For simplicity the Botanicare pure blend pro line are good. It’s a one part grow and a one part bloom, plus their cal-mag is a good product. This would allow for a single part bloom booster giving you a total of 3 bottle so needed when in bloom. You could also use the Current Culture line of nutrients which are ideal in DWC and RDWC systems. They do use a two part growmand bloom however.

Also I noticed you don’t have a fan moving air within the tent. Make sure you have a small (6”-8”) clip fan to keep air moving within the tent.

zurple said:

Ok, I am new here and new to growing. I have the following items and researching which nutes I want to grow with. I am doing 3 5 gallon dwc in a 2x4 tent. I think I have sourced everything to do a start to finish grow in a 1 light setup. Do you see anything I may have overlooked from the list below?

2x4 Gorilla Grow Tent (2' x 4' x 6'11")
Timber 4VL 425w Vero29 gen7 3500k
AC Infinity Cloudline T4 inline fan
Phresh Filter 701003 4x12 200cfm
3 dwc 5 gallon black buckets with 6" baskets
EcoPlus 793 3000 LPH 18w
Vivosun 4x2 air stones
Mechanical timer

What is a good, first time grower nutrient line to use? I want simple 2-3 ingredients.

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I use mega crop with some cal mag. For pk I add some monopotassium phosphate. Or just grab a pk booster if ya like. I find it helps but it's a personal choice as far as I'm concerned. There is a bit more to what I do but that's the simple easy effective version. Mega crop and cal mag if using RO and led...done

The small fans will be added soon. Going to pick up maybe 2 for a 2x4 space?

Smoking Gun said:

For simplicity the Botanicare pure blend pro line are good. It’s a one part grow and a one part bloom, plus their cal-mag is a good product. This would allow for a single part bloom booster giving you a total of 3 bottle so needed when in bloom. You could also use the Current Culture line of nutrients which are ideal in DWC and RDWC systems. They do use a two part growmand bloom however.

Also I noticed you don’t have a fan moving air within the tent. Make sure you have a small (6”-8”) clip fan to keep air moving within the tent.

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Looking into them now, thank you for the fast reply. This community is great!

Aqua Man said:

I use mega crop with some cal mag. For pk I add some monopotassium phosphate. Or just grab a pk booster if ya like. I find it helps but it's a personal choice as far as I'm concerned. There is a bit more to what I do but that's the simple easy effective version. Mega crop and cal mag if using RO and led...done

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zurple said:

The small fans will be added soon. Going to pick up maybe 2 for a 2x4 space?

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Two works. I only use 1 in my 2x4.

I went with the Fox Farm 3 bottle for hydro since I see a lot of folks using it and there is a ton of information on it. I was going to go with General Hydroponics, but was informed they were bought out by Monsanto, so I declined.

Also grabbed a ph and pm tester. My tap water ph is at 7 and my ppm was at 107, so I grabbed some ph up and down solution.

I am going to do a test run with some bag seed from some decent smoke I had, but really want to get some premium seeds for my 2nd run if anyone wants to help out? :) I am going to Colorado in September, so hopefully I can get some seeds while there.

zurple said:

I went with the Fox Farm 3 bottle for hydro since I see a lot of folks using it and there is a ton of information on it. I was going to go with General Hydroponics, but was informed they were bought out by Monsanto, so I declined.

Also grabbed a ph and pm tester. My tap water ph is at 7 and my ppm was at 107, so I grabbed some ph up and down solution.

I am going to do a test run with some bag seed from some decent smoke I had, but really want to get some premium seeds for my 2nd run if anyone wants to help out? :) I am going to Colorado in September, so hopefully I can get some seeds while there.

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First and foremost, if you are looking for seeds look no further, you are on THC Farmer where top quality seeds can be had and you can even get in touch with the breeders directly here.

