Hahaha I only wish I could be lucky enough to smoke what you pros are growing! :jointsmile:

Well I took out 10 gallons of water, cleaned all my stones and bubble curtains, and scooped out as much slime and muck as I could. There was a ton of it stuck to the sides and it came off in big sheets. I filled up like 3" of a 5 gallon bucket with the stuff. Pretty nasty. I then tied all the air stones and curtains to 2 large rock and placed them directly under each set of roots. I had a lot of trouble with everything moving around in there so the roots probably weren't getting the best aeration but it should at least be better than it was for the last 4 weeks. Limping across the finish line for sure, but hopefully I can FINALLY nail it next time since I am going to 1) start with DWC from the beginning, 2) do fewer plants and 3) have better aeration.

I looked at the Ario aerators just now. My only concern is that they diffuser is foam which seems like it wouldn't stand up to being cleaned very well. The site I read said no maintenance required? Is that true? If not, how often do you clean it and how long does one typically last?

My other option was to use these pretty massive grey stones my hyro store has. I bought one for my mother's bucket and it is producing tons of air and the roots are looking way healthier than they did in E&F. I also would rather go this route since I have three air pumps which would become obsolete if I got the Ario.

I was going to buy 8 of these at $5 each and get one more double pump for $12, so thats $52. If I went the Ario route, I would probably get 4 Ario 2s, which would cost me at little more than my other plan by about $20. I think that would be plenty for 5 plants in a 50 gallon res... right? Anyways, cost isn't so much of a factor as efficiency and life expectancy, so what do you guys think is my best bet?

Also, as always, thanks for the help! :jointsmile::thumbsup: