I just starting useing hydroponics and i was curious how the nutrients work and what the ph balance has to be for hydproponis.i have a deep water culture and i have the ph balance at 6.0-6.5 now do i still need nutrients and does it affect my ph balance.?
Also if u use a color ph tester instead of a meter u may get inaccurate results after adding the nutrients . For your nutrients start off with a 1 part or 2 part. And also since u are running a dwc make sure that it is recalculating or your plants have a high chance of root rot, if not recalculating i would recommend hydrogen peroxide a drip or two in each reservoir(not the 3% from the pharmacy get the 29%)
Since this is your first grow I would just follow the nute schedule from the nute manufacture you are using. You will need to completely change out your solution on occasion. Again, after you have some experience this will be easier to figure out but at first you could do it every week or so. After your roots get long enough to reach the bottom of the buckets you can drop your nute levels in the buckets so you don't need to use as much but then you will need to change them out more often.
I would suggest using an air stone in your bucket and adding nutrients lowers your PH. Most companies have mixing charts that tell you what the combo of their nutes PH will be. Save yourself time and money by using the same nute/water for the veg phase. It's really the flowering phase where you want to change your water and add fresh nutes once a week. “Live as a villain, die as a hero” ― Banksy, Wall and Piece. http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-grow-journals/1153436-cancer-sucks-organic-grow.html
Read my simple dwc thread in my sig. It has lots of great info for DWC beginners. My buckets swing from 5.4-6.4 which is explained in my thread.
nutrients work by gettin all up inside the plants shit and being like "yo plant wudup?!? im all up inside you and shit!"