Grabbing a pH meter and a ppm meter are great, but they are not going to do a whole lot of good for you with those Fox Farm nutrients. The issue with Fox Farm nutes it that they contain a lot of organic materials. Testing solutions made with organic materials will not read accurately. Digital pH and ppm meters use the electro-conductivity of the solution to determine pH; many organic materials have no charge and therefore will not be read by a digital pH or ppm meter. Ultimately yo can never get a truly accurate reading when using a digital meter with organic materials. Nutrients like GH 3-part or Advanced or House and Garden are all mineral salt based; each ingredient in those bottles are in forms that will have a charge and therefore digital meters will be able to accurately determine pH and TDS.

I may be too late with this suggestion, but I wouldn't recommend Fox Farm nutrients for hydroponic uses, even though they suggest you can. If you are doing drain to waste hydroponics they will work fine, so long as you do not leave them in a reservoir. Given you are in DWC, which is its own reservoir, I would highly recommend using a mineral salt nutrient. My main concern with Fox Farm nutrients in a reservoir is that there is a lot of organic material in those nutrients and they need time to decompose before they release their nutritional content. That same material is more likely to rot and cause problems when left in a reservoir. Ultimately I wouldn't recommend using any nutrients that still contain organic material in hydroponic systems that require a reservoir.

On a side note, General Hydroponics was bought by Hawthorne Gardening Company (who also bought out Sunlight Supply), which is a subsidiary of Scotts/Miracle-Gro. However Scotts is not owned by Monsanto. Yes Scotts does all the sales and distribution of Monsanto's consumer goods, which is pretty much limited to Round-Up. So while I never want to support Monsanto, buying GH products does not put money in their pockets, just the pockets of another company willing to distribute Monsanto products. But I assure you, somewhere in your purchases you bought at least one product that was distributed by Hawthorne, it would be tough not to.

Thanks for the information, but I already have the fox farm nutes. The only reason I went with them is that I've seen so many people use them, so I assumed more information on using them would be available. I have watched several grow journals with fox farms in a dwc setup and they seemed to do the trick.

Either way, I am germinating the seeds at the moment. These are bag seeds, so this is going to be a trial run. I can't return the nutes, so this will have to do.

There is soooooo much conflicting information about which nutes to use, so it's a bit overwhelming for a newbie. lol

zurple said:

Thanks for the information, but I already have the fox farm nutes. The only reason I went with them is that I've seen so many people use them, so I assumed more information on using them would be available. I have watched several grow journals with fox farms in a dwc setup and they seemed to do the trick.

Either way, I am germinating the seeds at the moment. These are bag seeds, so this is going to be a trial run. I can't return the nutes, so this will have to do.

There is soooooo much conflicting information about which nutes to use, so it's a bit overwhelming for a newbie. lol

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I have no problem with Fox Farm nutes, I just prefer to use them with either soil or coco, some place where the organic components can break down over time. If you are going to use them in your DWC keep an eye on the reservoir; more accurately keep your nose on the reservoir, if things begin to smell foul or rotten change out your res.

I get that all the information on nutes can be overwhelming but simply mimicking what others have done will not really help you understand any better. It would be best to dive into the science behind how how different systems work and how the macro and micro-nutrients effect plant growth. Grow journals are good starting points, but if you are just copying someone else and not understanding why they are doing things as they are you really aren't going to learn how to improve. I am much bigger fan of written publications as opposed to the internet forums. I am a big fan of Maximium Yield, they are hydroponic focused magazine that has been around for well over a decade at this point. You will get information from professional growers and qualified individuals (people with PhD's and Masters degrees in botany and horticulture) rather than a majority of hobbyists with a random professional sprinkled in.

One last bit on your nutrients; though you have already purchased the Fox Farm nutes I would still recommend getting a better nutreint for hydroponic purposes. If you are looking for something more along the lines of organic nutrients I would recommend the Botanicare line of nutrients. Their Pure Blend Pro series is a very simple line-up and has a one part grow and a one part bloom and just a few additives if you were looking for a boost. If organics isn't too much of an issue for you I would recommend Cultured Solutions and Emerald Harvest. But this is just my opinion, nothing definitive.