i have a friend that is a crazy conservationalist, he doesnt do hyrdo or smoke at all or anthing, but the reason i mention this is because he had the city water/sewage turned off from his house, and uses rain water that he collects off of his roof, and it's all gravety based and caught in a tank in his back yard, and it all goes through a sand filter that he made himself. i'll ask him about what he used...
i dont know anything about hydro, but it does sound like a cool idea... though sense you are just feeding it to plants, why would you filter it at all, rainwater contains some nutes that you just can't get anywhere else..
shadow