what size bucket to use for dwc

I am giving each plant its own resevoir. I plan on vegging for over two months under a 1000w mh I want these girls to get huge 5-6ft. so I know that plant size depends on how big the root structure can get/reach so what size bucket will be big enough for each plant to attain 5-6ft. Im thinking either 3gal or 5gal buckets. what do you think? any help is much appreciated. also I will be using a 30w commercial airpump split 6-9ways to each bucket. would a pump like this be big enough to supply enough air to this many plants?

I have grown 3 6ft plants in a res with 6 gal of water. But if I were you, I'd use the 5 gal bucket with about 3.5 gal of water.

I use a 30 gallon air compressor.

and a 5 gallon bucket with one gallon of water, the level comes to the top of the bucket when I turn on the compressor

awesome thank you guys for responding. I will use the five gallon buckets like you said. Im not sure how many gallons that air pump I looked at will handle it just said it was a 30w. If you said the your air pump brings the level up to the top of a 5 gallon bucket that kind of concerns me cause my clones will be in rockwool surrounded by hydroton and I read it is not good to have the rockwool constantly wet is this true?

The size of your air pump depends on how many of these 5gal buckets you're going to use. Use one of those "air bubble disks" in each bucket. here's a link:
http://www.aquariumguys.com/bubbledisc2.html

If you had say, 6 buckets, each with a bubble disk, then your air pump would prob work quite well.

mmjp1 said:

awesome thank you guys for responding. I will use the five gallon buckets like you said. Im not sure how many gallons that air pump I looked at will handle it just said it was a 30w. If you said the your air pump brings the level up to the top of a 5 gallon bucket that kind of concerns me cause my clones will be in rockwool surrounded by hydroton and I read it is not good to have the rockwool constantly wet is this true?

Click to expand...

lol I said 30gal air compressor it was a joke though. can you imagine? using an air compressor instead of an air pump those things can put out 80-120psi of air you would need like 60 air stones just to handle all the pressure and the amount of bubbles would be insane.

just use 5 gal buckets and ur good bro!!

I will use 5 in air stones like you suggested. Do you guys think my rockwool will get wet with the pump I want to use and is it gonna be a problem if my rockwool is constantly wet. Sorry for all the questions im learning slowly.

Read the link below on how much bubble action you need and how to adjust it.

would i be correct in thinking the only reasons to use smaller than larger is you can get away with a smaller pump and don't have to use as many nutes. or is there actually a "performance" reason? i've got a pair of 40L (8.8 gallon) so was contemplating filling the bottom with stuff (stuff would most likely be lots of china from the kitchen as that's nice and sterile and such )

man i thought you were serious about the air compressor, i was wondering how many times a day it would kick on and shit. i have a few compressors one has a pretty big tank...its crossed my mind before lets just put it that way.