water res size and pump size

how big a res do i need and water pump for a setup if im going to have like 20 5 gallon pots. is there a general formula for this, between how many gallons your pots are and how big your res should be.

I've never seen a formula for figuring this out, I think there's simply too many variables
to find a set answer. I find that you don't need that large of a reservoir if you're constantly
topping off with fresh water to keep things in check. However it also depends on how big you
plan on growing your girls out, as they get bigger they'll begin to drink more. So I guess it really
comes down to how much work you want to put in.

The pump is probably dependent upon how high you want your rate of flow to be, as well as
how much your system can handle at one time.

thats a huge ? man so many variables and you gave us 0 info..

res size mostly deppends on how often you want to change the water and how large the plants are..

and with your bucket system well that depends on how fast you want to fill and drain..

but once again you didnt give enough info

well i'd like to keep the plants to their about 4ft fully grown. i really dont know how often i will have the pump on, i will be using hydroton as media not sure how often that needs watering. what other info can i give lol a newb i know. just trying to figure stuff out.

it's not that hard a question really.... is it?

when setting up a res.. you need to do a dry run without plants and make sure you don't have water all over the place cause your plants aren't draining to the res fast enough..and you don't want your res to run dry when you are feeding either. you will make a mess.. but once you have it running and not flooding the floor, or the pump running dry.. shut your pump off, mark your res and then dump your res somehow so you can measure what's in it. (once your pumps stop running and all run off drains to your res.. you will know where it needs to be, just dump your res into a marked 5 gallon pail, I use a wine kit bucket that has gallons marked on it to mix nutes).

any questions, PM and I'll help you out. It's not a hard question to answer.. but no one can tell you how much your res holds, so bear with people telling you they can't tell you, cause... they can't.

thanks for the help

20 5 Gallon pails?

Spit balling it here, not a system I have ever used..

A 50 Gallon drum would supply 10 5 gallon pails, but you would need to keep a close eye on the drum and top it off daily..I'm guessing you would need 2 drums and run 10 off each..

But dont take my advice as gospel, someone more familiar with this setup will chime in with more reliable advice..