air from the light and vents it outside my tent into my basement(helps with heating bills)
The fresh air is all being sucked in through the back passive air flap
I have a small clip-on fan blowing lightly onto my plants and i plan on turning up the wind just as soon as the little ones can handle it

Humidity is a little fucked though, cant quite get it up there as I live in California and the air is bone dry, any suggestions on what I could do ventilation-wise to help this out a bit? I totally would get a humidifier but broke as a joke right atm. The tempature is pretty easy to keep on track tho because its heading into winter time.

I am using Recipe 420 for my base soil and am amending it sort of sloppily and with almost no cook time but i figured that the soil was already amended quite a bit so at the very least those nutrients already contained in the soil will be available to the plants. My recipe is as follows
Per 1.5 cf of E.B Stone Recipe 420
1/2 cup Rainbow Mix Pro 8-6-3
1/2 cup Bud&Bloom Organic Fertilizer 3-7-4
Disregard the All Purpose 4-4-4 stuff, I used it originally with my clone and it worked really well but the guy at ace told me I should be using Bud&Bloom instead?
And a good but not overpowering amount of Heritage Organic Compost(fortified with ewc)
Basically mixed all that stuff up and threw it all in pots, hope i don't end up burning my seedlings that are now transplanted into that mix but I really was quite gentle on extra amendments seeing as how i wasn't cooking the soil and it came already pre-amended for the most part.

On to the best Part!!!! The Plants!

So this is my Super Lemon Haze Clone( the survivor out of 3)
I bought her at the club so I think she is around 6 weeks old, but real growth has only been going on this week and a half.
Here she is 10 days ago on the 15th and today on the 25th.
I moved the light way down and added some ferts to the soil and she is bushing like crazy!!! I decided to lst, first using big metal stakes but now using clothes hanger wire bent to make a less bulky tie down
stem width has doubled in size or more in the last ten days, she is looking super good as far as I know right now, except for minor yellowing here and there

These three seedlings are on day 5( counting day 1 as them coming up through the soil)
They are random seeds so idk what they are but got from a very reputable friend so im hoping they will be delicious and also female
2 of them were transplanted from solo cups to 3 gallon smart pots today and didnt miss a beat

These last 4 seedlings are on day 3, the ones in solo cups were transplanted into them today as the styrofoam cups i had them in were way too small

Fun watching your grow.