so I want to put as many potted plants under lights using DWC methods. Should I stick with individual buckets or should I got to multi potted containers such as rubbermaids? I have 17 air hoses with air stones that I can run. What is my best bet at running a good DWC setup, 17 individual buckets or like 12 individual and a few rubbermaids that can hold 4 each?

looks like your gonna have a kick ass setup i would recommend using seperate buckets so you can space them as needed when they bush out. i had the same question and ended up doing both but eventually had to transplant the multi-spot containers into individual buckets and it was a lot easier after that. you'd really be suprised on how big you can get each to get if its got enough room to thrive. good luck, i'm sure you'll have awesome results

4 plants under each light in 5 gal buckets each.

Ok so I have got my setup figured out I just need a few pointers of advice on exact numbers and sizes.

in a 7x7 foot area I want to do either a 8,10 or 12 bucket DWC

Should I use 10 gallon buckets instead of 5 gallon because I have both? Bigger plants?

Its going to be under two 1000 watt hps lights and I might add a 400 watt hps.The walls have mylar and vented reflectors.

The plan is to grow 12 HUGE female plants that fill up the area completely and yield 6 oz's each. Or 10 plants that yield 7 oz's, or 8 plants that yield 8 oz's each.

I could also build a HUGE SCROG over top to maximize yields too right?

Like I said, 8 buckets. No, a 10 gallon bucket will not increase your grow any unless you get root bound in a smaller bucket. Which you won't. You can even do 3 gallon bucket.

Your area though is actually too big. For your two lights ideally it would be 8 x 4, so go with 7 x 4.

You know I would seriously consider a larger res and plumb that to your buckets. Ph is easier to maintain in 1 large res than 8-12 seperate buctets. Also consider res changes...you want to haul 8-12 buckets somewhere to change res or hassle with getting them out of the area while the other HUGE ones are in there? Also what will you do with the plants that you take out to change the res when they are huge? Just things I never thought of when I set up my 12 bucket DWC system. Hope this helps, and by the way it will work great just a lot of maintanance.

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Peace

you just water them with progressively stronger nutes until 10 days before harvest, then you can do a bucket change to straight water and continue topping up and doing bucket changes.

its a hastle but you only have to do it at the end when you harvest so its not that bad.

You may run the risk of nute build up by just topping off. How do you know what nutes have been uptaken and which ones haven't? You will see a huge difference by changing out your res every week or two. Especially with DWC I find that my plants look amazing after the res changes with surges of flowers. Just my opinion.

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Peace

I agree; unless you have the means and desire to test for relative levels of your various fertilizer components (about $30-$50 per sample, per compound, plus usually a 2 week turnaround time at a water lab) once every couple weeks, you are shooting yourself in the foot by not changing out the res. As PHJ noted, your plants will use ferts at different rates, and you have no way of knowing WHAT exactly is making up your xxx ppm number... Save the headaches! It's easy!

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