Nothing simpler than a single deep water culture bucket, a 5 gallon bucket with a net pot on top. You just put yourself an air stone down in the pump some decent air thru and away you go.
If your in the States Uline has good prices on black five gallon buckets. I used to run 6-8 buckets in a 4x6 foot space. Unless you run all the same strain you won't want a multi site recirculating system, so single bubble buckets work well.
I used to just mix a bucket of nutes and pick the net pot up plant, airStone and all and put down on my new bucket and I'd be good for 3-10 days depending on stage of growth. I even used to start off in 3 gallon buckets and move to 5 when the root ball got big.
If your going to do hydro you need to know everything about your water before you start. So your first bit of equipment will be a parts per million meter and a pH meter. For your pH meter you will need two calibration Solutions 4 and 7 are best in my opinion but you can also get 10. Then you only need one calibration solution for your parts per million meter and you don't have to calibrate it that often.
Hydro works best if you have a concrete floor you always want to keep that root zone cool, when you're doing Hydro.
