Originally Posted by Bella

What exactly are you going to be growing??

It is recommended to put nutes in the water, since plain water doesn't have all the needed nutrients for plants to grow.

My grow is more of an experiment. I've never done anything with hydroponics before. Because of this, I did not want to necessarily go out and buy extra nutrients,lighting, etc. If I was more of a serious grower, I would definitely invest in better lighting and nutrients.

I used a small amount of just regular all purpose 10-15-10 liquid fertilizer. It is meant for soil, but it didn't seem to harm the plants at all. I didn't do this until my plant was 5 days old (check out the pics from day 5 to see the size of my plant)

Fertilizers meant for soil usually use Urea/Ammonia as their source of nitrogen. When this is used in soil-less grows it tends to do more harm then good for the plants, as they cannot use the nitrogen effectively. I believe the ammonia can also disturb the PH balance of the water.

If you are taking your grow seriously, and want to most out of it... I would suggest getting a fertilizer meant for hydroponics. This will allow proper nutrients for your plants. Someone at a hydroponic shop should be able to help you.

Hope this helps!