and if its just drinking water what do you do?
When my PPM shoots up, that tells me that the plant is drinking but not eating. So I top off with water which dissolves the nutes level back down. PPM (parts per million) is just a way of expressing TDS....Total Dissolved Solids. When I check the next day, I compare the PPM from where I left it. If It goes down, then I know the plant was eating more than drinking and I then top off with a batch of nutes I have sitting in a gallon jug. If the PPM stays the same, then I know that the plant is drinking and eating (which is what you want) and I top off with a combination of water and the nutes I have in the gallon jug.
IMO, having a TDS meter is critical to doing hydro. You can get pretty accurate meters for about $15 bucks on Amazon or Ebay. PH meters are good to have too, but you can also check your PH with the solution drops (and these are good to have to check against your digital PH meter if you have one of those).
I keep my water level just below or right at the bottom of the net pot. Every 24 hours I check it, and without fail the water is down 3-4 inches.
I am a new grower, but Bigz2277 is telling you the right things and he helped me on my first. Others around here like BigBuddaCheese will tell you the same things and I really developed this technique after looking at his grow and asking him questions. Before, I would just swap out my Bucket on a weekly basis and not worry about PPM.