Dwc questions

hello, i have had a couple of grows under my belt with soil and i now want to look into hydroponics. It seems like deep water culture will be the best start but i just had some questions...

-do i need one bucket per one plant? or can i use larger tub with some airpumps with say 3-4 plants?

-how often does the water need to be changed? and when you change it where do you put the plants i mean, there are a lot of roots right haha

You can grow multiple plants per bucket. Just keep in mind if they are too close together they will crowd each other out and promote poor air flow/mold. I grow 4 plants in a 6 gal bucket. If I plant just two in that bucket, or 6, I get about the same coverage area when it's all said and done. It is best to keep all the same strain in each bucket as different strains might like different nute concentrations. It easier to work with clones since they will grow uniformly.

Construct your buckets with drain hoses, or buy a submersible water pump to drain the buckets, leave the plants/roots in there while you drain. You can change the water as soon as every 7 days, or as long as once per growth cycle (veg, bud). The more often you change the happier your plants will be. Certainly change anytime you notice an unpleasant smell from the res. Going long periods between res changes will encourage imbalanced nute solution, salt buildups, and lots of dead roots floating around. Consider ways to cool your res to below 68f. If you can not, then consider beneficial microbes. Otherwise, with high res temps, be prepared to deal with root disease.

I run one plant per bucket. And I change my water every 7 days. I use Dutch Master Zone or SM90. I put two aqua culture pumps per bucket and an OXY ring and a round air stone in there. This really lowered the temps in my buckets. To around 68 in 77 ambient air. I like to see the water moving alot. I'm going to up grade to a commercial pump soon. I hope this helps. Good luck