DWC question

I am a new grower and in soil right now. I am thinking about doing 2 stand alone DWC next time around. I don't know a whole lot about it and was wondering what the cost of maintenance is for just 1 DWC 5 gal bucket. I know you can buy a full setup for like $50 but how many nutes do you end up using through the course of 1 grow in 1 5 gal bucket? I know the cost varies from different companies but on the average under a 400 watt mh/hps setup how many nutes do you think?

You can get a starter kit of technaflora for around $30 and will do a complete grow.

general hydroponics, micro, gro and bloom, thats all you need. NASA uses them, well, used them when they had $$ to fly into space.

But how much of the nutrients are you using through out the whole grow? Is it 1 liter/1 gallon/ other? Just trying to get a ballpark estimate.

I use dutch master advanced and keep Epsom salts for mag supplements and Plantation organic blackstrap unsulphered molasses for other trace minerals and calcium.

I start with 1/8 strength at seedling stage. Then slowly build up to richer concentrations. Careful to watch my ppm making sure the ppm do NOT rise which signals that iam over feeding and the plant is drinking more water than food. You want your ppm to stay the same or slightly drop which signals that the plant is getting equal amounts of food and water.

If you don't have a ph/ppm meter, I would get one for hydro.

Any suggestions on a reasonably priced ph/ppm combo meter? Or would it be cheaper to buy them individually? I see a bunch of different meters out there and theres always so many mixed reviews. I just want something accurate but simple, and if its a combo i'm trying not to spend over $80

The hanna combo 8189 has been awesome for me. My only complaint is that the ph readings are a little Slow.