This is my low tech hydro , uses a drip pan , 3 gal. smart pot & royal gold tupur right out of the bag I pour nutrients once a day until I get about 1" runoff & let the plant wick the runoff back up I’ve done e&f & waterfarms as well as bubbleponics I just prefer the simple stuff
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Im not picturing exactly what you mean by that. I guess Im not understanding what the over all system would be like or how it would be setup.
LOL! I have no problem with repeats of good advice! I do the same thing to my kids and grand kids every single day when they ignore MY good advice 
I still dont know if temps will be an issue or not. I am hoping that not using a submersible pump will be enough to keep me on the good side of too hot.
However, if Im going to be absolutely honest, the main reason Im not going to try hempy buckets - at least for now - is that they are boring! All that simplicity, and lack of problems and maintenance, leaves me with nothing to fiddle with or invent!!
Thanks for the help!! I really do appreciate the help and advice - even if I do ignore it 
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Nothing wrong with simple and easy, but I am bored out of my skull at the moment. I cant go fishing or flying this time of year, so I need something interesting and challenging to do
That setup sound like a hempie bucket, but using smart pots instead of a bucket with a hole in the side. Very interesting.
Thanks for jumping in and the same to you as everyone else - please dont hate me if I ignore your advice! I REALLY DO appreciate it all
This but instead of a pump feeding into the controller ill have a large solenoid valve at the bottm of the rez to the controller. After it opens gravity will then even out the water level. After the solenoid closes the controller pump will fill the rez back up.
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that seems more difficult than with the double pumps. with the double float valve double pump you won’t have to constantly calculate water and levels.
True but ill have the solenoid on a timer anyway. So I can just time out how long it takes to fill. + or - 5 gal might make a 2 " difference at most.
I have a fascination with dwc as well as aeroponics & fishing is slow lol …no doubt I’ve successfully built & used waterfarm drip columns & summer before last grew tomatoes outdoors in these units how you choose to grow is what makes you an individual if you have a vision of how you want to do this I 100% support you I’m not trying to tell you what to do just saying what I’m doing whatever you decide on if I can be of any help let me know I’ve built a few systems out of common parts & sources
forgot to add my interest these days lies in canopy control & led , cmh lighting & single plant grows there are a lot of directions a person can go , keeps things interesting
Oh, yeah. I had forgotten about that version.
How about this option - you could use a bell siphon instead of the solenoid valve and the entire process would be automatic. Just adjust the bell siphon so it started the drain of the tall tank when it got to the fill height you want and it will stop when the tank gets tot he predetermined lower level. You dont need timers at all. You could leave the fill pump in the controller running full time or have it on a timer depending on how long it takes to fill the tall rez.
Im still debating if I should use a control or just have the bell siphon inside one of the pots. That would be fewer parts and lower cost, but then I would probably have to check the siphon regularly to be sure roots were not plugging it up. That would be easy enough to do though.
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Here is a simple version of a bell siphon. There are a couple of small mods that are supposed to make it work better. Flareing the top of the 3/4" pipe out to 1 1/2" diameter will make starting the siphon more reliable if the pump is low volume. Also, adding a small additional tube outside the 2" PVC will make breaking/stopping the siphon more reliable if the drain is partially plugged for any reason.
This is exactly what I am going to do - either inside my pots or in a control tank.
oops - posted the wrong pic the first time.
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If i want it to fill and empty at set times how do I go about that?
Thats something you cant do with the bell siphon alone. It will fill and drain the instant the water gets to the top or bottom of the bell. The cycle rate will depend on how fast the pump fills the rez.
You would have to have a timer on the pump in the control. That would limit the cycles to only starting when you want, but the rate of fill/drain would still be set by the pump output and the drain size.
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I just watched several videos on variations on hydro, and a couple of them mentioned the need to keep roots out of drain fittings. These guys are not using any kind of screen - just small holes or slits in the drain pipe.
How do you guys keep roots from growing into and blocking drains and other fittings?
Would something like plastic window screening work?
I just added the above to the first post. I was stupid and got ripped off because I didnt take the time to check them out. Just re-ordered from Amazon.
Man that pisses me off. Def call up your bank or cc company. I always use PayPal makes that situation so much easier, gl bud.
I did use PayPal, but they insist I go through Ebay resolution first. This is going to take me months to get my money back 
On another note - disregard my suggestion of using the bell siphon in your setup above. It wont work the way you want. The siphon needs to go in the pots or the control and it must be higher than the rez. Not a viable option for that type of setup.
Sorry for the misinformation! I didnt think that through well enough before spouting off.
In case anyone is curious, the reason the bell siphon wont work in that particular situation is that it only controls the water level in the tank its installed in. It cant really be used to control levels in a different tank - unless- the other tank or tanks all need the exact same water level as the tank the siphon is in. It wont work on other tanks if they need different water levels.
Also, in this particular situation, if the water level in the pots and the control drop too low, the rez might not fill up to the top of the siphon drain tube. If the water level doesnt get that hi, the tank will never drain.
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Ya i’m probably going to stick with two pumps bc i already have them and i’m cheap. I’m just stoked my bud can get me vinyl tubing from his work. Hopefully elbows and tee’s too, then I’ll just need bulk heads.
Ok, I have to admit that my idea is not as clear a winner as I originally thought, and maybe isnt a winner at all if you look at the over all picture and your exact needs and space
Air pumps and bell siphons may have a small to medium advantage over mechanical pumps, timers and float valves as far as cost and maintenance and reliability - BUT - they are almost certainly more difficult/trickier and less flexible as far as design and setup.
After a lot of playing around, more reading, and thinking about it, Im finding that this combo of air pump and bell siphon requires that you pay very careful attention to the relative heights and placement of the pots, rez, and control tank and where you put the pump and bell siphon.
For starters, no matter where you put the bell siphon, (pot, rez, or control tank) it has to be in the highest point in the system. Then, the rez that it drains into must be far enough below that tank/pot so that the siphon action can work. That means the rez cant be at the same level as the pots and the highest water level in the rez - when the rez is full and the pots are empty - must be below the lowest water level you want in the pots by at least a few inches or the siphon wont work well or not at all.
Just like siphoning gas from a car, the bucket you siphon into must be below the level of the gas in the cars tank. The more vertical distance you have, the faster the siphon works. Less vertical distance = slower siphoning or no siphoning.
With mechanical pumps, float switches, and timers, you can put the pots, rez and controls pretty much anywhere you want and not have to worry about heights nearly as much - as long as you have enough head pressure on the pumps.
This would all be fairly easy if I didnt have one requirement that I dont want to give up. I want to be able to easily and quickly drain the rez when its time to change out the water. That means the bottom of the rez has to be far enough above the floor so I can get a bucket under a drain valve. That then forces me to have the pots a certain minimum distance above the rez so the siphon can work.
All of that just to avoid using a mechanical pump of some sort
Im still going to do it just because I want to, but I will have to plan the layout a little more precisely as far as rez placement, pot sizes and mounting heights.
There are always trade-offs to every decision you make.
My question above got lost in the shuffle - or is this no problem with roots blocking ebb and flow drains?
Second question - is there anything bad about growing two different strains in the same pot or tray?
Using one tray instead of two buckets will save me some money and trouble in terms of fittings and connections between the buckets vrs a single larger but shallower tray.
Third question - how close to the top of the hydroton do you want the water to go in ebb/flow?