Hey mr2 - been catching up on your journal, looking really great!! - it's funny, because I went through almost the EXACT same thing as you with the water ppms... this early on in the game, don't worry about the higher ppms or even the pH in the 6-7 range. Mine did that too - just keep using the store-bought RO water for now. Believe it or not, even though you've already rinsed the hydroton thoroughly, it will still cause abnormally high ppms for the first month or so. Once your nutes are up to around 5-600, the flora nova will take care of the pH, and it won't even by necessary to check it for the rest of the grow! My plant didn't mind the high pH at the start either - no worries. Pretty soon those first few sets of leaves will be irrelevant, and the slight browning tips won't even be viewable!
Another few things you're seeing right now is the slight curling 'up' of the leaf edges - that happened to me as well - for me it turned out to be my light was too close - if it's still doing that, maybe raise it up a bit and see if that helps. My plant also showed a bit of 'lighter green-ness' in the leaves at this point - again, nothing to worry about - it will grow out of it, especially since the growth speed right now is starting to take off - roots in the rez = happy plant!
Remember - with the Nova Bloom nutes you're using, it will always buffer you pH automatically for you. As you've noticed, the only thing you need to watch is your base ppm of the water you're using - I ended up getting an RO system (which was a godsend by the way) so base ppms was no longer a concern after that - then your ppms are almost 100% from your nutes.
Keep it up man - I'm following along closely!