please help tighten-up my SOG (pics)

I was wondering if any had some advice to fatten up my SOG (flowering) garden. I thought I was doing a good job, but my last batch never fattened up. I realize now that my fert levels were too high, but I still don't know exactly what I should have done.

Setup:
SOG on 7" deep flood tray (ebb&flow)
Medium: expanded clay w/ coco croutons, in 1 gal. pots
Light: 1000w HPS w/ cooltube.
Temps: 60-75 degrees F.
Res Ph: 5.8-6.2
Flooding: every 5 hours (5x per day)
Nutes: GH flora series, Kool blooms, Cal-Mag.
Strains: I am working with a few 8 week stains (mostly Chimera gear)

Feeding:
weeks 1-2: 1 part Grow
1 part Micro
1 part Bloom
PPM (ECx 700): I start with about 700, and work up to 1200

weeks 3-6: 1 part Micro
2 parts Bloom
1 part Cal Mag
1.5 parts Kool Blooms
PPM: I start with about 1200 and work up to 1800-1850 by week 5

weeks 7-8 I use the same formula but reduce in strength until it is almost clear water the last few days

here are a few pics of a few of my ladies with 2 weeks to go. Notice that the leaves look so healthy but the bud mass is very low. I had SOGed in soil many times, but this was my 2nd Hydro SOG.







These babies fattened up a little bit over the next 2 weeks, but not too much. Overall I think yield was about 1/2 than it should have been.

What should I change in my set-up? I have a new set of babies @ week 4 and the same thing looks like it is happening again. I checked the water, it was at 1800, OK- way too much for these strains I guess. I brought the level down to 1000, should I keep that for a while? or just flush with water for a few days? Also am I flooding too often (5x per day)?? Many thanks and big ups to my fellow gardeners.

It looks like the strain could go longer than you think. Do the plants show deficiencies at 1200 ppm? Also how often do you change your res and what temp is it at?

It looks like the strain could go longer than you think.

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I've grown that strain for a while in soil: finishes in about 7 weeks. In the hydro grow I did let it go 8 weeks. (but at week 3-4 I could tell that it wasn't filling out like in soil.

Do the plants show deficiencies at 1200 ppm?

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No, never. Do you think that is what I should keep them at?

Also how often do you change your res and what temp is it at?

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Temps I maintained during the colder months were about 70 w/ a res heater.

I 've been changing the res every 2-3 weeks. although during that batch, I did not change the res for almost 4 weeks. I think that that played a part in the low bud weight.

I have been changing/cleaning the res every 2 weeks for my new batch. But at just over 4 weeks, I see the same development as I did before. It is kind of frustrating. What do you think?

find a bagseed and compare, are youre mothers stressed?

I have a few strains goin, some are doing well, but most are showing similar traits as the Mental Floss. (Shorter, curled down, dark green leaves) Is that too much N? or is it general over-fertilization?

The Mothers love me. Since switching to hydro, I have not had anything but mad success in vegetative growth. But translating that increase of vegging into increase of yield has so far eluded me

I keep the Mothers at about 1200-1400, that seems to work well for them.

Do u think I should leach, and just run water through em for a few days? Or just keep it down to 800-1000 for a while? i dunno

Doesn't look like overfertilization to me. Looks to me like you just need more light. How big an area are you trying to cover with that one light? Btw, cooltubes do an excellent job when it comes to keeping temps in check but they are HORRIBLE at putting down a good even spread of light. No reflector is by far the worst, but even those "batwing"-style ones aren't much better. I say abandon the cooltube and get a traditional air cooled hood. The ones that did the best in a comparo were the Sun Systems' Super Sun 1 and 2 AC 6", the Hydrofarm Daystar 6" AC, and the Hydrofarm Radiant 6" and 8". And yes, you're watering too much. Should be no need for 5 times a day. Once in the morning when the lights come on, and once more just before the lights turn off has always worked well for me.

Have you ever tried the Lucas Formula? It is 8ml/gallon of micro and 16ml/gallon of bloom. There is a thread that explains everything, Ask Lucas, I am at 4 weeks in my first hydro grow so we'll see how it goes but it has worked out really well for me so far.