Docker volume for Elasticsearch

I am using docker to host the ELK stack. One issue I am running into is that the elasticsearch indicies take up alot of space. I tried using -v(volume) and point that to the host. What it seems is that elasticsearch doesn't start when I do this. I receive this message in the logstash logs: logstash :message=>"retrying failed action with response code: 503". Any other solutions to what I can do to manage data? Thanks

What do the Elasticsearch logs say?