Another good way to get started with hydro would be the way I origanally got into it. I had always used soil and my first hydro experience was a cloneing system that I built. I would keep mother in dirt and clone her children in the little hydro system, root them and veg them in there for 2 to 3 weeks total then transplanted to dirt and then bloomed. Well it didnt take to long for me to want to do it all with an ebb & flow hydro system because I was just so happy with how sucessfull and nice the rooting/growing was in that little cloner. I could just make my clones and toss them in there and forget about them for a couple weeks which I thought was awesome, however now that I am blooming in hydro I dont like to go more than 2 or 3 days without checking on them because my 18 blooming plants can use up 20 gal or more of water in that time.
That "learning curve" I had mentioned before isn't as big a deal in this case either because you have mom plant in dirt and on veg cycle lighting and can get more clones if for some reason the current batch all die. So yeah this is a good way to get started with hydro. I use a fishtank filled 4in deep with hydroton this is covered to keep the humidity, however my system required me to have to drill holes in glass which isnt easy and I also use a repeat cycle timer to run a seperate pump for the cloner there are by far better/easier ways to do it now days. Those EZ-cloner systems they sell are easly reproduced in a D.I.Y manner with a plastic storage tote, sprayers, pump, net pots, neopreme covers, etc and this is where I would get started if I were to do it all over again.
I suppose useing coco fibers would also be a way to get started with hydro except your still going to be hand watering it like the dirt except now you have to add the micro neutirents as well.