Dear HardDrive, I agree that hydrogen peroxide works excellent for keeping things clean, but I am reluctant to use it because I heard it degrades the nutrients. Also, when I called the General Hydroponics, toll-free phone hotline, the phone/technical support agent told me that it is a last resort type of thing. So, because of the fact that I am keeping my reservoir temperature in the sweet spot for growing, by using frozen ice bottles, I am using Dutch Master ZONE, to ward off root rot, just incase I fall asleep, or something, and the temperature gets too high. The Dutch Master ZONE kills good and bad bacteria so I don't use it with any beneficial bacteria. As for the slime that I had, I cleaned the airstone, that it was forming on, and cleaned the reservoir too. I don't know why the hell it formed but, with this new batch of water and Dutch Master ZONE (no nutrients until the cuttings root), I did not add the SUPERthrive, that I had added before, to see if maybe it had something to do with it. It's been almost 24 hours now, since I discovered and removed the white/clear slime, and there is not any more of it forming while maintaining my reservoir temperatures at 60 to 65 degrees. I definitely agree with you that pieces of stems, that fall into the reservoir, can cause rot problems. P.S. Your plants look very nice. You are a very successful grower and probably already know all about Dutch Master ZONE and all that. Well, I'll leave this reply so others can read it. Thanks.
HardDrive knows his stuff man he helped me when i was setting up my grow. But honestly if I was having that many problems with my setup i'd switch to soil. But if you are committed to DWC (which i hope you are i'm doing it for my first grow with great results) then a res chiller may be necessary. I'm wondering if its not something part of your build that could be causing the issues, just seems like you are having a lot of unusual trouble. Any metal parts in your build, I know its not likely to be causing the slime but if any metal is in the any of the water it could be fucking with your grow.
I got some stuff from the hydro store called sm-90, which is safe for use in organics and is like peroxide. Gonna use it in veg state instead of peroxide. Mixing an tea that has organic stuff in it. I'm using h202 in my GH with my 2 flowering plants. Haven't had hany ill effects. I bought 29% and put 1ml per gallon every rez change/5 days depending on how temps have been.
Dear ArsenalOfCronic, Yes. In fact I do have a piece of metal in my build. It is the temperature probe that comes off of my digital thermometer. I stick the probe into the reservoir, and leave it there 24 hours per day, to get a reading of the water temperature in my reservoir. I am almost sure that it is a stainless metal since no rust has formed. Do you think that this piece of metal could cause problems? By the way, I still don't have the legal status to grow Marijuana, and am just growing Sweet Basil to learn hydroponics. But I use this Marijuana growing forum to get information so that I will know how if I ever get the chance. Plus I like talking to people who do grow bud hydroponically because I have an obsession with Marijuana. I try and tell everyone who I talk to, that I am not growing the herb, but thought that whatever kind of plant that you are growing doesn't matter and is the same when it comes to reservoir temperature. Although this is true, sometimes I get carried away and just don't say anything. Sorry about that if this was the case for you. Oh. And by the way, if Basil is like Cannabis, are you doing DWC? Because I was wondering, if you do, do you use beneficial bacteria? You see I'm wondering if doing the whole benefical bacteria thing, in DWC, would be better than using Dutch Master ZONE. But if you think that this is information only for Marijuana growers, and that it doesn't apply to any other plant, please disregard this question. Just an update to everyone reading this thread... The white slime hasn't come back. I'm thinking that my reservoir temperature got high when I was asleep and caused the slime to grow. Also, I'm gearing up to buy a reservoir chiller and one of those light emitting diode (LED) UFO grow lights (blue spectrum for vegatative growth). I'll purchase another one, with the red spectrum, later, when I get my hands on the right to legally grow herb. P.S. Thanks Tommatt, I will look up SM-90.
Dear Readers, The slime has started coming back. First the water looked cloudy... and now I see small traces of the white slime on my airstone. I have decided that I can't afford a reservoir chiller at this time and was real frustrated. I ended up adding 1ml of 29% strength Hydrogen Peroxide, per gallon, to my reservoir... even though I heard that it degrades the nutrients. I know you guys have already posted how much hydrogen peroxide to use but... is it every two days, or every three days, that you add 1ml of hydrogen peroxide per gallon of water? This first hydroponic attempt is like a nightmare to me. Thanks to all for the help! P.S. Dear brizoke, I'm still for sure going to get the black air-line tubing. Thanks.
You have to get it now. No light can enter the rez, not even from the net pot. Get some black silicone airline at petco or petsmart, also wrap black plastic or a reflective covering over the net pot. No light can enter the rez or buckets. My rez temp at the beginning of my grow crept into the high 80's with no problems. I only use hydroton, so I am not sure about rockwool in the net pot. I would not invest in a chiller yet. You should not get any slime once rez and containers are totally light proofed.
