Wow, sorry your thread is so full of dickbags,
@tookablunts . Seems they'd rather spend more time slinging shit than it would take to answer a few questions.
I'll try to give you the best answers in general terms as I can. Keep in mind, your results may (probably will) vary. Your environment is yours alone, and you'll learn to deal with it. Nobody can give you specific answers for your environment, but we can give you general guidelines.
Kudos to you for jumping in head first, and trying one of the more feared cultivation styles from the get-go! (It's not actually as scary as most make it out to be.)
Now on to all those questions...
1. Yes, with RDWC,you generally feed with a new reservoir filling, and top off with plain water as it drops, until it's time for a rez(reservoir) change. You'll top off with plain water so that nutrient concentration doesn't build up between rez changes. How often you change the rez will depend on your specific environmental conditions, and how often you want to dump water and nutes.
2. No, don't mix your nutes all together before adding to your rez, if that's what you meant by "like a cocktail".
I turn the circulation pump on while I'm adding nutes, to keep everything flowing . Add all nutes and additives to circulating system.
Generally, you want to add your silica supplement first. A lot of times, it doesn't mix well after adding certain lines of nutes. Bonds to certain elements, causing them to fall from suspension.
Next, add beneficial bacteria, if you're running a live system.
Next, add root conditioners, SM90,etc...
Then add your nutrients to the levels you want.
Last, add you pH up or down to target ph
3. Your ph should be between 5.5 and 6.0 for hydro. 5.5-6.5 for hydro or soil generally, but they'll survive from 5 to 7at least. Keep in mind, every .1 difference is 100x more concentrated, if I remember correctly.
On a digital ec/ppm meter, there will usually be two scales: 500 and 700. Most people seem to use the 500 scale, which converts pretty easily to ppms. i.e. 500ppm = 1.0ec. The 700 scale isn't much harder, but I don't remember it offhand.
So, your ph should be 5.5-6.0 throughout. Now, your ppms/ec needs will vary through phases of life, and especially with different strains, if you've got a wide variety. A sativa or more tropical strain will require less food than a mountainous indica strain, in general. If you're running modern poly-hybrids like most though, they should probably be in the same ballpark, foodwise. Now, if you're using some new school LED lights rather than HPS or MH, your nutrient needs will be a bit higher as well, regardless of strain.
That being said, here are some approximate guidelines for ppms in different phases of life:
Seedling / Unrooted Clones: ~1/4 suggested strength, about 100-300ppm
Established seedlings / rooted clones: ~1/3-1/2 suggested strength, about 3-500pmm
Teens / Preflowers: ~1/2-3/4 strength, about 5-700ppm
Early Flower w1-3:Flower nutes may be different, depending on brand used. Early flowering is usually same or slightly higher than late veg. Appx 700-1000ppm
Mid Flower w4-6: 500-1000ppm
Late Flower: w7-8: 300-700ppm, if strains run more than 8wks...top off with water only, if 8wk strains.
**You may need slightly more nutes, if running RO water, as well.
4. As a newbie, it's not a bad idea to get into the habit of monitoring your system to keep things in check. You probably don't need to check twice a day as suggested, but I would recommend once for sure, just to get into the habit of checking things out, and watching the pattern of how the plants feed, and what happens to ppm and ph. As you get comfortable with your system, you'll probably check less often, and only when you need to.
5. Yes, too many nutes for any stage of life can be dangerous, but if you follow the general guidelines above, you should be fine. Give unrooted clones, or seedlings, ~1/4 strength or ~100-300ppm of nutes.
6. This question should probably be answered in your mind, before asking most of the previous questions, really. There are tons of different nutrients out there, and you'll probably end up trying a few before settling on one you like. I've always been a fan of simplicity, and for the last few years, I've been using the Ionic line, which is a 3 part, liquid solution.
Always striving for simplicity, however, I'm about to try out some Greenleaf MegaCrop. From what I've been reading on the threads, everyone who's chimed in is happy with their results, and it's a 1 part powdered solution with just about everything you need. Same stuff from seedling to finish, just in different amounts. The fact that they're literally giving the stuff away doesn't hurt. You can always get 230 gram sample for free, with shipping (~$3)...but right now they're giving away 1000g until at least 4/20. Shipping here for 1000g was ~$6.50.
I recommended this nutrient to a new patient based on simplicity, but more importantly, others apparent results.
I hope this has helped answer some of your questions. Let us know how the build goes, and if there's more details you need straightened out...