Aero Into Bubble Bucket

Not sure if this should be in Aero or DWC forum, kind of a hybrid question.

So, after years of soil, I decided to add a little bubble bucket on my table during my perpetual soil grow. The thing EXPLODED! Blew my mind. Based on this I decided to take my old rubbermaid diy aerocloner and put some clones in that after they rooted in coco (which is what i started using a year ago) and see how they did. They exploded too. So I made the big switch and now how a full aero garden, perpetual sog. Looking pretty sweet too. On to the question I have:

I noticed after about 3 weeks of flower, the plants start sucking up water ridiculously fast. This happens about the same time the roots have reached into the water about 6 inches. Then I realized my pump gets a little less submerged and the sprayers basically do nothing. This has been going on for about 3 days and my roots still look happy as ever. Can I get away with just taking the pump out and going DWC with this and have the water at the same level? Mainly because Im using the 18gal rubber maid buckets and im not trying to put in 10gals for 8 plants. My roots are exposed to air for almost a foot before they are sitting in the water, is this too much over time even with a big airstone? So far they seem to like it, just wanted to know if anyone else ran into this before.

Originally Posted by HSA

Wallshit: First, I think you need to know where I'm coming from. I'm a former dirt gardener, Aerogardener, (that's the Aerogarden; the table top, complete, active hydroponic gardening system), not aeroponics. I've grown with bubble tubs and I love them because you can do so much more and faster with hydroponics. I took some hydro classes and they advised us to stay away from aeroponics because of hardware problems. What I have learned from them and in my own experience is that if you're doing something and it's working, don't mess with it, go with it. From the pictures it looks like your grow is golden so please don't change a thing.

Have you documented everything you've done? You should because that's how you'll be able to replicate it smoothly next time. For what it's worth, I have a friend who has a combination bubble tub and spray bath aeroponic set up and it works great! When he solves the leakage problems he's had I'll try it, but he grows in his garage and I grow in my house.

Please stick with what you've got and give us the specifications of all your equipment. When your grow is in and harvested please send us photos of everything beasue my guess is that there are a lot of us watching. Thanks, HSA

i agree
using the aerograden now an i wanna make a bigger hydro/aero system myself an i'm always open to new ideas