Smart thinkin Doco ,
I thought the same thing too , i dyed the farms themselves w/ red food coloring and recirculated the system and it took 20 min. to draw all the red outa the farms and replace it w/ clear water from res.
Keep in mind the more you tie these thingz together the harder they are to rearrange n move around as the plants devolop .
also man set up entire system w/o plants or nutes n run it for a day to see if theres any probs . I dont use the top half of my controller either . The float valve lets water transfer from top to bottom so slowwwwwwwwww . be careful w/ the big pump .
Peace
your cuz
Xcrispi