DWC questions...water level, hydrogen, rock wool, help??:-(

I have a basic 4 plant system in a 4 gallon reservoir. Question one...what is the proper full water level? The directions say high enough so the net pot bottoms are covered by 1 inch of water. I have heard others say water should be just level with the net pot bottoms? Second how do you germinate from seeds in rock wool? being a first time, I chose to squirt rock wool so saturated, and squeeze off excess water so damp. Then put seeds in 1/4 inch deep. My hydrogen looks like its dry on top of the net pots now after a few days. normal?

I keep my water line about 1-2" below the netpot. But it really depends on how deep in the netpot the rockwool is. If the rockwool is at the top of the pot then you could have your water level right up to the bottom of the pot, maybe even submerging the bottom inch or so.

You dont want the rockwool sitting in water, that will just cause problems. Ideally you want the splashing from the bubbles to keep the rockwool damp but not soaked.

Its much easier to germinate using the paper towel method. Once you have a taproot then transplant to rockwool.

Never squeeze rockwool!! Shake off excess water. Squeezing ruins the air space within.

Hydroton holds litttle to no water so yes, that is normal.

I run my dwc buckets at bottom of net pot entire grow no issues with proper water care.

Make sure to clean the Hydroton (Hydrogen?) before using it or it'll cause problems to the system. Germinating with the seeds from the paper towel method oppose to just dropping them in the rockwell seems to have more of a chance to germinate. Just make sure to use tweezers.

Organ: I start with six seedlings that sprouted from either rock wool cubes or Root Riot seed starters. By now they're about three inches tall in three inch Hydroton filled net pots in a ten gallon Sterlite tub.

Initially I fill the tub to the bottom of the net pots. The roots are dampened and attracted by the vigorous bubbling of a pair of large air stones fed by an aquarium air pump that keeps the Hydroton damp. As soon as the roots are visible I start lowering the level to about a half inch below the basket but then I have a lot bubbling going on to to encourage them growing down to the reservoir level. When they start to hang into the nutes mix I drop the level down to about an inch and I continue to drop the level until they stabilize at a level of seven gallons in the tub. My bubble tubs are a DIY knock offs of Stealth Hydro's units sold on the internet. They want $200 and they cost $54 to build.

It took me a while to really believe it could be done this way but I was taught that plants need more oxygen than water. The top half of the roots are sucking up damp oxygen rich air, and the bottom half are sucking up nutes just like if you think about what they do in dirt. In dirt the lower half is usually down into the water table while the top half is in more aireated soil.

Eventually they are sitting in 7 gallons of nutes in the ten gallon tub and by then I've started a second tub with three plants in each of the two tubs. The top half of the roots may be in four to six inches of humid air above the bubbling nutes level while one to two feet of roots have grown into and are feeding directly in the nutes. Most of this I got from a couple of good instructors in some hydro classes I took and it has worked fine for me. They warned us not to drown our plants. I hope this helps. HSA