Bet he figures it out though....
Sorry to hear about your plants, I had to throw out my whole grow late last fall, just made to many mistakes on them, plus bad timing on my part. Finally got my present grow going good again, after light and wind burning the shit out of them, and a bunch of nutrient deficiency's.
Maybe try a small soil grow with some Auto's and soil. I tried Hydro when I was a kid, and I just couldn't make it work, started out great, and stuff just got off, and all died, ended up realizing that I'm a soil grower. Have grown so many great plants since, and had plenty of disasters to. Love it though, and wouldn't trade it for the world! I have learned some cool stuff even when things failed on me.