New setup (Waterfall RDWC) - Seedlings appear overwatered

Hey Everyone,

So, I got bored and decided to take a crack at building a waterfall RDWC system (long-time bubble bucket user). Unfortunately, I'm having some issues that I can't seem to pinpoint.

My setup:

- 4x4 grow tent
- Spider farmer SF4000 (currently dimmed to 410W and running 18/6)
- Air temps max out at 77F lights on
- Humidity set to 60-65%~
- Water temps range from 67-72F (no chiller)
- Using 0 ppm RO Water (the system is currently running 100ppm of GH3 to provide a ph buffer, and set to 5.9)
- Water is cycled using a 400 GPH inline pump and aerated via waterfalls in each bucket, as well as a flooming the res.



My problem:

All my seedlings appear to be overwatered. They were started in rapid rooters under a dome and T5, then transferred to the hydroton 3 days ago.



Initially, I thought the problem was being caused by the addition of two 'spray bars' that were attached to the waterfall in each bucket. The amount of surface disruption they provided was a lot more than the T-fitting alone, but I believe they were over-saturating the rapid rooters.

In an attempt to fix the issue, I removed the spray bars, lowered the water level from 1" inside the netpots to 2" below, and turned the pump off overnight to allow the media to dry out.

Anyway, that was yesterday and they seem to have further worsened. Any insight would be great!

Thanks

They need to be left much longer in the rooter out of RDwC for much longer. Roots need to FILL the rooter, then once put in, it's a decent sized Lil seedling and roots explode down and into the water.

@Airwalker16 That's kind of what I assumed happened, got too excited! Although, wouldn't symptoms start to improve once the media dried out?

It isn't.m dried out. If you pulled it out you'd find the rapid rooter to be sopping wet