Newbie advice: Should I RDWC or keep it simple?

I'm just setting up my first grow room. Just ordered the Plant Photonics 140W panel and will grow just a couple of plants under it, then expand out to two panels once I can afford another one.

I'm growing in a completely sealed attic room about 5.5ft square with a sloping ceiling going from 6ft gown to 2ft, so I reckon 4 plants will be enough in this space. It will also be completely tanked out with builders plastic up to 6 inch all round so no chances of leaks into downstairs.

I have a water tap into the room, and a place right next to it to dump any old water. I'm quite techie and can do all household plumbing/general DIY etc, so will be building a home made hydro set-up. We've not grown weed before but my other half is very green fingered and is an expert orchid grower!

So the question is are we being over ambitious thinking of going RDWC for out first set-up? We want a good efficient system that we can leave for a few days at a time when we go away for weekends. I'm happy to learn all about it and build a system, but if people on here think we would be better with a more basic hydro set-up to start with then that's what we'll do.

One more thing, the videos I've watched don't seem to talk about seed to small plant stage - how does this work with DWC systems?

And if you do think this is quite possible for us can you point me in the direction of some good 'How To' videos?

K.I.S.S. simple dwc buckets are so much easier to start and maintain.

I would go with DWC buckets if you wish to grow different strains. RDWC is better in my opinion, much easier to maintain, but it restricts you to one strain. Here is a picture of the RDWC system I built. Good luck to you.

If you aren't a complete idgit, research things, and can stay away from a lot of the voodoo and concentrate on the basics: I'd say go for it if RDWC is what you want to do. Especially if your other half has general plant growing knowledge. If it's just an experimental thing you aren't too sure you'll be doing long then yeah, maybe regular DWC buckets would be a good introduction without as much expense. But RDWC is actually a bit easier and convenient than independent buckets in exchange for the added cost. But the moral of the story would be that I don't think there's a good reason to put the time and resources into starting with DWC buckets and then setting up a RDWC system if you know you are in it for the long-term.

For the seed through seedling stage, there's a lot of ways to skin that cat. Other than generally recommending starter plugs as opposed to rockwool, it's hard to really comment without knowing more specifically what you might want to get more info about (lighting, nutrients, etc...?).

IMO RDWC is the easiest, but separate DWC buckets will keep a problem isolated if one should arise like a pH problem or the dreaded SLIME. If you need to cool the solution, RDWC will let you cool all the solution with one chiller, separate buckets will be a bit harder. If you decide to go DWC or RDWC I would recommend running Aquashield or another beneficial bacteria additive to avoid the slime.

I'd use Botanicare's Aquashield and ZHO, which is the company's beneficial bacteria. Works well for me.

About time I've been looking for the seed to seedling process for DWC. I just made 2-5gal DWC buckets myself and I'm looking into nutrients, medium, and the best way to get the whole thing started. I'm a newb so it's been a bit overwhelming with all the info and different opinions it be nice just for a simple unbiased answer on these things