Well, I finally have water flowing through all the pipes (and not leaking). It's still a little loud, so I'll be trying to get some rocks or hydroton or something under the 4" L where it drops a foot or so. That's where all the noise is coming from, as expected.
jjohnwm
I was able to get the flow to a place I'm happy with for now.
Unexpected benefit is the bottom 4" pipe leads to a 1.5" reducer so it holds more water than the rest. I can do some nft and some dft
The bottom row should work much better for seed starting and smaller plants. That's my hope anyway.
I got 4 geophagus sveni and 6 silver dollar juveniles, and they're all doing great so far.
As far as plants, I just have some house plant starts growing so far. Will get some veggies started soon hopefully.