My first DWC grow beginning to turn sour, could use some advice

Got a 400w MH lamp for veg, with a stealth hydro 6 pot DWC tub(6 gallon) that I wanna turn into a cloner later, gonna build a mate for it after this grow.
So we're 4 weeks into veg at the time of these pics. Strains are Berry Ryder, White Widow, and Blue Hash in that order left to right in the front and 2 Purple Cheese in the back. At this point I already topped the Purple Cheese and White Widow because both had 4-5 sets of leaves grown and I wanted em to branch. Theres a fan blowing on the wall nearby to make the air flow inside my attic.

Here's Pictures. They were all such a lovely blue color at this time. This was right after I topped the purple cheese and widow plants.
More recent pictures reveal I nute burned my poor Berry Ryder, which is why I am going to start going by a nute calendar that im goin to do in red sharpie so my smert brain can figure it out better next time. I was following the directions on the bottle for ferts measurement but wasnt keeping tract of the days of the week.
Here's more recent shots with closeups. Anyone else see the nute burns on the leaves? I think it was my own newbiness as I combined half big bloom/grow big for that feeding, as I have seen small calyxes and hairs poking out of my girls armpits.
Also my blue hash plant seems to have stunted growth, its being touched by the breeze from the fan and is kinda growing at an angle as well. Here is a comparison shot of a week from the first shot of the tub.
I know its blurry, blame my phone, I dont care that much about the close detail on this one, just shows the successful topping. that Purple Cheese got big fast

Alright these shots are from the same day, just closeups of other plants. I see tiny nute burns on a lot of leaves, but things are still nice and green, no yellow spots.
White widow holding lots of new leaf growth after the topping. Was I too late? Cause I see calyxes now even in that shot, but thats a couple days after I topped her.
Here's my Purple Cheese being cheesy and splitting itstelf into four cheesetastic colas. Oh for the love of cheese. *drools on shirt*
Here's a shot of my undersized Blue Hash plant, she makes me so sad. She's alone in her cup with no sister on the other side, which I would have thought would mean more light for her, but no. and I see splotches on her leaves at times. Tips burnt.

Alright so the problems I am having are the burnt leaf tips, tiny blue hash plant, hairs showing at 4 weeks on my widow and cheese plants(early, no?) and getting some chunky white buildups on my roots, and they are getting a little tan colored, as well as some tan goop on the edges of my resevoir. I Followed Heisenburg's advice for Brown slime and got prepared, bought the 3 bacteria/fungi blends to make a super aggro algae and goop eating tea. Also took some white paper and covered my rockwool cubes, as I guessed the greenish color is algae building up. Any pro's able to give me some advice to make my chiba as sweet as it can get in this crowded tub? Also, is it too late to bend my plants onto a screen? I dont plan on doing a scrog grow untill next time when my Skywalker OG and Super Lemon Haze seeds get here.(will use 5gal buckets for that one) Thanks for reading

Will take pictures tomorrow to show problems extent. I plan on emptying the resevoir and refilling a couple times to help wash anything gross out before I do the tea. I hope my fears are not correct about brown slime, will take pics of roots in the morning. Also bought a PPM meter from amazon to measure nute content from now on, I dont wanna burn any more leaves.

Yeah the right measuring tools is needed as you can learn a lot about your plants nutrient needs by monitoring it. For instance, water level drops, PPM rises, means too high solution. If PPM dropped it'd mean too low solution. PPM stay fairly constant, you're spot on.

Also high PH fluctuations can signal bacteria growth. So really a PH and PPM monitor are your ears to listen to what your plants are saying.

Your RW looks real bad. I thought mine was bad, haha.

Be careful if you're using tap water before the tea as the chlorine in the water could kill the benes. If your roots are slimey and brown thats not good. If they're just brown and dry feeling they're probably just stained or been let out in the air too much. I know if the water level goes down the air will tan them and sometimes residue from growstones or hydroton will stain them also, some nutes.

Good luck with the tea, I used 15ml aquashield, 1 handful EWC, and 1/8th of a scoop of some great white and let that bubble for 48 hours with a gallon of water. I haven't noticed a difference with or without the stuff. In fact my roots are whiter now that the EWC isn't staining them.

Get a sprayer and spray as much gunk as you can without destroying the roots and then use the tea ASAP. There should never be anything slimey or any buildup on your roots. They should always feel dry and springy, like bean sprouts almost.

yeah I went down to the shed and went and touched the roots, they are a little dry and tan, no slime, there is some sludgey stuff on the side, but I thought it was from my Big bloom ferts, which have poo chunks in it when you shake yum. the water level is about an inch below the net pots. Im having trouble with a hole designed to let the air pump bubble in, it wont let me fill the water level to touch the pots. So I think your right I dont have the slime, I just been letting my water level stay too low.

If I had a good sealant and a second tub to put the plants in, I could take time to clean, disinfect, seal the leak, all before the tea ingredients got here. I'll just let them sit in fresh water tomorrow, and get a second tub so they can drink while I clean the old tub. I can start building the second clone grower then What kind of PPM meter do you reccomend? and I use the strips for PH but would like a good digital one that does PPM too. Whats a non-polluting sealant? I have clear rtv silicone but fear its toxic.

i can tell you from experience that a lot of your problem is that the tote is allowing light in to the roots. hold it up to a light and you can see through it. thats why stealth hydro should be banned, cheap products for super high prices.you need to either change to a better tote like the yellow and black tough boxes, or find the best way to lightproof yours while in use. the white buildup on roots is probably salt from excessive nutes. flush with clearex or other salt remover.
what are your res temps, ppms, and ph?

