Hello rick_ca,
1. Are they determinate (bush) or indeterminate pepper varieties?
2. How many plants are you going to be growing?
I prefer to use a
drip system for growing large plants myself. But I'm not sure if your planing to buy a system, or build your own system. The guys at the hydro shop want to sell products, so their not really helpful if you want to build your own system. That is unless you build it from stuff they have for sale in their store, then they will be happy to sell it all to you.
P.S.
Personally coco fiber/chips is a far better growing media, and much less expensive too.