I just bought a DWC kit with all the holes drilled, had no choice … 
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I dont even bother with a water level indicator. Just a hole under the lip for the air hose, pop the lid once a day to check water. It is gonna be a pain in the ass with 12 buckets though. Gotta get another 35w air pump vivohome may be a no name brand but for $40 that mf makes some serious bubbles.
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I like the idea of not having to move the plant.
The plant doesn’t get lifted and transferred in nature.
There are tiny hairs on the roots that can get damaged and potentially cause stress, equivalent to transplant shock maybe, maybe not.
Doing that every week could stunt growth. DWC grows so fast you’d probably never notice. No way to know unless you did a side by side, lifting the plant out of one bucket and using a drain for the other.
Also closest Lowes to me is 30 miles, there’s Ace and Home depot but they sell white and orange buckets, no bueno for dwc
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Sure I guess…what is natural about DWC though? Cannabis doesnt grow with irs roots submerged in water in the wild
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yeah I mean we’re probably splitting hairs, a little old water, lifting the plant causing stress, the moon is the wrong cycle.
I have some clones almost ready, as soon as I see roots coming out of the rooter I’ll pop two in and turn it on.
Do I want the net pot sitting in the nutrient solution or do I want some air gap?
You want the water just touching the bottom of the netpot until roots come out the bottom then you give it an air space i try to keep it between 1-3 inches
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I put mine half inch to an inch. The bubbles splash the pot. You may want to top feed until roots hit the water. I used to wait for a spray of roots from the rooter so theres more of a chance at least one root hits thr water quickly
Now I use an aerocloner and feed the roots through the net pot slots so the roots are in the water from day 1. But thats too much root damage for you 
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There are trillions of roots in there, believe me, if you cut any root it will reproduce again. I used to empty first the bucket with a cheapo chinese pump and leave them without water for some time, they love oxygen, Then just pull the lid with the plant and air stones and put it in the other bucket.
Never noticed any stress, was just once a week and plant was happy, simple methods most of the time are the best ones … 
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If you are going that route u might as well connect them all together.
I do this with 1" bulkhead fittings. They all run back to a control bucket where there is a pump and that pumps water to a manifold which waterfalls into each bucket. The waterfall creates dissolved oxygen and makes an air pump not needed.
See picture below. This is called RDWC and is far superior to DWC.
In the control bucket i put my pH doser which automatically adjusts the pH
Ignore the sad clones. They got a bit too much LITFA
That was 10/22/20
This them 12/20/20
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Dig the setup man. I’m gonna move up to rdwc eventually but between all the costs of setting upp this grow room its gonna be a minute those fittings bulkheads and pipes add up. Probably be another $300+ to setup 3 4 plant systems (one system/strain)
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It is water turbulence that creates DO (dissolved oxygen) which prevents roots from suffocating.
This can be achieved with waterfalls, airpumps or venturi
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No way dude.
I built an 8 site for $130
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, I love all that pipe engineering design for sustaining the nets … 
Use a submersible pump with a house drop it in.
Pull the lid out sit it in another tub fill the water mix the nutes done.
Dont worry about the roots just be careful. Should be fine just dont let plants fall over.
Less worry more do and learn
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Yes this is my own custom design. I used to use nylon nuts and bolts to attach to lid. This makes each sites scrog unitized to the net pot. So I can lift the lid and destroy all my roots lol. Sorry karma…thats just funny
As you can see now i just use gorilla tape. Mainly because the nylon bolts and nuts are hard to find and hella expensive
All the piping is customizable too. I use 24"x24" because I used to have a 4x4 tent and wanted to put 4 jn them
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Item list
36 1" bulkheads (use botanicare ones) all the rest are trash
50ft roll 1" black poly. Way less is used but I believe this is the size sold in rolls. Some hydro stores let u cut to size. Mine does. But ive been to some that d ont
(8) 1" barb 90s
(8) 1x 1/2 barb tees
(8) 1/2" barb 90s
(6) 1" barb tees
(2) 1" sch40 pvc 45
(1) 1" sch40 pvc barb
(1) 1" plug
(9) 12 gal hdx tough totes
(1) hydrofarm aapw550 550gph pump
5ft of 1/2" poly
I had a hard time finding 1x1/2 barb tees. My home depot had 1" barb x 1/2" female so I used a 1/2" barb x male adapter.
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Top it off. I have 4 outlets on each tote so if one gets plugged it still has a means of getting back and wont overflow
I also periodically check. Sometjmes roots clog one. This happens less in my 27gal totes. But still manages to happen
But yeah if for some strange reason they all get plugged it will overflow. This hasnt happened kn the 4 years ive been running these.
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Your buddy is buying shit air pumps. Ive had my dual diaphragm for 9 years and they still kicking ass.
I still use air pumps cause I like all the turbulence…
Another tip is find a way to elevate your sites.
U can see mt 27gal system has CMUs under them. This makes it so I can get the water level in my control bucket higher since water always wants to level itself. This makes the time between top ups shorter. And allows u to use a bigger pump which generates more power from the waterfall.
My 27gal system I have to throttle the pump with a ball valve because it has a 1000gph pump and it sucks water out hella fast and makes the pump gurgle.
I dont get this issue with mt 12 gal totes and 550gph pump
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