i feel ya SS...hydro is can be nerve racking..but its just mental anxiety. your ebb and grow aint fucking with ya, itz your head. bout two years ago, i set that 600hps and 400w hps (now mh) both in this master closet..i couldnt figure how to light a 2foot deep by 7 long shitty closet, so i just chained those 2 lights together. i dont know why i didnt do soil. maybe i have high ambitions, or the knuckle wuz swollen..but i went off on my hydro ways. and im not talking like buy a tray or ebb and flow ...or gro system.. im talking MR. silocone. I took a 8'' sewer tube, cut 3'' net pots into the top of it, like 6 of em. and mounted this pipe on a pitch, cut into on the downward slope and rubbermaid tub. so it drained back towards the rez. then i simply ran some 1/2'' poly pipe to my submerssible pump. then i ran a corney drip system to the net pots. i just did a constant drip. Man the system was flawed. first the 8 '' sewer tube was to heavy to sit correctly pitched to the rez, so it kept slumping the rez. then algea like a motherfukcer. had to change drippers constanly..and finally all the plumbing . but i can say just from my jank experience with build your own, cut corner, and jankely, the seeds i started grew into 4 foot monster in 5weeks of veg. jsut crazy stalks , and growth. i did bud them ..i wish i had pics, so u guys could laugh ur ass's off on a ghetto 1k w grow. it wuz a good learning experience. if u had asked me bout ph back then i would have looked at you all stupid. come along ways..
i guess this story just re affirms to me , ss youll do good. this aint your first walk, and you will be able to spot problems far enought ahead...just dont take any vacations quite yet