I got rid of hydroton years ago. Polished ornamental stones (Dollar store) work awesome. Clean, easy to remove and reuse. I use smaller ones in my 3" starter net pots
Not really, only if Ec is changing. Again volume and proper EC. I run 5gal dwc's at .8-1.0ec. They stay stable down to the last litre, then I just refill it.
I was talking with a experienced hydro grower / neighbor last week about hydroton , he suspects the abrasiveness is not appealing to the roots and may slow the rooting / seedling stage
He might be right might not it needs to be tested , so next go I'll use river pebbles in half the baskets and see if it speeds up the rooting
It would be nice to speed up the seedling stage ... the first two weeks are painfully slow for me
There's a lot of people doing things just because 'that's the way it's always been done'. Thinking outside the box has its benefits. since taking the seedlings pic I topped off each with small pebbles. I start in a bubbler. Once roots are developed I move them to my DIY Mini-Me F & D
Last grow I replaced my kitty liter rez with an Igloo; also replaced air stones with 160 gph lp pump on a deep cycle timer 5/15