Air gap question haha what is that mean? come tell me

im tryin to decide what i should do with the water level in my homeade system. let me break it down like this lets focus on ONE plant site.

i got a 5 gallon bucket.

i have a netpot/lid* that fits perfectly on the 5 gallon bucket.
*(netpot/lid is full circumference of bucket)

i have hydrotron in that netpot.

i feed with a drip ring that has four 1/4" sites dripping.

FIRST QUESTION, what is your reccomended feeding cycle for this system? (cyclestat available)

from the bottom of the netpot to the bottom of the bucket, it is about 8"

there is naturally 1" of water in the bottom of the bucket due to not being able to put the drain (barb outlet u know what im sayin) any lower.

now the whole system is elevated so i have to make an overflow pipe to set where i want the water level to stay. could i let the roots just hang in the air after they grow down out of the netpot? maybe if i run drip cycle 24/7 they woul never dry out. i experimented with this and the only problem it seemed to cause was spots of the roots hanging in the air didnt always get saturated enough to wash away nutes that were building up and eventuall i had toxic salt buildup on the roots and the plants started burning (even with low PPM readings, there was just nute gunk buildup on the roots hanging below the netpot but above the shallow water level in the bucket).

SO, HOW MANY INCHES WOULD BE OPTIMAL FOR WATER LEVEL, REMEMBER THERE IS ONLY 8" FROM BOTTOM OF NETPOT TO BOTTOM OF BUCKET.
OR ANOTHER QUESTION, HOW MANY INCHES OF AIRSPACE WOULD BE OPTIMAL FROM BELOW THE NETPOT TO THE WATER LEVEL.

just so u know airstones are OBVIOUSLY gonna be planted in bottom of bucket if i decide for a higher water level.

SO ANSWERS TO WATER HEIGHT, AIR SPACE, OR FEEDING CYCLES WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. please please and thankyou thankyou.

p.s. i was thinking maybe 6" of water and 2" of airspace, that or sticking with the 1" in the bottom of the bucket and running drip 24/7, that or like 4" and 4"

any advice general opinion or anything really is super thanked

I run a drip system. A little differenet than your's but basicly the same and I run mine 24/7. As for the air gap I keep mine at 1 to 2 inches from the bottom of the net pots. Airstones help alot too. Those long water roots like to stay submerged but do not get above the bottom of the net pots the rootball has to have air all the time. Hope this helps.

i appreciate it.

any other opinions?