That's it, what are your feelings, I know DWC is all the rage, but is it the best? Also, seems I can apply most traditional hydro methods to single containers, e.g., NFT, flood, drip, albeit with more logistics. Anyways, I have never grown in a detached system before, so any advice is appreciated, thanks.

bbrush: the "one" is tomatoes, I know I should of specified, sorry and thanks. Curiously, how does lettuce do in the related shallow water culture?

grizzman: thanks a lot, that is a great guide and design, and it seems almost a combination aero/dwc? buckets and dwc were what I am thinking so I will definitely try some of those.

the best for toms IMO is a hybrid dwc and aeroponics, about a gap of 10 inches or so from the water line to the top, a pump that mists the roots in this gap.

What is the smallest size pump you think I can get away with?
I am eying these 30 gph pumps for 10 bucks, do you think that is too small (also the smaller the better to not use any unnecessary power).

>>What is the smallest size pump you think I can get away with?
I am eying these 30 gph pumps for 10 bucks, do you think that is too small (also the smaller the better to not use any unnecessary power).<<

I was about to make a comment about the pump power part, as I am always concerned about power consumption and choosing the right-one- but thought I shouldn't meddle here unnecessarily. But now that you ask...

What you see at the picture of the link from before, is a huge and quite powerful pump indeed. While I cannot actually say it's oversized, the choice of such a powerful pump is linked to such kind of sprayer used in that setup, which indeed needs a powerful pump to do the job properly.

And that's pretty much the key here, - the power, dimension (and obviously price) of the pump is actually linked to the SPRAYER in use and how much pressure it needs to work properly. Best and to play safe is always to test it and have the pump running with the sprayer before buying. There are actually many types of sprayers with very different pressure requirements. The finer the spray/mist they produce the more pressure and power the pump will need. How much better growth is actually to be expected from finer spray or mist, is another question. Finer spray with more pressure is supposed to give better growth, - but how big the difference actually is, is a different matter. It will actually matter more if all other conditions are perfect in the first place. Put on it's head, - if your all around conditions aren't optimal, even the strongest pump producing the finest mist, will not make the difference.

In case you opt for a simple dripper instead of a sprayer, the very smallest available pump is actually good enough. As long as it manages the nutrient solution to get pumped up to the top part. And here you can even adopt the position of the pump (deeper or higher) according to its maximum head hight.

Here's one of my designs based on A. 2 sprayers with low power requirements and B. based on simple drippers, with even lower pump power requirements.