Yes, the air stones really help. I used to only have the tubes attatched to the bottom of my bucket, I was getting a little discouraged in the progress because there wasn't a lot of new growth goin on ( and some stretching from being under the wrong light) now I have an airstone attatched to the ends of both the air tubes at the bottom of my bucket. In the past four to five days, I've had so much new growth, my dwc is passing my dirt ones ( and one of those was super stretched). I know the pictures are kinda shitty and I feel they really don't do them justice, but this is my dwc. It was hard to hold the plant and the camera but I got it.
The roots, I feel, have had stunted progress due to the transplant. I started the seed off in dirt, it was about four or five inches tall when I transplanted it into rockwool, very carefully. I had to carefully and gently massage all the dirt out from the roots, then I had to carefully insert the roots ( easier said than done mind you, there's a lot of roots on seedlings, I am used to small clones) into the small rockwool cube hole. I waited a few days unfilled I figured the roots had took to the rockwool a bit, making sure to keep up on the water, no nutes yet. I then put it into the dwc bucket with no airstones, and way too much nutes. Tat morning I was flushing my medium and washing and refilling the bucket. Nute burn only on the tips of the bottom leaves, t.g.I stuck with no nutes for about another week, then started dosage at half the reccommended dose. As soon as i got the airstones, my plant started all that new growth and I have to feed her more as her ppms go down more now in one day. I.have no life so I check my water ever twelve.hours sometimes more. I dont add chems each time, but I just like to monitor it.