Is 45LPM Enough for a 4 site RDWC Setup? (Noob Question, Apologies!)

Soo, the title is self explanatory. I was just curious as I've been looking at a new 70LPM air pump. But would the benefits (if any) be worth the cost? Would I just be going overboard and my plants are getting all of the DO they can use? I know roots can never have enough O2, but I also know roots can only absorb so much. I'm sure everyone here at RIU has seen a million posts like this, so I apologize for asking such a...novice...question. I just know that I trust the information I get here more than anywhere else, so I'd muchly appreciate any feedback anyone would be willing to give me. Thank you all for reading, and thank you if you reply. Happy growing everyone.

*EDIT* I forgot to mention - All four sites are 5 gallon buckets, along with a 5gal heart/res. At the max, my system has 18 gallons in it. At a minimum, my system has 13-15 gallons in it.

Its talked about a little but its not thoroughly understood.

Sure you can grow decent plants with a small pump, but I would spring for a better one.

It seems that near 100 percent DO saturation is achieved fairly easily using multiple aeration methods.

My thinking, and some peoples opinion is that the water around the roots becomes less saturated with oxygen and the best way to solve the almost solid block of root mass is slight root agitation.

- Jiji

Thank's for the reply, I understand that because my airstone is engulfed and it has tons of roots that aren't close to the stone. And how do you agitate the roots?... Sorry if I'm asking stupid questions, I'm still quite new to hydro. By the way, when you say multiple methods, do you mean things such as perhaps adding an air stone with a separate air pump to, in my case, my heart/res?

agitate ever so slightly, just by aeration, or water movement. Such as high output air stone underneath the roots.

Multiple methods = airstones, flooming, waterfall

- Jiji

I've seen waterfall setups, and am fond of them, but feel I should stick with the basics until I can get a couple notches in my belt. I've heard mentionings of flooming, correct me if I'm wrong but isn't flooming running an air tube w/o an airstone?....And so, do you think it would be worth the extra 50$ for a more powerful air pump? Even though it's being applied in the same context? Also, would running perhaps a couple airstones to the same bucket, just in different locations in respect to the root ball, be a good option for me?...The bigger pump I mentioned comes with 8 outlets. So I could run two airstones to each bucket, with one airstone set to be just below the root mass. Again, thank you so much for the advice Jiji!!

Run the commercial 8 outlet pump =). 2 large stones per bucket and you wont need a huge water pump because you will have "agitation" via bubbles + water flow. Flooming, fogging, etc is just making things complicated

Vumar said:

Run the commercial 8 outlet pump =). 2 large stones per bucket and you wont need a huge water pump because you will have "agitation" via bubbles + water flow. Flooming, fogging, etc is just making things complicated

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Those damn things are F'ing loud. I picked one up,appx 1100gph, to feed my whole room, 4 dwc buckets, and supplemental air in 4-6 res's. I ended up sending it back and getting a few smaller pumps, much quieter and now I have some redundancy in the systems. I advocate redundancy in any hydro system, pumps aren't alot of money compared to losses due to equipment failure. I also try to design my systems around a single size pump,in my case 7.5L air pumps and 400gph water pumps, so that the main components are interchangeable and i only need to keep one spare for everything.

Yeah.... they need to be screwed down to reduce vibration. Helps a lot.... Yes a very loud product but I have ran the same one for 4 years with no problems.