ocnippz - anything like that where the roots are hanging directly in the water - is called a "deep water culture" (or DWC) - I've grown with a system like that for the first few grows... i was new, and i read that was the system that will grow the plants the fastest... and i believe its true, i've never seen plants grow so fast as when i had my DWC system running... BUT it comes at a price... plants in a DWC system are very sensitive, i think its probably one of the most difficult systems to maintain... and i realize you can completely automate it to maintain itself, but there are a lot of variables that can fail and cause a domino effect for everything else to fail...
root temperatures are the most important... you have to run air pumps all of the time, and they pump air that is the same temp as the room through the water 24/7... this pretty quickly raises the water temps... if they get over 72F the water doesnt hold as much oxygen, and bacteria starts to grow on the root system... this is called root rot, if you dont do anything about the temps, your plants wont be big and healthy by the end of flower... you'll be lucky if they make it to the end...
also, you will have to put the air pumps on a batter backup if you lose power frequently... without the air pumping through the roots, they will basically drown, and it wont take long...
they react very quickly to changes in the nutrient solution... it works both ways, if you keep it perfect, they will respond "perfectly"... but if you let it go for 1 day, and the temps are too high, or the nutes are too strong, or an air pump fails - the next day will reveal dramatic changes...
for the care free easy ridin' hydro set up - i'd look at an ebb and flow system... (flood and drain) - and if you got a safe basement, do it big!
peace