i use GH flora series as well and to tbh ive been using the full recommended dosage and sometimes more and have not seen any problems and 3 weeks from seed they are looking perfectly ok except they got stunted for some time due to root rot issues during the first two weeks which were solved with some gold old scrubbing and DM Zone. Just recently i found out about Lucas Formula though and I think at the next res change i will start using that formula. Its (Grow-Micro-Bloom/ ml) 0-5-10 for veg or 0-8-16 for flower i believe. it bypasses the use of Grow altogether. apparently you dont need it at all. just remember the formula is basically a 2:1 ratio of bloom and micro, with bloom twice as much as micro. For some time I was winging it with some Ph strips, and then for a week I had no way tto test the Ph, but luckily once i did get my Ph meter like yesterday i tested my res water and it had not passed 6.1. I never have used a ppm meter although next grow i might if this grow goes anywhere near as planned. i think its good to use your plants natural ppm meter, a.k.a. its leaves and the speed of growth. you'll learn a lot about your plants. Try lucas formula in smaller doses, and try to keep an extra jug of the nutrients so you can top off the res everyday or whenever its necessary. I notice my plants drink up a good amount mostly during the night and into morning, so i top it off when i wake up with a solution that has higher concentrations of nutes. for example lets say i had that 0-8-16 in a 1 gallon res, i would have another 1 gallon res with 150% the concentration so it would be like 0-12-24. idk if that is a good idea but to me i think its good to keep the "topping solution" at a higher concentration so as to make up for any deficiencies in nutes as well progressively exposing the roots to higher doses of nutes.