Hello Kendall
What ever medium you use just make sure it's sterilized with a 10 percent bleach solution or you can boil your medium in water for about 20 minutes to sterilizes it.
The reason we use a submersible
pump in the
ebb and flow gardens is because when the pump shuts off the
nutrient solution that was pumped up to the garden has to drain back through the pump to the tank.
But with the top
drip system that you want to use you can use a regular pump that sits outside of the tank because the water doesn't need to drain back through the pump. You still have to have a return back to the tank for the solution.
Just because it says water soluble on the fertilizer doesn't mean you can use it for hydroponics. It should say on the fertilizer bag that it can be used for hydroponics.
You can make what we call organic tea by filling a barrel with water and your favorite animal crap.
Let it ferment for a few months. Stir it up every few days and take a big whiff to see how it's coming along. It helps if you don't have any close neighbors.
Ron