hey bert,
very happy to hear things are going well!:thumbsup:
its most definitely a matter of preference. there are so many types and brands of mediums, watering methods, lighting, and you can use them together in different ways.
just general advise that i give to every person i help get going is even though you are told 5 different ways of room setup and growing methods its best to find the guy with a method thats easy to follow, has step by step instructions on what to do and where the plant should be, consistent good yields...., and most of all will be there to answer any questions, and then follow his method to a tee.
ive had a few people take most or some of my setup and then use things from another friends setup and and then the other friend wont get back to them about questions and i can only really school them what i know and use, the next thing you know things get real bad.
having said that i think your setup looks great. i dont like hydroton myself but i had some good yields using it. back then i vegged in the small rockwool cubes (croutons) and tp to hydroton in 3gl mesh bottom pots. not sure if those are the cubes youre using but its hard to clean it out of the hydroton and starts to get nasty. i think i listed a few things i thought were great ideas from sub. i think youll do great this run and maybe work with this setup over the summer then go bigger in the fall when its not so hot. gotta go for now sorry.