the buckets are 20 lt but I only fill them 1/2 way, the vegging tote holds 20lt and that goes a little bit past the ridge of the tote 1/3 up. I hooked a dimmer switch up to the vortex to vent heat and odour to the sewer and it works really well! I keep the mom in soiless mix only to keep the growth slower because once you "plug" another mom into its own hydrobucket its growth doubles. At the end of 60 days the root mass is about 20 or 24 inches hanging, and the roots I trim off each basket rolled up is the size of a baseball.