the biggest issue with DWC i had was access. i had 6 stand-alone buckets around a vertical dual tube. the ones in the back were a bitch to get to. if you don't have enough clearance to easily get to all the buckets, go with an undercurrent recirculating DWC setup with a central res that you can use to dump/flush. the other benefit is that the water level will be more-or-less the same in all the buckets, so you don't have to check each one individually.