Hey so i was thinking about buying this set up
I will be growing autos to start n then sum photos after
Save yourself the trouble and donāt start there.
I did. I wouldnāt suggest it.
A water chiller and some basic plumping parts from a hardware store will get you better plants for a lot less effort, likely a similar price. (Well. The chiller will be more expensive. But youād need that whether you did bubble buckets or a full hydro system)
I have a couple of points to make on hydro:
DWC or ābucket hydroā can be done but is labor-intensive due to the small container size. 5 gallon buckets will only hold 3.5 gallons and a plant in flower will consume a gallon or more a day. This means you are mixing and adding to your buckets daily.
RDWC uses a reservoir that you keep filled. This allows you (depending on rez size) can go for a week or more with no maintenance.
Using a larger container in place of buckets can help as well. A lot of us use yellow-topped totes for our plant containers.
You have to have adequate air flow to each plant reservoir to oxygenate the roots. Liquid HAS to be kept cool, both to maintain high amounts of dissolved O and to keep roots from developing pythium (root rot). This inevitably means using a chiller. I promise you that there is no way around it unless growing in a cold place that can keep solution temps below 70F.
I strongly recommend using high quality lights and nutes. A lot of us use Jackās for nutrient line and I would advise being careful about ANY light you might want to purchase online. My recommendation is to look at Horticulture Lighting Group as a place to start for lighting.
Hey thanks and that makes sense the main reason for wanting to go hydro is to save time and i also have the ion 720 led light with Samsung leds do u have any pics of ur set up im a diesel mechanic ino i can deff make my own setup but ive never seen one and kinda can picture what i need to make one
There are a number of good system setups here on grow journals: do a search and youāll see many examples. @Joshmcginnis28 has a sweet setup, ebb and flow for example.
You might want to look into autopots: Iāve been enjoying them for the last two years and there isnāt anything much easier to use. Plant size may suffer but then again, maybe not.
Appreciate the compliment there @Graysin !
@Zach2 IMO, if you want small plants then hydro may not be for youā¦ haha!
How big of an area/tent do you plan on using?
I have a 5āW x 10āL x 8āH room I built to grow in.
In one corner of that room (42ā deep x 60ā wide x 8ā high) I have it curtained off for two plants with two lights.
My whole system fits within that 5x10 room. Itās not ideal but Iāve made it work for me.
Itās easy, and very low maintenance. Itās a set it and forget it kind of system.
I also use Jackās 321. I run that full strength from start to finish, along with some Armor Si and Hydroguard.
If youād like I can tag you in my grow. Itās small compared to some folks here but it works with very minimal effort.
There are multiple ways of growing hydro. I would check out everybody elseās grow. From there, it may give you some idea of how you want to grow. What works for one person may not work for another.
Everybody here is super helpful and will be more than willing to help.
Here are a few hydro growers. @peachfuzz @NUG61 @CooterJuice @OGIncognito @Jarlax @Chrisr36 and of corse youāve met Graysin. Iāve probably missed several others.
Whatever we can help with, donāt hesitate to ask.
Good luck and keepāem growin! 
Like others have mentioned a lot of commercial all-in-one products have some crazy failure mode you wont discover until after you use it. Your best bet is to think through your space, then design something that makes it easy for you to maintain while also implementing some basic concepts. Not sure how handy you are with tools, but the money you will save on the pre-built building a DIY will help the cost of the chiller.
I have more of a grow room vs a tent, but im just lucky. Its basically the result of constantly making things easier on myself. I can tag you in my grow thread and you can have a look to get some ideas.
Looking forward to see what kind of mad scientist bud machine you come up with!
Hey @Zach2 welcome manā¦
exactly as the guys have stated, more than likely just take a glance at some of these guys threads and everything you can think of is answered in some sort of way. @HappyHydroGrower is the man when it comes to this stuff.
I have a near identical setup but I run mine through a 5x5 tent. So many ways to make it work for your situation, and as a grower who went through the bubble bucket scenario first time Iād say itās manageable but a custom built is unquestionably easier to maintain.
Hereās a solid picture of what you can grow in buckets still, @Graysin haha 
Still that pics biggest fan 
Hey thank you guys for the advice i will deff make my own set up the nice thing is im building my own grow room in the basement so im thinking a 8x6 room or so my light is 4x4 but my plan is to i intergrade the plumbing thru it so i can keep yhe main res out side for easy access and deff will get a chiller n any preferable air pump to get looking forward to getting my set up put together it should save me time on watering which the wife will be happy haha
Sounds like you got a plan.
As far as the air pump goes, I would shoot for something like this. It will handle two totes easily (3 in each tote).
If you have any questions, fire away.
Good luck!
@Graysin @HappyHydroGrower is hydro a waste or to big a risk for autos? I mean if a auto decides to bolt on you at 21 days, hydro seems like overkill.
I would deff agree on that my thought is to grow a few autos at first to get everything dialed in n switch to photos
Strongly recommend you use photos instead of autos due to the fact that anything you do wrong will permanently stunt autos. With photos you just veg until they are the size you want.
I think knowing the auto that one is gonna grow would make a big difference.
Some autos are small growing plants and some are a little bigger.
I did grow two Lambs Breath auto plants at one time.
Here are the two I grew.
One on the right is right at 9 weeks, one on the left is 8 weeks.
Lights had been on 18/6 and the one on the right started to flower on its own at 9 weeks.
I flipped the lights to 12/12 and the one on left started to flower about 10 days later. 
Had I left the lights on 18/6, the one on the left might have been a little bigger.
The one on the left, I had the lights raised about 5ā higher than the light on the right which I think may have caused a little more stretch for the one on the left.
Here at harvest you can see how the left plant stretched. Amazing part is, I got the same amount, a little over 14 oz, from each plant.
I donāt think I would want to chance growing autos too many more times. Itās just to unpredictable as to when theyāll flower.
IMO, I do believe the autos will grow bigger in hydro than in soil, but photos will grow as big as you want them to.
Yeah, I donāt think hydro is a waste for autos at all. I think the internal timer on the auto would govern more than the method of growing. Hydro will, theoretically, make the most of the short time the auto does have.
Hey do u use the air stones ive read there good and bad im thinking of using a small pipe with small holes running across the bottom would work better n thanks again
You would be better off with one of the āblueā stones as you want to produce a highly atomized string of bubbles. The smaller the better. This helps oxygenate the solution better.
