First grow in hydro blooming question

[Thecanman]

I have started my first grow and I tried to mimic the grow thread I found here on GWE and have a few questions as to what I am seeing. I will start off by giving you the setup and go from there

4x4x7 grow tent
315 watt LEC with reflective hood and a 4100K bulb light cycle is 18-6 all the way through because of being an auto flower
6" exhaust fan with carbon filter
3- 10 gallon totes wrapped in insulated foil tape with 5" net pots and Hydoton media
3 small table fans
water pump and air pump with 2 air stones in each tote

Seeds I got from crop king
5 white widow auto
5 lambs breath auto
5 gelato fem
5 sour diesel fem

nutrients:
Flora trio
Calimagic
hydroguard (love this stuff its saved me from root rot early on)
Armor SI ( was told to get this but I have not used yet if someone can let me know if I should be using this)
liquid kool bloom
I do water changes every week and I follow the GWE drain to waste nutrient schedule that I found here and then I add hydroguard and now the liquid kool bloom being in the blooming stage. I have to top off PH water midweek but I don't use any nutrients. I keep the PH level at 5.8-5.9 and I test at dumping of water also

now the story, Feb 14 I germinated 3 seeds via the paper towel method 2 white widow auto and 1 lambs breath auto. Feb 17 The grow started out good but early on I started experiencing root rot but with the help of hydroguard. About 2-3 weeks into the grow I noticed 1 of the white widow had just completely stopped growing but was unsure why, everything was exactly the same as far as lights, nutes and climate goes. I decided to germinate another seed.which turned out to be a rookie mistake because of the timing of the later stages of growth and I only have 1 tent but I will make it work somehow.After about 2-3 weeks the stunted white widow started growing again and almost immediately went to the flowering stage.now I have 4 plants growing.I started LST pretty early on but when we were doing a water change I forgot to take a few of my wires off and broke a couple of branches so i ditched the LST and just decided to go with a traditional grow and no training for my first time.They all seem to be doing well at this time but I do have a few questions

1I am in the flowering stage and have noticed some of the leaves stems are purple what is this?
2When should I be using Armor Si?
3I am concerned should I be using both Kool Bloom and FloraBloom or is this too much?
4Lambs Breath keeps growing towards the light and now I have it all the way up and its only about 6" from the hood will this hurt it and if so what should i do?
5Lambs Breath seems like it is developing small popcorn size buds, am I doing something wrong here or is it just to early and will continue to fill in?
6The white widow settled in nicely and is flowering like I thought it would but it is much more compact but has some browning of leaves at the bottom is this a problem?
7When will I be able to tell when its time to start flushing with PH?
8 I bought a 60x magnifier that attaches to my phone and it works but gives this tunnel vision look when I take a photo. Is there something better?
9 Has anyone used Atami Bloombastic in hydro and is it worth it? Its pretty expensive but I thought I might try it if it makes a noticeable difference
10 If you have any input or advice in hydro I sure would appreciate it

[Thecanman]

[Obi-Wan]

I saw these pics after my comment below. Plants look good!!!

[Obi-Wan]

1. I don’t see any purpling that would concern me at this time.
2. Armor Si is a silica supplement that aids in the plants overall health, resilience, and stem strength. It can also act to stabilize pH in DWC. It is highly alkaline so it should be added first and mixed well when preparing nutrients. As far as when to add it, you’ll get 10 different answers from 10 growers. Some say not to use it in flower and some say using it in flower is fine. The reality is that the plant actually uses very little of what is provided and silica is present in most municipal water supplies in some form or another. In your case I would hold off until your next grow so as not to change too much.
3. Liquid or dry Kool Bloom? I’ve used the liquid up to 15mls per gallon along with flora bloom. You could just bump your flora bloom by about 25% and achieve the same result but you would want to eliminate the Grow from your mix to keep the nitrogen ratio lower.
4. This plant seems like a stretcher, you may want to gently pull the cola off to the side to get it away from the direct lighting.
5. Probably just genetics, hopefully it fills in for you. You could flush the root zone to rule out a nutrient lock out situation.
6. My first checks would be root health and pH. If all is good I would be too concerned unless it spreads fast. Sometimes leaves just die off.
7. Trichomes are the best way to judge. It’s a preference, in general you want to be as close to 100% cloudy as possible for peak potency. In my experience you’ll almost never get all cloudy without 10-15% amber.
8. I like this one. Carson zOrb USB Digital Computer Microscope with 65x Effective Magnification (Based on 21 inch Monitor), Surf Blue https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001GIJZQA..._gt1SCbP69QA2E
9. I’ve not heard of this product, IMO less is more
10. Oxygen is your friend in DWC, your roots want as much oxygen as you can provide in flower.

[Thecanman]

Thank you for your input it really helps. Right now I have 1 dedicated air pump for each tote and 2 4 inch air stones. Would it be advisable to double that or ad more?

[Obi-Wan]

It’s hard to say without knowing the size of the pumps, how much water is in each reservoir, and the temperature of the water. 3 liters per minute for every gallon of water in the reservoir will allow for your water temperature to reach 74-75 F.

[gbauto]

The pair of 4" stones should be plenty provided your pump is capable of moving enough volume. More is better

[Thecanman]

not much in the way of responses I was hoping for but I will ask another question. I am looking to defoliate some lower leaves on my WW she is 3 weeks into flowering so wanted to get some opinions on whether this is a good idea and how much I should do? Thank you for your time

[Obi-Wan]

A good rule of thumb is not to take more than 20% of the leaves at one time. If your WW was mine I’d take 20% starting with any leaves that are laying on top of another leaf. I wouldn’t strictly take from the bottom but concentrate your effort on the lower 2/3 of the plant.