1st hydro grow equipment and questions

OK, first question, what's your grow medium going to be (hoping hydroton / corn) and how are you going to use the buckets? That alone isn't enough.
Now the dosing pump... $300 on Amazon ... WTF???? Can you return it along with the 1000 psi water pump? That is complete and total overkill for any hydro system I've ever seen.
The only practical way to use 5 gallon buckets in hydro is with a home made RDWC - recirculating deep water culture setup. You buy net pots designed to fit in a 5 gallon bucket, fill the net pots with grow rocks, and transplant your plants. After you've plumbed the system. Search for Yoda's thread how-to, it might still be called budslinger's guide to rdwc.
But there's so many fine points with hydro nutrient distribution, you need to do some more research and see which way to go.
An RDWC will slowly circulate nute solution from your reservoir to all four containers and return it to the reservoir where it continually recirculates 24 X 7. A cheap low pressure hydro pump, $15 - 20, is all you need for RDWC. RDWC normally relies upon the reservoir being equal height to the buckets. You CAN put the reservoir under the tent, pump up to the first bucket, on to the others, then drain down from the last bucket back to the reservoir.
The simplest hydro setup is using an ebb and flood table, which requires the reservoir to be under the flood table. Net pots sit inside the flood table and get flooded every several hours for 15-30 minutes, then the pump stops and nutes drain back from the flood table into the reservoir. I love these, very flexible, great results.
But one of my favorite hydro methods is ebb & gro; it's a hybrid between RDWC and ebb and flood tables. Lets you flood more frequently, relying upon the drain cycle to pull more oxygen into your root zone. But don't buy the full expensive systems you see at all your hydro stores with expensive automated controllers. Buy only the 4-gallon ebb 'n Gro buckets with 3 gallon net pots. They are sold as expansion kits for the Flo 'n Gro system; most all hydro stores will sell them as kits or individually. If you go this route I'll show you how to make a simple manifold to control flooding, and keep things cost effective, simple and reliable.


So, do some reading and decide - RDWC, ebb 'n gro, ebb & flood table, I suppose even the simplest, a simple bubble bucket. Although I've used these for mother plants, I'm not at all a fan of bubblers for a bigger grow like you're envisioning. Too hard changing nutes and checking pH regularly.


Air stones - 12" aquarium air stones at any discount store. But wait until you've selected a hydro method, needs differ.


Nutes - it's hard to beat General Hydroponics 3 part Flora series, this has been my favored brand ever since I was on the space station many years ago, and I can give favored advice on this brand. Yes, GH Flora REALLY went to the space station. No shit. Buy one gallon each of the Grow, Micro and Bloom nutes. Going to be over $100 USD for all three. Additives - if you choose, they help. But your first few grows will be fine without. When you do, start with KoolBloom and Diamond Nectar, probably another $70+ USD, I forget. Silicone - one name brand is RhinoSkin, but many shops carry a store brand that's fine.
pH down and up, these are a must-have.
STRONGLY recommend a pH meter. You can get by with the reagent drops for awhile, but soon as you can, get a good meter. And a ppm meter. If you can only get one at a time, get the pH first.


Tell me how you plan to rig your 6" filter fan and 4" intake, not sure you want to use both of those.


You got lots of decisions to make. I'll help as I can, but do some homework so I know which way you're going. Questions welcomed, but think about where you're going.


Welcome to GC & bestaluck to ya. I'll do what I can once you get centered.

 

guess you scared him off!