New to both the forum and hydroponics...

[mrd05d]

So I am on week three now of a 6 5g bucket (would like to expand to 8) dwc project. I am growing 4 types of tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, and okra. Im using maxigrow and maxical. I do 1tsp of each per gallon of water. I have them in a south facing window and have hung two fluorescent T8's over them. I do have a couple of questions.

1) the starter cubes are turning white and it looks like its being eaten by fungus or mold or something. Is this normal? (the roots look white and normal or what i think normal looks like anyhow )

2) The ph fluctuates pretty heavily within a 48 hour period. I changed out the nutes the night before last and ph was set to 5.5 it was 7.4 this morning. I am using RO water and General Hydroponics ph up and down if needed (only one or the other as ive read its bad to use both) Am I doing something wrong or is this normal fluctuation? The PPMS are staying fairly constant.

3) I am starting to see some curling of leaves and other signs of stress. I have read about a lot of things that could be wrong ie deficiencies and or bugs etc but i am not sure what root rot, blossom rot, burning, or leaf curling looks like.

I'm uploading some pics and maybe from the images you all will see obvious mistakes or signs of stress etc.

Thanks in advance
Marcus