I dont get how other people get away with using buckets that are not light proof. I had nothing but problems.
LUCKY!
Most likely your problems came from something else but you associated it with the buckets instead. I could be wrong but I've never had problems due to those buckets personally. The majority of my problems were due to other variables like air pumps breaking, poor temps or pH problems that weren't fixed in a timely manner. But most of those problems are much harder to affect my plants now because of my Veg-A process putting the main focus into growing a great root structure before placing them into RDWC.