Sorry to hear the
led panel wasn't what was expected. They often tell you that they put out enough light to replace a specific wattage MH or
hps, but I have never herd anyone who has bought one agree. They always wind up needing to spend more money on lighting to compensate. I like the way you built your
cfl lighting, although to be honest, I don't think that is going to be enough light output for much more than small seedlings. When using Florescent (
CFL included), it isn't the the replacement wattage that matters, it's the actual wattage.
In other words you may have 2 cfl
bulbs that replace 100 watt regular bulbs, but their actual wattage is probably something like 20 watts each. For a total of 40 watts. So in comparison if they were placed close enough to the plants (because with florescent the light intensity drops much quicker than with HID) they would be similar to a 40 watt MH bulb (not a 200 watt MH/HPS bulb). I have a brand new package of cfl's in front of me and they are 60 watt replacement bulbs, but use only 15 watts. So I would have something like an equivalent to a 30 watt MH. That wouldn't be able to grow much of anything other than to provide some light for seedlings.
I had a similar problem with with the first air stones/tubes I bought. They were the straight round ones that looked neat, but like yours they quickly clogged and I couldn't clean them out. So in the trash they went. Though I haven't had any problems or issues with the regular square stone ones. You really should use a air stone because it defuses large air bubbles into tiny ones. A bunch of tiny air bubbles is a lot better in a water culture system. There's a lot more surface area of air bubbles, and that's needed for the oxygen molecules to be absorbed by the water. I got mine at wal-mart in the pet supply's (next to the fish tanks), and ran about $1.60 each ($2.50 for the large ones). But they sell them any ware they sell pet supply's for fish.