I get white build up on the sides too if I don't change my res for a few weeks. Sadly i've done this. My roots never suffered. Probably not good though, I think its from light coming in. Cause I never see it if I seal up every crack. Except when I was using the tea i'd get it, but thats normal.

Thats no big deal about the water level. An inch of air won't hurt. Why do you need to seal it? Second tubs are good, I keep a spare 5 gal to put my pots on while I do my res changes/cleanings. Grommets are non-polluting But I wouldn't even bother.

A good ppm meter is a Bluelab Truncheon. I bought the 9813-5 hanna its a combo, does temp, ph, ppm, EC. The 9813-6 is 15 more and has a Calibration Check on it, but they didn't have it in stock when I bought mine I paid 170.

Today you can get it cheaper, but i'd go Bluelab. Truncheon and PH pen on amazon will run you 190 shipped. Worth the investment IMO. I wish I went that route, but at the time the truncheons were like 130 and pens 110, dunno why they dropped so much.

I try to keep my PH between 6.0 and 7.0. I dont have a ppm meter yet (is en route), have been following the fert bottle directions, but went half strength at first. I just stole an aquarium thermometer from my fishtank, about to go measure my temp, its not warm though, have had my hand in it.

Ok, so problems with the lid too then superstoner? maybe duct tape will help? I saw someones box like mine with 3 nets that had duct tape all over. Is it because light shines through the plastic itself or the cracks? And after this grow I plan to get 2 5gal buckets and use these as cloners for a soil mother instead. Also if I decided to say fuck the tub and got black buckets for my plants, would they adapt to the new home and grow bigger?

Heh I'd like to spend that much on a meter, as I enjoy good gadgets, especially hand held. but I went for a cheap $25 one from amazon with just PPM and looked like it could be hit with a brick n still work.

6-7 is too high. You're locking out every nutrient besides nitrogen and magnesium after 6.1

The bottle said that? Are you using hydro nutes? Half strength is too much at first. At seedling stage I give 1/16th - 1/8th nutes when they get 6 inches or so.

oh they were on straight water till 5 inches tall, thats when I introduced half strength fox farms grow big(the bottle doesnt say anything about diluting for first feeding), and it worked fine, no burns at that time man. Should I go down below 6? is 5.5 good? I dont let it go up to 7 really, I go down when it reads 7.

5.8 is the best PH to run most hydro on. At that PH the plant can absorb every nutrient it needs.

cool man, I'll make changes and report in in the morning

Ok woke up this morning and went to lowes to buy an extra tub. girls are sitting in it now, and GOOD LORD it was like I was making bread dough in my res.
Cleared it all out with hydrogen peroxide solution and then rinsed. had to sorta wash the roots too, they had buildups on them that was nearly white, kindof a tan color. Was as gentle as if I was shampooing a baby's hair.
Gonna let them sit in the fresh water that I let air out overnight under the grow lamp. What can I do to promote better root growth? I saw fox farms has a 'root drench' to help them proliferate, does it work well? I may use that instead of veg ferts for a week to see if I can get a better root cluster.

Question of the day, will dried Clear RTV Silicone used to seal a leaky grommet pollute my water?
I used Permatex Clear RTV which
Resists oil, water, vibration, grease and weather, with a temperature range of -75F to 400F

I usually use it to seal roofs on old vehicles or on the connection between the intake manifold and the radiator hose mount.

Feeding the proper nute dosage at the right PH so the plant can absorb all nutrients is all I do and I have bushy roots.

I've used mycos before and aquashield. Some people swear by aquashield.

Well good, I have a quart of aquasheild on the way. It's part of Heisenburg's Tea. I feel better after seeing that permatex is water resistant, I mean that is what I use it for on automobiles, just didnt know if it would spread some noxious chemicals after it dried. I really cant wait for my next grow, gonna just be 2 plants in 5gal bucket.

Anyways, I hope this flush of the resevoir will help alot. I want to leave the water clean for a week maybe? No ferts till I've innoculated the resevoir. They should make a recovery correct? I was having curling leaves and edge burn but no leaf deaths.

I realize my initial choice of tub is whats gonna limit my plants the most, next time will be much better. I think the best use of this six pot tub, after being covered with duct tape, is to be a clone grower, like so you have 4 with each at different light periods.

Here's a couple pics of the work today, and also the extent of the leaf burn. All the burn was on my two smaller plants.

why go to all the trouble of brewing a tea? i little bit of pondzyme every 4-5 days and roots will love it. $15 and all you have to do is open it and use it.

Dang, wish I had done that before I bought $30 worth of tea supplies.
Good news is girls are sitting in fresh water with minimal nutes, just a quarter dose of grow big till I get my ppm meter in.
their fan leaves perked up and stopped drooping within an hour. I feel like such a bad parent.

they shall be green once again! No more yellows or brown!

Update edit: gonna get two buckets to start with and let my smaller plants take over the multi tank.