try humboldt county honey hydro carbs for carbo load in conjunction with a silica ( i use protekt) to boost carbs and also avoid weak branching (due to carbo loading)
there's also a way to make your own sweet but i don't know if it's intended for hydro, like the humboldt is.
I had a great run using humboldt honey hydro carb with the protekt, but i think the pro-tekt dropped my pH too much. I'm pretty sure the product "silica blast" raises pH instead, so you could maybe use that instead
to answer the questions directly, yes this is what i use as a sweetener but i find it's necessary to use a silica for strength (to support heavy buds)
what you're doing with the molasses is feeding the microbes, which turn it into carbs (and there's a few other things in blackstrap that are good for your plant)
since hydro doesn't have the same type of medium , the right microbes aren't there to break things down and benefit your plants
a way past that is hydro-specified nutes like i mentioned (sterile reservoir), or using compost teas (beneficial micro organisms, repeated applications)
