Straight ocean forest? I have good luck with a mixture of pro-mix hp and ocean forest. 2 bags ocean forest to 1 bale of pro mix. Less expensive and with the pro mix being neutral, adding the OF sets a little buffer and provides minimal nutrients for the first 2 weeks of veg. I like to control the nute levels myself and straight OF is packed with nutes. As far as your water goes, do you have an EC meter? Testing the hardness of water is ez with one.. stick it in your water and see what the ppm's are.. my water doesn't even register a reading so i know its "soft". ALWAYS ph your water AFTER you add nutrients to it (duh).
If youre going to use fox farm nutes, the FF schedule is a little too hot so I cut it in half in first month and progress to full by the 7th week of flower,i.e.. 5 gallon bucket of water gets a 2 gallon dose, then 3 then 4 then full... a full dose of week 6, 7, and 8 is only about 980 ppm due to no grow big in there.. grow big adds big ppm's to your mix. Add nutes to water, use truncheon to check ppm's, add more nutes or more water depending on strength you want to feed them, then ph to 6.5 and feed every other watering. Feed, water, feed , water... strain dependent of course.

Initially the cost of the hardware is quite high but you will thank yourself for spending the money.. i did and my first grow was a smashing success. EC meter ( truncheon) is about $140 and digital ph meter is about $80. These 2 things take all the guess work out of your water and nutrient levels.
if you going to go bear, then go grizzly.... spend the money now to avoid problems later. Growing tomatoes is ez once you control the ph.
BTW, using the pro mix ,ocean forest blend... you wont need to add perlite or anything.

peace.
perpetr8r Reviewed by perpetr8r on . First grow... Water quality questions (pH, TDS, Hardness)? Hey guys, So, there's going to be some clones getting planted in the next 2 days. I've done A LOT of research lately on here, a couple other forums, and of course a quick skimming of The Indoor Grower's Bible. I've been doing my research but I've got a lot to learn. So, onto my question. A little background information on growing medium... it will be Fox Farms Ocean Forest 80%, Perlite 20%... and possibly a small dose of lime (1 TBSP per gallon). I've seen differing viewpoints on the Rating: 5