Thats awesome. I saw a system like that on the Esoteric Hydroponics site http://www.1-hydroponics.co.uk/. Except it did not have the spyder tubes for the drip irrigation. The ebb and flo system with the cloning ability is one I will definitely try. Seems all-in-one. What lighting are you using? What are you growing, peppers? What type?

i am using a 400watt lumatek digital ballast with sunmaster 'neutral deluxe' metal halide bulb. im growing jalapenos right now.

That is alot of hydroton! Wouldn't that be more expensive than your old DWC? Good luck on the project.

lol yes it is a lot of hydroton. four 3gal buckets full to be exact.

Nice setup chinamon, you'll be eating peppers in no time!

What an amazing setup! Any updates on your new system? I bet you were able to harvest the nicest and most delicious peppers with this awesome system...Have you tried growing other crops with it?

"also, what would be the proper name of this system?"

Well I would call it a drip system, although by the positioning of the return line in the pictures, technically I would say a combination drip, wick, and possibility water culture system depending on the depth of the water at the bottom of the buckets.

The reasons
Drip because it's watered from the top and drains out the bottom. Wick because there will be a small amount of water at the bottom that can wick up the growing medium. Water culture (depending on how deep the water at the bottom is) because if deep enough the roots can continuously feed off the reserve at the bottom of the containers directly, especially as they the root systems get larger.