hey - I actually think that hydro can be forgiving too if you catch it in time, cause I messed up my first hydro by putting nuts on too young of plants and burned them(best to wait till about three weeks before you start light nutes) - generally, if you see something wrong, fix it immediately... and you will see pretty quickly if you did the right thing or not. I am still basically a stranger here too mainly just because I didn't post much .. but I read a LOT of threads and the FAQ several times over the last 6 months. if you haven't yet, read and learn what to do, cause everything you need to know to get started is here. Also, you can get by on the cheap, so put your money in the lights. Lastly, I got like a $20+ PH meter and it worked just fine, you def need one of those... I didn't use a TDS meter, but might have benefited some if I had. Good luck and keep us posted on how things go.
Veer