smoke24answered grow question 4 years ago For germination you want your lights at about 30 inches from the soil. An auto watering system may make your life harder in the long run, your settings are going to have to change quite frequently as the plant grows and uses more and more water. Add to that the fact that you should be feeding plain water every after every one or two feedings....so you'd have to change out your reservoir fairly frequently, for only a few plants its far easier to hand water, easy to make adjustments that way also. But thats just my opinion. Happy growing.