What size reservoir do I need?

Just about to get my first room going and shopping around for all the components.

I'm going to start small with a 2x2 tent. I've seen a bontanicare 2x2 tray so I figure I can get 4 plants going in there - what size reservoir will I need for that size tray/plants?

If anyone could recommend a good site for supplies that would be excellent too.

Thanks!

Hey man!
In a 2x2 you could fit ( tightly ) 4, 5 gallon buckets
In there, and just run bubble buckets.
Or a 20 gallon res. you could look at
Greners. I order from them because I have my order
Within 48 hours to southern Cali. I have also ordered from HTG they have good
Deals too. Lots of good places, those are just my only experience.

home depot sells a black rubbermaid tote with a yellow lid that works well. Holds ~25 gallons. $15.

Thanks!
I just saw this on ebay, would the 4 pot option work for me? I'm used to the tray/reservoir version.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/18-Gallon-Hydroponic-Grow-Systems-DWC-/260833093788?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item3cbadd289c

You could probably find better, cheaper options.
Idk. Black buckets, and black net pot lids each set for like 10 bucks.
Air pumps, stones, hose. ?

Cool, I'm a noob and appreciate all the info.

So, considering the size of this tent/room - would a filter with a good CFM take care of most of my odor worries or would I still want to duct to the outdoors?

Idk? I have never used a filter, but I mostly grow outdoor.
Unless you are in an apartment, or trying to hide it from
Roomates, I'd Skip it. You probably won't have much room
For a filter in a 2 x 2. But a good fan for sure.

I dont like the idea of using DWC if you cant get an external res to cool, or your room never gets up to 75*. The biggest problem with that method is high temps that lead to bacteria problems. So if you cant control that, I would personally suggest another method probably E&F or DTW. And I love my dwc setup, I just hate to see people not know the most common problem with it is something they usually arent ready to deal with.

If you do choose DWC, IMO growing a single plant would be easier, not that 6-site tote. One plant grown properly can fill out a 2x2 tent with 2 weeks of veg, no need to get 6 plants competing for that small space.

As far as res size for a E&F tray, somewhere around 20gal will be fine.

Mike I totally agree with you.
I don't want to buy a chiller, and I can only Dwc in the winter.
That slime is a bitch.!
^^^^ good advice

I intended to go with E&F but just came across the DWC and thought I'd ask.

What do you mean external res to cool?

I do live in an apt so odor is a huge concern.

I'll go with a carbon filter, is an exhaust fan necessary? I'm basing a lot of my set up off this :
https://www.hydroponicsgroup.com/products/starter-kits/bud-buddy-hydroponics-starter-kit-4/

Ideally I do not want to have to ducts leading out through a window.

What kind of light will you be using?
I really don't think you will have room for a filter, and the fan
Is important to pull air through the filter.
It will be scrubbing the air. So you won't have ducting
Going out the window. All I know is your filter needs a fan.

Well I don't have ANY supplies yet but I think I'd got with 250W, MH for veg and HPS for flower.

Crap, it's sounding like I need a bigger tent.

By external res, I mean something you can cool directly that's preferably outside the tent. If you have all your water inside the tent, its ALL getting warmed by the lights, and you'll end up having a setup outside the tent to use a chiller anyway(if its dwc). I dont recommend running nute solution through a chiller, and to avoid that you need to have a plain-water reservoir to cool and use that to transfer heat out of the nute solution.

If you go DTW, E&F or even E&G buckets you can just use ice bottles in a reservoir under a tray or outside the tent when you need to drop the temp a few degrees. Cant do that in DWC as the ice will touch the roots and thats no good.

If you plan to use a 250w, you may not even need to worry about water temps, just get a strong enough fan to pull the heat out. And to answer your filter question, yes, you'll probably want a 6" fan, 4-500cfm to go with a filter and a 250-600w light.

You may just want to look at a 4x4 tent and a 400 or 600w. I'm not into talking people up in size for no good reason, but if youre already considering it, you're probably just going to expand after a harvest or 2 anyway. The slightly larger equipment you'll need is a pretty negligible cost too, bigger you go the cheaper it gets. Just my 2c on that.

Ice bottles are perfectly fine in DWC, just make sure you wet the bottles first or you might rip some roots off on the ice bottle... tongue on frozen flag pole style.

In a 2x2 space doing dwc, that is only enough room for 1 plant in 5 gallon bucket, or two small plants in smaller buckets. Could run 12/12 from seed in a 4 or 6 multi-site dwc tote, but at that point I'd prefer ebb n flo.

A cooltube would be hard to fit in that space, much less an inline fan, 4" duct, and a carbon filter. Fortunately, I doubt it will smell too strong with just one plant, and if you do need odor control, Ona Gel supposedly works pretty good, or just try laying out a plate of baking soda. Another option is getting an LED light instead of HPS. If you do put a 250w hps in a 2x2 tent with no ventilation you will easily hit temps in the high 90s.

Thanks for the all input so far. At this point I think I'm going to go with a slightly larger tent, 3x3 or 4x4, and set up E&F. Hopefully have 3 or 4 plants going inside.

Any good recommendations on supplies and where do get a good deal? Been browsing hydrosource but I'm pretty clueless on the quality of cheap lights vs expensive. Probably need a MH and a HPS?

And how many CFM do I need in a 4x4 tent with a 400W bulb?

I use a sunleaves wind tunnel.?
Around 400cfm. It's quiet. It's 6" diameter
Works well on a 400watt cooltube.