Two part question, root trimming and clone question

So I'm running a 6 bucket dwc setup. I'm also doing a soil grow. Well I took a bunch of clones off a soil plant, and I have too many now. I surprisingly got 99% of them successfully rooted. what can I do to keep them alive, without having them grow into monsters while I wait for the ones currently in the dwc to finish? Can I put them in a aero cloner?

The second question is, with roots, can i trim them back? Or is that a bad idea? Like If I have partial root rot on a massive ball of roots, can I go in and thin out the roots? I shouldn't even have root rot, I'm running a chiller, and pond zyme or whatever, and I change the water weekly with ro water. I wish I hadn't even started with the dwc cause it's a pain in my ass to change out 35 gallons of water, especially since i have to carry the water up a set of steps.

Yeah that's why I switched over to aerotube sprayers which use half the amount of water I used to need with DWC totes. Plus root rot issues shouldnt be a concern any longer; though I'm using hygrozyme as well just to be sure. It is a bad idea to trim the roots though it is also possible to extend the life of an existing plant by removing some of the rot but keep on mind this will be to the detriment of the plant overall & will need more time than you are likely to want it to take for recovery to occur. I never tried this but it stands to reason that she will recover from moderate root thinning if time & care is given. In my exp I've never been able to nurse a plant back to health once serious root rot forms but was able to keep her alive long enough to harvest a final time by adding h2o2 and constant res changes. Even the Heisenberg tea only works for a limited time before res goes south...I revegged my girls last time for a total of 3 harvests but by the mid-3rd flowering phase it was apparent they were doomed. Only so much you can do even with lo res temps and bennies. The 2 major disadvantages of DWC grows are root rot issues & pain I the ass res changes.

To answer the problem of too many clones ; not the worst situation to have and I anticipate having a similar issue when my mamas get big enough to start pulling cuts... I've read that some growers keep clones under very low light conditions in a small veg area- you can use led cfl or dimmable hid ballast- need only just enough light to keep them alive without too much stretching... Then when they start to get too big for the small space just top/trim/prune back- or give the clones away to friends in exchange for a few nugs at harvest. If you plan to keep some clones going for an extended period of time put them in soil. Then you can just add them whenever more room in the flower area opens up. Keeping them in the aerocloner will be fine for a short veg but if they need to stay in there longer than say 9 weeks or so I would transplant them to dirt.

I set up troughs to keep extra clones and I feed them with a pump up sprayer using the lighting from the moms. I put a single layer of gravel to set them on and refective plastic cut into squares to protect the roots from the lights.

I had a light rot starting once and thinned them out then sat them in a VERY light solution of bleach water. I know ppl gonna freak out but I did. I sat it in there for about 2 mins, then for the next hr I flushed the entire system with a light bleach water, then regular water, scrubbed all the pots down while the fresh water was in it, emptied again, then fresh solution, everything continued perfectly....

BTW walking the waste water up the stairs? not possible to use a pump? you can by 3/4 inch tubing at the hydro store for $2ft and pump it all out

depending on how long you want/need to wait on those clones, you can put them in stasis in the fridge. just cut the roots off and put them in a gallon zip-lock bag with some water. blow some fresh air in the bag every few days. they're good to go for a good month...