need opinions/advice concerning hydro nutrients

i recently started my first DWC grow and am a little overwhelmed by the huge selection of nutrients and skeptical if they're worth the price which seems a little ridiculous.

In the past i've grown using soilless potting media and pretty much just used Maxi Grow and Maxi Bloom powder from GH and it seemed to work just fine which makes me even more skepitcal that investing in more expensive fertilizer would pay off much in the end. Looking around the hydro store and online all I see is a million different bloom nutes and "boosters" with flashy names and labels but all seem to be slightly different ratios of the exact same shit usually lacking micronutrients.
And then theres supplemental stuff like sea kelp, CalMag, purpleMax, and flower hardner... So i'm just looking for some guidance from you hydro buffs out there. What do you use for veg and for bloom and to what PPM? What do you do for micronutrients? How much did your whole lineup cost? Any input is appreciated especially if you have tried different stuff and seen different results. More specific the better, Thanks

I use hydroton ebb and flow and have used Sensi Grow and Bloom A/B and CNS17, and they both have worked well. I have heard of lots of people using the GH line, though, and this recipe should work well for that: http://www.icmag.com/ic//showthread.php?t=81674

PPM will depend on strain, of course, but I give seedlings nothing but ph'd water for the first week. Then I ramp them up from 100ppm to 300ppm and keep it around there for a little.

Veg is usually 400 - 800 ppm.
Bloom 800 - 1500 ppm.

That's just me, though. Good luck.

I started out with the GH 3 part but have since moved to the Technoflora BC line using thier recipe for success blend. I also add a little H2O2 and Hygrozyme to my mix and have been having very good results so far. You can buy a sample kit for the TF nutes for about 35 USD which comes with everything you need including a little jar of rooting hormone. As to your question about PPM it is important to know what scale people are refering too and what scale you are using. A TDS meter measures electrical conductivity and then converts that reading to PPMs using a conversion scale. There are about 5 different conversion scales used by different manufacturers and there is no standardization. So refering to 500ppm is like saying measure a board to 5. Without knowing if I mean 5 inches, 5 feet or 5 meters then you have no reference on which to base your own mix. Or you can eliminate the confusion and just use EC (electrical conductivity) as that is standard across the board.

I'm thinking i'll just go with GH flora series to keep it simple. I had never heard of hygrozyme but I looked it up and it sounds like a good idea. Still not seeing what makes one line of nutrients better or worse and what accounts for the price difference. Although it is hard to compare price without knowing how concentrated any of this is.
And thats a good point about the ppm conversion. The amount of chlorine and dissolved salt is in your municipal water supply makes a difference too. I guess I just assumed the conversion wouldn't make a huge difference. For bloom i think I'll just get it to 1000 PPM on my meter after micro nutes and see how the plants respond.

anyone else have an opinion?

You need to go up in PPM slowly. Being new to this you could ruin your plants very easily. Go SLOW and keep an eye on those leaves. There's no way I'd go straight to 1,000 ppm going into bloom. Trust me on this.
As far as keeping it simple well that is an excellent idea. One of the ways many people get into trouble are all of these additives. If your fertilizer is complete then why would you be adding things like Big Bud? How come master gardeners won't go near them? You can try Dyna Gro Grow and Bloom and be done with it. It's just the two parts and everything is there so you don't need to add anything. If you do you'll be back here asking what is wrong with your plants. And don't listen to all of the forum rumors that are repeated and repeated again. It's a weed and magic potions are unnecessary. Go read what Uncle Ben here has written. You couldn't want a better person to learn from.