You got this man. Weed is so damn resilient it's incredible. I understand why you're keeping them for now, but it would be so hard for me to not remove those first node leaves. Lmao. Just unsightly as you say. But UP. Yay. I don't know hydro, but I lean towards the light adjustment theory at least to some extent. I find the young plants take longer to adjust to stuff like that (big environmental changes) than more established plants. But it seems at least you're headed the right direction. Good stuff. Way to hold out. It would have been easy probably for you to just throw in the towel on these guys given how many plants you have and you could start new ones.**Quick DWC Update**
Morning folks. Just stopping in with a quick note on the dwc buckets, I'll get another full update done tonight.
I checked on the bucket plants this morning before work and it appears we have some more movement from the leaves. The lower sets of leaves (although very unsightly) on both plants are starting to lift off the bucket lids! Another step in the right direction I'd say. The node growth is still pushing out nicely.
Not much difference in the upper set of leaves since last night. Bucket 2's top set is still nice and green, hoping they will perk back up soon. Bucket 1 is just full of deficiencies or so it looks, new growth looks good. Let's hope it slows down as they get back on their feet.
We may never know exactly what it was as there were a few changes during this time. The biggest 2 being the new light with its intensity and possible damaged roots from too much turbulence in the res. I'm leaning more towards the turbulence, I will have to experiment in the future. Anyways, here's a few pics from this morning.
no worries fuzzy, I will have a dirt update later when I'm home from work. I didn't get to it last night, long day.
That’s actually the same exact air pump I run (different color lol) but same specs and everything... even have the long air stones. I love it, never had a problem tearing my roots up but everybody’s system is different, so I can see situations where that would be too much airflow, like if your roots are underdeveloped, suffering from a mold or disease, or just a generally unhealthy plant and/or roots would hinder its ability to recover. It’s always worked very well for me though, big strong healthy roots and the pump has lasted a long time so no complaints here. interesting to see this nonetheless and led me to a bunch of great articles 
