Hydroponics Help - Veg State - Pre-Flowering

[Bronsonisbomb]

Hey everyone. It's an honor to be a part of the community now that I have started my first grow. I purchased this megagarden ebb and flow system and I do love it but I'm having some troubles.

Ive managed to get my plant to grow a good amount so far but I feel like I'm missing a lot. Here's what I have:

-Tap water pH level at 6.5 constant.

- 3-4 tsp's of General Hydroponics Flora Nova grow nutrient (came with the kit) that I'm currently using for veg state.

- Fan on low blowing over the top of plant

- sun blaze 22 T-5 high output Florescent fixture over the top about 3 feet away from the top of plant

- 2 nice sized air stones in the tank

- feeding (flooding) 4 times a day

- 24 hour lighting

- using clay pebbles for medium in pots in top of flood tray

- temp is in the mid 70's at all time. Room is air conditioned.

So here's my issue:

New growth fan leaves are "taco-ing" inward on themselves and some are looking a tad like crows foot.
The plant itself looks pretty healthy as far as color goes.
My leaves don't feel very dense either.
Ive been in the veg state for over 45 days now and it's growing very slowly now. I don't want to flower it yet until I can get it healthy again. Someone please point me in the right direction. I would love to learn how to do this correctly and save my plant!
I only have one for now because I wanna get the hang of it before I dive into the deep end with multiple plants.
Not sure how to post pics yet because I just joined the website today but once I figure it out, I'll provide some for you.
Thank you so much for anyone who can help me out!

 

[newbiegrwer]

Welcome to the 420 family. Sorry it took so long for someone to find you. Indoor plants leaves are usually a lot more delicate than outdoor plants due to the decrease in light in testy compared to nature's light bulb. Taco leaves is heat stress and you can mediate that by increasing air flow or decreasing ambient air temp but ideally both. That tall skinny stature with a lot of space between branches is because your lights are so far away and fluorescent which do best within inches of your plants. Slow growth is due to fluorescent lighting. Hid or led is better and you can pick up an inexpensive hid kit online. I bought a 1000w kit with the hood, digital/dimmable ballast, mh and hps bulbs, and adjustable hangers for less than 200 bucks. And if the only nutrients you have are the ones that came with the kit you will want to buy some more. You will be fine with the general hydroponics flora series but the advanced nutrients ph perfect line up is amazing and eliminates the need to ph balance. Your water should be more pure than tap water. The water company puts all kind of chemicals in the water to keep it clean but clean isn't pure. Soil helps filter these chemicals out before the roots absorb the water but hydro can't do that so you need distilled or reverse osmosis that has the lowest ppm of total dissolved solids (tds) possible. And hydro really needs a ph of 5.8 or as close as you can get to that. You'll need a ph pen and a tds ppm meter to help set your resevoir. I hope I was able to help or at least provide you with the info you need to start over.