Kyle, I'd say go for it! It's an easy, cheap, fun DIY project. Surges are just awesome for a reeftank!
Sound Tweaking:
Yeah, these things make noise, but the most offensive noise, the syphon break, can be adjusted. The simplest way to make the syphon break is to just have one hole, and any adjustment to the break is made by making the hole larger (or smaller). Air getting sucked into that one larger hole can start to make an irritating "glug, glug" slurping sound. This can be fixed by using multiple holes all at the same height, as many as needed (you probably only need 2), of the smallest possible size. This makes a much nicer "crashing" sound, as many little bubbles are pulled in all at once.
Noise can also be reduced by putting a lid on the surge container (with an air vent!) and also by putting a restriction on the outlet of the surge. I've had to put reducer fittings on the outlets of my surges just because my standard overflow can't handle all the flow from two surges at once.
Size:
I think you'll see worthwhile results with the 5 gallon bucket. That's about the minimum size I'd recommend. I'm still using my first surge, a 4 gallon bucket, on my 75 gallon reef. It's being fed by a Mag 5 (500gph minus 3 feet of head) directly from the display tank. It goes off very frequently. I'd say that the feed pump is almost too large. My other surge is a 12 gallon tub that surges about 8 gallons. It's fed by my main return pump at 1200gph minus at least 6 or 8 feet of head. This is a much more effective surge and it's a bit easier to adjust. I think this is due to the more squat shape of the container. A gallon of water in this surge equals fewer inches than it would in the bucket. This allows more water to build up and be available just as the surge begins to syphon. It also seems to help the syphon break as it leaves the air hole exposed longer.
Plumbing:
I'm using 1-1/2" surge pipes. 1" was way too small, 1-1/4" might work, but I haven't tried it. For your bucket, I'd recommend putting the inch and a half theaded bulkhead right in the center of the bottom. I have a shorter length of pipe just above that going into an inverted "U" and then another length of pipe going almost to the bottom of the bucket with the syphon break an inch or 2 from the end. Don't glue anything here, so that you can adjust the height of the "U" and also change out pipes with different syphon break sizes and positions.
On the outside of the bucket, I have a threaded adapter screwed into the bulkhead and a pipe that runs almost to the water glued into this, for security. On the end of this I have a 45 degree elbow (which probably should be glued on) and after that a 90 degree elbow or two that I can use to adjust the output's direction and depth.
