I have (3) 2 month old and (2) 1 m.o. all Tahoe OG/unkown OG just transplanted into my newish(tested it on some tomatoes) 40 gal rdwc system. I have an 1/2 hp active aqua chiller connected as well. 420w LED. Filled to my water mark, 30 hours later it was damn near empty. Did they drank that much water? Does the chiller hold any water? Did I just not account for water in the lines around the 9 buckets? I did find a teenie weenie sized wet spot near a fitting but it's a spot that drips really really really slowly(sometimes I accidentally kick it but it never leaked that much). I have 3/4 grommets and 3/4 fitting into the grommets. Is there any trick with sealing barbed fittings any better into the grommet? Wax? Teflon tape?
hose clamps for the barbed fittings. Chillers hold water in their lines along with the lines to and from the res. If your chiller wasnt used yet, this was the chiller filling up with water
Have you looked to see how much water is in the other 9 buckets? Sometimes a RDWC system the pump is too strong and pumps all of the water into the buckets, leaving the controller reservoir empty. I use flow adjusters to adjust the amount of water that is recirculating at one time. Chillers do hold water in the lines from entry to exit, as well as the hoses, but not 40 gallons worth. 40 gallons/9 buckets = 4.44 gallons per bucket. Round that down to account for the lines and assume you should have about 4 gallons for each bucket. If the system is in equilibrium it's water levels should remain relatively the same.
First, shut off the pump and let the water "seek level" before you think it has vanished. The problem with cascading buckets and small diameter transfer lines is that they may not keep up with the pump and you end up with the last bucket "empty" and the first bucket "overfilled". I use a 2" connector between tanks and got rid of this problem. Also, small diameter transfer lines tend to clog.