Help me convert my 20g smart pots to SIP's

So I'm finally seeing the light and switching over to organic growing. I'm setting up some 20gallon smart pots for no till ROLS, and woukd like to make a way for them to be sub/self irrigated. I was thinking that I'd just need a sort of flood tray that they sit in, filled with a few inches of perlite and water, and the pots sit on the perlite and suck up the water as needed...now Ive read about there needing to be an inch of air between the water and the soil, but also read that with smarties and their self aerating nature, that wasn't as necessary as with a hard side container. So would that work? If I say had a round plastic bin a bit larger than the smart pot, filled with 5 inches of perlite, then rested the smart pot directly on the perlite, would that do the trick?

It works great.

When I ran them I liked to have 3" perlite with 1-1.5" of water. You can also add a float to auto-fill the tray. I ran mine in 4'x8' beds made of a 2x4 frame and pond liner. Add a float in a bucket with holes and screen(so perlite doesnt get into the float), this is your water depth control.

You can scale them to any size also... cloning, veg, flower...whatever you need.

Your soil mix may require more or less aeration depending on your environment to stay evenly moist with no soggy portions.