Airstone hoses suck. A pump works, but it creates more heat than a wave maker. I use a wave maker, but there are dead spots where the nutrients collect while mixing. I'm using dry salts though.
When I first started growing I was mixing in a bunch of 5 gallon water cooler jugs. It was a headache because of the narrow lip, so I invented a mixing rod that could fit down inside by attaching an arrow into a hand drill and using zip ties as the blades on the rubber fletching side. If a zip tie breaks I just throw another on it. I started with kids arrows, but upgraded to adult arrows once I bought a 30 gallon res. It works great.