The hydroton doesnt look too wet to me. How often are you feeding? The plants dont look too bad though.
I've had some issues getting the feeding schedule right. Seems like I need to starve em just a little to let the rockwool fully drain.
Are you putting your clones in blocks prior to be put into the hydroton? If not..then that may be your problem, The hydroton is not giving your plants the stability they need and will need.I seen in one of your pics that it looks like you are just using the clone slab blocksand just cut them and stuck them into the hydroton. Try sticking them into a 4 inch block then into thehydroton.. more stability.
I just moved em to blocks. I think since the net pots are low and full of, well, nets, holes. Water drains right out. The right way to do this in an ebb&flow table would be to use the square 4" or 6" buckets, that only have slots on the bottom for slower drainage. I went with these round baskets cuz I was trying to devise a way to successfully veg them to get em ready to go into 5 gallon buckets with 6" net pot lids, doing a R-DWC system. First time around still working out the kinks.
Someone else told me also that because the pots are low, when they flood, the hydroton tends to float, and rearrange it self, which doesn't let the roots really grab hold and actually damages them. My roots have been getting beat up. I have recently changed em around a bit. I empied the net pots, put just a single layer of hydroton on the bottom, and filled either with the rockwool cubes (croutons) or just used the Medium 4" blocks, and then just covered the tops a bit with more hydroton to hold in moisture and keep light off the rockwool, to avoid algae.
How long and how often are you watering for? Try less water...
Now I'm down to once every 24 hours.
What is your humidity in your grow room?
Been trying to keep it steady. My current Max/Min is 62%/37%, not quite ideal.
I use the same system, but instead of buckets I just use 6" rw cubes and fill the whole tray with hydroton up to the top of the overflow drain. I flood for 3 minutes 3 times a day. Once when the lights go on, once in the afternoon, and once before they go off. May not be the right way, but it works for me.
Of course man! Yea, I did that for a long time. They grow great in these systems in the 6" cubes, but I got sick of working with rockwool year after year, and tired of being itchy and tossing all that crap away crop after crop. I wanted something safer to handle and breathe and reusable, so I was put onto Hydroton. I've had great results with the hydroton in the 5 gallon bucket DWC systems. I just can't seem to get down a great way to vegg to get em ready for those buckets!
