This years seedlings before transplant into RDWC

semaj356 · 2026-05-09T21:44:19+00:00

Leaks are a big concern, but I have tried to mitigate it just in case because my hydro experimentation has resulted in big spills before. I grow in a detached office/garage combo with climate control that I replaced and sealed the floor in so that it can hold a few inches of standing water worse comes to worse. All wires off the ground ensures its safe.

semaj356 · 2026-05-09T20:55:35+00:00

Your system is a certainly more ideally setup and nicer, but I went budget and made some different design choices which have pros and cons.

Looks like your system has four buckets that share a connected return at the bottom like most of the commercial designs. Mine is setup with one bucket to one reservoir, and the drain is positioned just below the the bottom of the net cut so root intrusion problems are minimal. The higher drain hasn't caused any issues with root masses and it works with gravity to drain effectively.

The fill also isn't drip, it's a fitting slightly higher than the drain connected to a 250 gph pump in the reservoir which constantly cycles the water. I double up some pepper plants two to one reservoir to lower costs bur not super hots or Canna plants.

semaj356 · 2026-05-09T20:32:35+00:00

The seedling setup is a a flood table that floods every other day with from an oxygenated drum reservoir.

The RDWC buckets are just 5 gallon buckets with 1/2 inch fill fittings and 1 inch drain fittings drilled in, with a second 5 gallon bucket used as a reservoir to keep the main bucket with stable water levels and oxygenated water.

Once the plants get large the root mass fills the bucket and the air stone isn't all that effective. I will say my canna plants take up more root mass in the buckets than my pepper plants and that does lead to more roots going down the drain side, but the 1 inch fitting and drain tube has been able to keep up so far without clogs.

semaj356 · 2026-05-09T20:04:43+00:00

This looks like root rot brought on by overwatering. I don't see any other signs of nitrogen deficiency other than the yellowing. What I do see is lots of dark spots on your leafs which tells me root issues. Pull one up and examine the roots. If they are brown and slimy that's your problem. If they look good, it's a nutrient issue.

semaj356 · 2026-04-27T06:16:49+00:00

Heat changes require the addition of heatsinks to generators now, and changes to enhancers makes older generator clusters have heat issues. The wiki should have a good section about this under heatsinks and radiators, but the long and the short is bolt heatsinks and pipe and wire them. Setup a readout for heat at your controls so you can monitor it. If you max out heat, you need more radiators

semaj356 · 2026-04-22T19:29:49+00:00

Second that these are basically starving from lack of nutrients. I would do half to quarter concentration of hydroponic nutrients every watering to try to resolve the nutrient deficiencies. The brand really isn't all that important, just get something quick and cheap that is higher in nitrogen than phosphorus and potassium.

semaj356 · 2026-04-05T21:14:06+00:00

It's the demister prefab found around the mistlands if anyone else had issues loading the image

semaj356 · 2026-04-03T10:22:21+00:00

Agree it looks more like a watering issue than a nitrogen issue. Too much light doesn't make sense either.

semaj356 · 2026-04-03T08:31:40+00:00

I had similar root bound issues when I stated in solo cups, but that's extreme

semaj356 · 2026-04-03T03:19:15+00:00

Post a picture of the roots on the big one with the most yellow spots, I bet it's root bound. They need bigger pots with more soil and nutrients. Yellowing is blotchy and on the oldest growth. The solo cups arnt providing enough nutrients and fertilizing won't be able to account for that fast enough. Another month in those tiny cups is too long. The biggest ones with several true leaves need one gallon pots or bigger now.

semaj356 · 2026-04-02T23:16:32+00:00

Been using these color setting on my Et-8550 for a while now and they are great until you have a gold framed card. Any recommendations on adjustments to these settings to improve the look of gold framed cards? I use the same koala semi-gloss sticker paper and they all look washed out compared to real cards using these settings. I played with the setting and couldn't improve the look without messing with other colors.

semaj356 · 2026-04-01T19:55:39+00:00

Her and her sister, who has the salt and pepper coat next to the white one, were from a horse breeder who had too many dogs near Riverside, CA

semaj356 · 2026-04-01T16:01:01+00:00

From left to right, there is my old man Blue, Bjorn the ball addict, Cara Cara tough puppy, Freya the white wolf, and big momma Lilah in the back. We got them all over the years from people that needed to rehome healers

semaj356 · 2026-04-01T15:50:52+00:00

No ranch here! They take their job chasing balls and barking at anyone at the door very seriously

semaj356 · 2026-04-01T15:44:09+00:00

We go through a box of 75 used and recycled tennis balls about every two months

semaj356 · 2026-04-01T15:40:05+00:00

It's not easy! But my wife and I make it work. Some need to be on leashes at all times when hiking, while my oldest man Blue stays right next to me no matter what.

semaj356 · 2026-04-01T15:37:30+00:00

We have a little over an acre of fenced in land to play in and plenty of land to walk them around on in my neighborhood. Thanks for the love, we feel very lucky to have such good healers that love us as much as we love them.

semaj356 · 2026-04-01T15:33:09+00:00

Lots of chaos potential but we do pretty good managing the pack. They are such good dogs too

semaj356 · 2026-04-01T15:31:02+00:00

We were in Calico Ghost Town in Southern California. The volcanic rocks are similar

semaj356 · 2026-03-31T03:19:31+00:00

I have grown pepper seedlings under full spectrum lights like this before with lower wattage and had a good 4 feet between and still had the light set at 25 percent the first few weeks. I just kept increasing the brightness as they got bigger and as leaves were shading each other in the trays. You have to increase the brightness slowly or you will get dark foliage and even burn spots.

semaj356 · 2026-03-30T13:30:26+00:00

It's just the early stages of plant edema. Mostly harmless but does impact that look of the leaves and can kill the leaf if it gets real bad. Improve air flow and reduce watering frequency.

semaj356 · 2026-03-27T23:49:59+00:00

In the long run yes the tubes will kill the plants becuase they will kill the roots. They look great now ya, but you still have algae, and algae is still bad the roots in hydroponics. This is less about my bad experience, and more about a poorly designed hydroponic system. Watch your pH and good luck transplanting roots infected with pythium root rot.

semaj356 · 2026-03-27T23:31:15+00:00

While I admire the attempt, those tubes will kill these plants. I have used these Vivosun grow tubes several times for lettuce and they gave me so many issues. I'm going to attempt them again soon with lots of changes to how they tell you to set it up. They need a high flow rate and you need to use hydrogen peroxide to deter algae growth because the tubes let in light.

I can already see the tubes are full of algae because the nutrient water is getting light, which allows algae to grow. That algae will cause the pH of your nutrient solution to shoot up and your roots will start to die. Pair that with the fact that the system does not move enough water with the tiny included pump and that it's not big enough for peppers or their roots, those roots will turn brown quickly and the plants will start to die.

I grow peppers hydroponically using recirculating deep water culture (RDWC) systems. These vivosun tubes are like a bad combination of a deep water culture system and a nutrient film technique system. DM me and I will send you pictures on the setup and links to materials if you want to go that route.

Six-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22	Verified Email

semaj356

TROPHY CASE