Need Help!!! 16 site-5 gallon bucket, recirculating DWC problems!!

I am building my first hydo system after years of soil growing. I have put together a 16 site, 5 gallon buckets w/ net lid, plumbed together with 1/2 inch
PVC. There are two rows of 8 with a 5 gallon control bucket at TOP middle of rows. Each row is about 15 feet from first bucket till last in row. Airstones in all. At the end of both rows of 8-the pvc comes out of bucket-and travels to a TEE in middle of rows. (think Under Current design) Water then returns to control bucket through a 1200 gph mag drive pump INLINE. It has about 14 inches of travel UP over 4 feet to return to control bucket. In the control bucket i have a matched pump submerged and pumping to the head of each row of 8. Both pumps are running at same time. Here is problem. I turn on both pumps-the control bucket begins to fill from return line thru mag drive pump-the submerged pump in control bucket begins pumping OUT of control bucket to TOP of both rows-only the first of 8 buckets on each row fill at first-the magdrive pump returning water begins to get air and sputter, then return water stops flowing-control bucket empties. At that point I have to turn off both pumps. It seems the water gets STALLED in first buckets in each row. once I turn off pumps-it takes about 3 minutes for ALL the buckets and control bucket to level off. Not what I was hoping for. I had planned on having pumps on all the time for a current in all buckets. Is diameter of PVC too small? Should pump be at water level, ground level or above water level? Any ideas or help is soo much appreciated. I am going to take pixs now. and will post very soon. Thanks for looking!!!

Check with Medi Mary she's doing one.

I'm in Igloo's and don't know squat about this stuff.

I'm having a hard time trying to picture your setup in my head.

So you have one pump pulling water from the buckets to the controller, and the other one pumping it out of the controller to the buckets?

sorry for delay on getting pixs up. I did fix my problem. I had no rez!!! I thought just the 5 gallon control bucket would suffice. Nope. Here is basic run of 16 bucket RDWC I just built(after whole system and rez are full-apx 80 gallons). Starts in 35 gall rez-pump in rez activated by timer-control bucket fills to desired level of all buckets-pump in rez shuts off-3 minutes pass as water feeds to all buckets thru pvc( two rows of 8 five gallon buckets)-after 3 minutes, proper level is achieved in all buckets- another 3 minute rest period-then inline magdrive 1200 pump returns water to rez after both rows of 8 join in a tee at end of rows. I bypassed floats by using and fine tuning a cycle timer that works for both rez, both rest periods and control bucket. The whole cycle of rez pump, level,rest, return pump takes 7 minutes. Each control bucket fill is apx 2.5 gallons. Each return fill is apx 2.5 gallons as well. That means that it takes apx 32 or so cycles to completly recirculate water thru entire sysyem and back to rez. @ 7 min a cycle , that is 3.5 hours. Slow but working. I figure next time I will increase size of pvc to accomadate higher turn-around time for complete recirculation. I have been running with just water for 2 days to test and check for leaks. NONE (knock on wood). I appreciate all feedback and comments. This is my first hydro setup and grow after years of soil. I am excited to say the least. Thanks to all fourms and posts and pixs I used to put this together. By the way-the system sits underneath 2 rows of four 1000 watt hps each for a total of 8000 watts + 80,000 extra lumen from two T5s. Ventilation provided by 10inch fan filter passivly intaking cool air between CO2 enrichment cycles. Commercial air pump pushing 20 airstones(rez, control bucket, all 16 buckets). The air that airpump intakes is outside air and very cool this time of year-this helps maintain cool water temps as well as oxygenate=) Buckets have 10" net pots. I will be using BIOBIZZ nutes(grow,bloom,algamic,topmax) as well as H2O2 and perhaps Gravity (I need feedback and reviews of Gravity in DWC please!!!). I have about 1 week till babies go in. Thanks and Peace.

you can either put a dimmer switch on the return pump and slow it down so its not pumping dry and the remaining 8 buckets have a chance to fill or you can insert a smaller piece of hose at the return pump connection...i also think you need a bigger controller res whatever...about 20 gallons or so...good luck

may i ask why your using a return pump ? if you feed your return line into the bottom of your res gravity would do the work give me a min and ill post a link to another members post i have been following him because his setup is ultra clean and works great

https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/444129-second-round-undercurrent-6-500-a.html check this guys post

ps youtube is a good place to learn just look up deep water culture