You don’t seem to have given up all hope just yet. Although you did say you did it just for the fun of it, and the fact that you get medicine for free doesn’t exactly push you to succeed either. However, failing doesn’t mean the end of the world. Imagine had you been successful the first 4-5 runs, and then landed in the seat you’re in now, I’m sure your feelings would be a lot different. You have had the opportunity to learn from things not working from the beginning, vs being clueless as to why all of a sudden things aren’t working at all now. I know it can be a bit discouraging to scroll through post and see all of these beautiful plants on growers first runs, and that’s ok, because when they eventually run into an issue, and it’s not a matter of if but when, you will be ahead of the curve because you already learned how to crawl out of the holes they will inevitably fall in.
DWC culture wasn’t for me neither, and I learned that the hard way, especially coming from someone that only grew hydroponically back day in the day, I was completely baffled on my inability to make it work. Some people just have a natural hack to make plants thrive with it, I unfortunately wasn’t one of them, and quickly switched to soil and never went back. It may be time to lay the almighty DWC GOD to rest, and try something new, you may unlock a green thumb you never knew existed. It took me a long time to realize that’s it not always about what works, but why it works. Understand the why, and will see failure in the rear view mirror getting further and further away. You got this, keep at it!!
Happy growing.