I basically built this system in less than an hour (while cooking dinner and washing/drying clothes) for about $25. The only tools I used were:

     1. a hand drill with a 4 1/4" hole saw attachment and a 5/16" drill bit 

     2. a single sided razor blade (or any cutting tool that can cut a plastic bottle)

     3. a 35 watt soldering iron (although I believe any wattage would do)

The Grow Cups

I used to use grow cups, but one day noticed that an inverted Gatorade bottle would fit perfectly into my holes in my PVC grow system. I played around with them a bit and ended up liking them better than the 4" mesh grow cups that I used to use. I take a 64 Oz Gatorade bottle, wash it out. Remove the label and tamper ring.

I then cut the bottom (soon to be our top) with a razor blade. It's probably much safer to use a blade with a handle, but this is all I had at the moment. There is a seam that is easy to follow when making the cut.

I then take the soldering iron and proceed to make holes. I probably make them bigger than they should be, but it seems to work ok for me.

Once finished I start on the reservoir itself. The finished bottle should probably be painted, but I'm lazy and don't have much time. I kinda like having the clear bottle to see growth, but as I said earlier...it is probably better to paint the finished bottle white.