Buy a cheap but sturdy 30+ gallon bucket from home depot or walmart - Get a couple cheap fittings, raise the reservoir above your buckets and gravity feed into them with float valves. You could get a separate 5 gallon bucket, connect all 4 together with 3/4" tubing, and use the one empty 5 gallon as your "control" bucket. It will have the float valve on it with the line coming from the raise reservoir. It will continuously keep all 4 topped off given there is still water in the said res.

Thats your best option, cheapest option, and least amount of work option - to keep things topped off my man. It may sound dreadful, but when done once, thats all you'll need.

Tip: Uniseals Are AWESOME for this! They make connecting buckets an effortless task. Drill hole, pop in uniseal, then pop in the pvc/tubing.

I drew this up real fast to help explain:



On top of that - Those look great man! Very healthy, and yeah maybe a bit of a hack job, but they will recover with so much vigor and like you said, you'll have a full canopy in no time. Nice training too, loving the branch formation.

Ok so I just so happen to have a brand new plastic rain barrel, and that would be my main rez. Now I understand the float valves as I simply compare it to a toilet.
Main rez outside tent hooked up to a 5 gallon pail by 3/4 inch tubing. Then from the 5 gallon I add another line that will split off into a 3 way fitting that sends one line per dwc bucket.
Now gravity will do its thing and as my water level decreases in the dwc buckets, the 5 gallon pail will slowly feed water into my buckets bringing them back to the appropriate level. As the plants drink/guzzle water the 5 gallon pail fills them back up.
Now I get that part but what stops the five gallon pail from over filling the dwc buckets? I will assume its gravity because as the water level lowers in my dwc buckets the weight of water gets lighter thus allowing the five gallon pail to allow a slow flow into the dwc buckets..

The Float valve will do the shut off for you bro. If you connect the float valve to the hose from your main rez to your 5 gallon "control" bucket, it will only feed water to it when it's low and the valve lowers into the down position. As soon as the valve is floating up top again, your gravity feed will be stopped and your buckets will then be full again as the control bucket will be full.

Kind hard to put into words, but ya dig?

So the float valve actually sits in the 5 gallon hooked up to the main rez, right?
Now this float valve any idea what exactly im going to buy, obviously one small enough to fit in a 5 gallon pail. Is it safe to assume a "float valve" is a "float valve", in any form?
I have learned that when it comes to these little diy projects its best not to ask the guy working at home depot for help, because the next question is always "well whats this for?".
So if I knew exactly what I was getting, I can avoid these questions.
Thanks Mgee

Indoor gardening is nothing to be ashamed of homie! lol. Thats what I always tell the nosey bastards!

But anyway, yeah, Float valve is a float valve. I'd shoot for a 1/2" barbed connector or something in that area of size. The valve should come with the washers/fittings to attach it to your bucket. It's as simple as drilling a hole, sticking the barbed portion of the valve through and tightening it down. Connect your tubing from rez to the valve and you're good to go. You're a smart dude you'll get the feel for how the valve works as soon as it's in front of ya. Very simple stuff.

But yes, you've got it right. valve in the 5 gallon, go ask for a 1/2" float valve and do your thing!

Just touching base...
Bought the pail, grommets, float valve, elbows, just need the black tubing.
Going to do one more water change now at 10:10pm and have everything ready for 12/12 at the next water change

Awesome! Can't wait man. If you want to spend the extra 30-50 bucks on an inline pump, you could have yourself an undercurrent recirculating dwc setup goin. Similar to this video here, but on a smaller scale:

I'm in the midst of building a full scale 6-site 8 gallon setup myself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e8mK19mcPM

Just an option. All it'd take is the 250 gph pump (for 4 sites or less) and another few feet of tubing to have a decent current.

Either way is going to be great to watch man.

mgee thats a fucking sick setup man, holy shit i wish i had room to do that

Building the water resivoir system today, i'll be updating my grow videos this afternoon. However for the record the plants are back to normal with a full canopy since my last trimming session.

Ok Mgee before I drill these holes in my dwc buckets I want to be sure that i'll in fact be correct.
So in the above picture you show the line that comes from the 5 gallon "control bucket" and splits off to my 3 DWC buckets.

Do those lines DEFINATLEY go into the BOTTOM END of the 4 buckets including the "control bucket? I feel like if they are connected at the bottoms the water within the "control bucket" is only going to be 4.5 gallons that pushes against each dwc bucket.
Each dwc bucket holds 3.5 gallons of water x 3 dwc buckets = 10.5 gallons of water.

Wouldnt that mean the "flow" hits a wall so to speak?
(4.5 gallons Vs 10.5 gallons)

I cant wrap my head around the "flow" that fills my dwc buckets as they drink. I almost feel as though the "control bucket" should be placed higher than my dwc buckets to create a stronger push, but then again maybe that would be what causes my buckets to overfill and create a mess.
When I said it would "hit a wall" maybe thats what causes us not to overfill, yet only to sustain my original 3.5 gallons in each dwc bucket. Never dropping thier water levels so long as my "Main Rez" has water. The "main rez" is the only unit that will drop its water level, aside from the control bucket which will fill itself up as needed with the float valve.

I must say as I write this I notice a better understanding however if you could confirm with me I will feel more comfortable in drilling the next few holes.
Thanks man!!!