Waterfarm tips/tricks?

THE RUNDOWN:

Germed in paper towels, waited for taproot to pop.
Placed in Rapid Rooter plugs, put in humidity dome/tray in darkness till surface is broken.
Transplanted Rapid Rooter plug into Waterfarm.
Put over 4' tube fluorescents. (also have 400w MH)

I have heard bad things about the paper towel method, and that some even germinate DIRECTLY in the rapid rooter plugs. I simply shyed away from RW to try and avoid the pH fluctuations I've heard so much about. Growth has been stunted and I even think I burned the little one a bit as well. This is my first hydro run and any advice would be appreciated.

when you set up your water farm you need to thoroughly wash the hydroton. the best way i have found is to fill up the top bucket to the level you want then rinse it in the shower, then pour it all into the main res bucket then fill that with water and then tip it back into the top bucket and repeat until the hydroton is really clean and all run off runs clear.

even after doing that i have found its really important to run it for a few days to get rid of some of the excess dust on the hydroton.
then u can plant your seedling into the hydroton. even then i still check my res daily for rises in ppm anything over 100 triggers a full res change for fresh water. it can be a little finicky at the start but they soon settle in.

if they have been burnt it won't matter too much they will bounce back just make sure you keep plain ph water up to them and don't let the ppm rise too much.

I'm doing a water farm grow right now and I'm only about 2 weeks in so if you want to follow along your more than welcome, link in my sig