First hydro grow any/all advice welcome

"well-crafted micro krusty bucket"

Funny, that's what I was thinking. But for simplicity a 5 gallon DWC would suffice. I'd probably invest in the EC meter if you plan on more than just one grow or doing this as an experiment. It doesn't look like you've mentioned moving air at all. You've got to exchance room air alot in order to avoid mildew, bring in CO2 and get the oxygen out, plus knock the plant around a little to make the stem strong.
Here's what I've done for germination of seed in hydro. I've used the brown root plugs sometimes called Rapid Rooter. They usually come in a pack of ten or so. They're made of a mix of rubber and peat and expand outward as the plant grows, just like rock wool. You can get seed started in a paper towel that wet or jar of water. Then place the seed in the hole of the rooter, but be careful not to break off the taproot. Or you can just try placing the seed in the rooter and keep the rooter wet. You put water and nutes into you bucket with the rooter in the net pot at the top. Then just dip a cup down into the water nute mix, replace the top and dump the water over the rapid rooter, keeping it wet. Do this several times a day if you can. You'll have the temptation to pull out the seed to see if it's started but don't cuz then any roots developing will break. Just give it time and if a couple weeks go by and you don't see roots, then you know. You could probably get several different tops or set the rooters in different small jars and keep them wet, and see how roots develop. Get a small glass jar and place toothpicks through the rooter so it remains suspended halfway down the jar and this will let you see when roots have grown enough to transfer to the hydro set up. My mother used to do this with avacado seeds but I think puncturing the seed itself caused them to die. Sorry, mom. Anyway, good genetics and airflow are two very important things people want to overlook. If you're using a small space, you've got to move the air.