Dear brizoke, Thanks for the help. You were absolutely right about light getting in some how. I held my reservoir lid up to my light and what do you know... there was light leaking in through the one, net pot that I checked. I immediately covered each net pot with the foil tape; the same foil tape that I wrapped my reservoir with. For now I have Hydrogen Peroxide in the tank (5ml in 6 gallons of water) and that will take care of any slime growing from the clear airline tubing. As soon as the pet stores open tomorrow, I am going to go and get the black, silicone airline tubing. Because I am reluctant to use hydrogen peroxide ever since I heard that it degrades the nutrients, I am not going to add anymore of it once I get the black tubing. Big thanks to you brizoke! Here I thought that I did not have any light leaks! Hah!
Dear GrassCity Users, I got the black tubing but the slime still formed on my airstone. I had an idea that my air pump was way to powerful for my one reservoir. I think it is made for like six reservoirs or something. So I thought that heat was coming from the air pump and the airstone was getting warm enough to grow slime. At first I put a fan blowing on this heavy duty air pump to cool it off, but slime still formed on the air stone. Then I switched back to my very weak, 28 gallon per hour air pump, and am testing to see if slime will grow with it. As for water temperatures, I keep the water temperature between 60 and 64 degrees... by adding frozen water bottles to the tank. Also, with the weak airstone, there was not any water flow to keep the water mixed up and so I added my water pump to the reservoir. The outlet, on my water pump, is on the top of it, so I just laid the pump on it's side and it keeps the water mixed and temperatures evenly distributed.
So strange that you are having such issues. Try getting rid of whatever additive you have in there, I forgot the name already. Just roll with the 3 Part Flora, or 2, or whatever you're using. I know for a fact my bubble bucket is not 100% light proof, nor is the water ever under 85 degrees, and my plant is fine. Dunno man, crazy stuff.
I believe the slime you are talking about may be root rot and you have caused it somehow. I'd say change the res every 4 or 5 days, use a weak nute solution, add some h202 every other day. See what happens.
The key to not getting root rot is having a shit load of bubbles in your reservoir. I use a GH dual diaphram pump for each of my 5 gallon buckets. My res temps get up to 80 degrees and I have perfectly healthy bright white roots. They dont even get stained from the nutes, I use the lucas formula. I have also started using this stuff called sm-90 and a small additive. It is supposed to kill all the bacteria in your buckets. I have seen really good results with my roots looking super white and healthy after using this stuff. Cheers.
I switched back to my big air pump because the slime grew on the airstone, even when I was using the small air pump. I have a shit load of bubbles in my reservoir now and took the recommendation from graphuto, to stop using the additive. The additive was Dutch Master ZONE and so I did a reservoir change, adding the 3-part, Flora Series nutrients without the ZONE this time. I did take HardDrive's advice also, and I added hydrogen peroxide to the tank; 3ml per gallon of water. It has been one day so far and everything is crystal clear. We will see if the Dutch Master ZONE is the culprit for the damn slime on my airstone. I will keep you guys posted so everyone can see the damn result of this long ride. To Loaf87, I really want to try the sm-90 but am not yet sure if it can be mixed with hydrogen peroxide yet. I gonna try to look into that. It's sounds really good. Peace to all.
Couple more days, add a bit more until all the shit if gone. Then change the water. I just looked at mine a bit ago, water temp, 83 degrees with all the warm weather. White roots, no slime, fucking buds are growing like wild, 2 plants in the same tub drinking a gallon per day. The NL is almost finished, and the WW is still 3 weeks out, unless it finishes very quick.
Dude! HardDrive... Your LED plants look good! Your LED plants look spectacular man! I'm shocked. I heard that LEDs do nothing for budding. Two 120 watt panels I see you were using. I'll have to look back at that thread of yours to see if you already informed that LED was good for budding. I was going to get a 90watt LED but the guy told me that a 400watt HID system was just way better at producing buds. I still want an LED light because heat and electricity is an issue for me. All I have right now is three 105 watt CFL bulbs in a small compact hood.
Thanks Dude. Yeah the 400w HID is way better, and I'll be firing up my HID setup next month. In my garage, there is no insulation, so the heat is killer. So in the summertime, I grow in the little dresser I converted to a grow box. It's 22x32 or something like that. This grow, I hope for 6+ oz's. With the scrog in there I should get at least .7 GPW.
Dear graphuto, your plant looks killer man. I am wondering how you change out the nutrient solution with the scrog net on top of the plant. I know this is gonna sound wierd, but the slime came back again. I went over all of my notes and noticed that I had been adding SUPERthrive to the rez. right before the slime showed up. So I did another reservoir change and am leaving out the SUPERthrive. I will keep everyone posted on this problematic system. Thanks.
O.K. everyone. I believe that throughout this whole thread, I have sounded like a big baby. I also believe that I was very frustrated during the times that I was making the posts that I made in this thread. The problem has been solved. What was causing all the problems was the tap-water I was using. The whole county, that I live in, has an additional sterilizing agent in it's tap-water; one besides chlorine. I am purchasing distilled water from the grocery store now and everything is now great. The hydro store, that I go to, has a 3-part filter that removes most of this extra sterilizing agent, but am going week by week, with the grocery store bought water, until I can afford the filter. I apologize to everyone for the frustration I was having and for sounding so bad and upset throughout this thread. Thank you to everyone for dealing with me so nicely and for giving me so many tips. Peace.