Hey there happy 4:20 to you too! Your plants look nice, especially that last photo. I'm not any sort of expert or anything, but with a hydroponic system are you able to check out your roots and make sure there's no rot happening? I expect you could most likely smell it, but I know good root health, clean properly ph'd water are the most crucial elements right? Maybe flushing the water like you mentioned wouldn't be a bad idea.
I'm so sorry you can't maneuver around your setup, its so hard to properly plan out the space and how much room you'll have once they get big. I hope you can manage to get your good defoliation done.
🌎 happy 4:20