From week to week this brownish root sludge just keeps popping up. It’s so incredibly frustrating. One week the roots look great, the next they are all sludged up. I don’t understand why this keeps happening. I change the water every week. Most recently this sludge showed up about one day after water change - but not in all of them. A different group of buckets is due for a water change in a couple days and those roots look fine. New white roots are growing along side the sludgy ones (when there is sludge, that is) - usually on different sides of the baskets, but sometimes they are entangled within the sludgy ones. They are all treated and fed the same and this sludge seems to pop up totally randomly. If I never looked at the roots, I would never think there is a problem. They are growing and progressing well, all green, etc. I do use tap (well) water, but I have done so for a while and never had such back and forth problems with this sludge. I’m not sure how I could even use RO water, etc - I would need 50-100gal each week. I dunno how people do this. Air and water temps hold pretty steady at 70 degrees. Humidity around 40%. pH at 6.0 They have been vegging for about 4 weeks. Feed them GH trio - 20ml micro, 20ml grow, 10ml flower per 5gal bucket. Also use Hydrogaurd every week - 10ml per bucket. Sometimes this Hydrogaurd clears up the sludge overnight. Sometimes it seems to do nothing. Can anyone help me cure this problem? Is there something else I can treat this with like Great White, etc? I don’t know what else I can do to give these plants what they need. Thanks all!!
Clorox bleach can help. 2-4 drops per gallon added every 3 days or so to replace dissipated chlorine can keep root rot away. Much higher doses are needed to get rid of it. Here's a link that introduces the idea Sterile UC users, how do you keep your reservoir sterile?
The air stones are clean and all the buckets are bubbling well. Using these pumps: Elemental O2 Commercial Air Pump (951 Gph) Elemental O2 Pump, 380 gph
I use purified well water also and never have that problem..... ever cleaned your equipment with hydrogen peroxide?
I've never had root rot, and can't advise, but I suspect twice the dosage I listed might be a place to start. Googling "clorox and root rot" will probably yield a lot of useful info. The highly respected nute/hydro company Current Culture sells dilute bleach for an exorbitant price, and recommends its use in their regimen. All the elements in bleach are useful to our plants, including chlorine, so it isn't to be feared in small amounts.
I’ve read using hydrogaurd and h2o2 together will kill everything and should never be done. I dunno how true this is. In researching, using h2o2 (alone) for root rot, in reservoirs, etc is quite controversial. Some say never ever use it. Some use it regularly to control several problems.
I added 2ml of Clorox to a couple buckets about 18 hours ago. The plants are unaffected as I assumed they would be. The roots/sludge looks the same, but I would expect it to need a few days to be noticeable. Should I add more? When?
The message boards I've seen this discussed on say that the added clorox dissipates in about 2-3 days. I am now routinely adding about 1-2 drops per gallon per day.
I found if am using nutrients that don't mix together and create a slim inside my aeroponic systems .. Main reason I only use certain nutrients ,,, I only use Canna terra products ..and one flowering nutrient made by Rock resonator . I also change my water every ten days and only use RO water. You can use a fish tank UVC light that will kill everything single celled in the reservoir . 30 percent or 33 percent Hydrogen peroxide works to , I would have to look up how much per gallon .
UVC light sounds interesting. It kills everything good and bad? It won’t hurt the roots, etc? I need to research this more..
I use sm-90 at 3ml per litre in every nute mix. First thing I add. I run my res around 29*c most of the time and never had a single issue. Smells lovely too lol Sent from my SM-G850F using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I have read about sm90 before. I don’t remember if it was in regard to root rot or not. I’ll have to look into that again. Holy crap - I can’t believe you can have success with an 85 degree res?!?
UVC lighting kills everything single celled if exposed long enough , good or bad . If exposed long enough UVC will blind you, give you cancer and kill you and everyone else in your home … Also depends on the wattage of the UVC light on how long it takes to kill fungi and bacteria . UVC light emits a deadly ozone , the light doesn't have to strike the single celled plant fungi bacteria or egg larva , the ozone does the same as the light .. UVC light burns plants ,if you have a stronger UVC light like a 85 w or 35 w bulbs then its almost impossible to use in a grow room , I turn my 85 watt UVC light on inside my 4x8 grow tent for one minute per day and the light still wants to kill my plants . you can use a fish tank UVC light in your reservoir but I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT WILL DO TO YOUR PLANTS. They are used in room sanitizers and hospitals and hotels casinos use them allot . They wipe out cigarette smell . They use 3w and 5 watt UVC bulbs in the room sanitizers . My first two comments on my first reply was to make it where you didn't ever have to use UVC lighting, or hydrogen peroxide nor bleach or anything else .. Just don't use water and nutrients that create algae or slim is the simplest way . And I can tell you which nutrients to buy so you don't have the algae slim issues .
Profile pic barely made it under 27*c from week about 3 mate. Goes pear shaped pretty quick if i let it sit 31+ but 29 doesn't give me any grief. Even at 31+ it's the plants that get stressed, deficiencies etc. Still doesn't give me root problems. I've tried it without sm90 and it fucked the plant in 10 days, it was stinkin. Ive been told if you keep it 17-22 then you shouldn't have any problems but can't say I've tried it Spend loads of money and time keeping it in check or I can just use sm90 that costs about £20 per 3000 litres. Sent from my SM-G850F using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I was at my local hydro store today and I checked out the canna terra products they had. The ones you mentioned do sound intriguing. It says they are made specifically for recirculating systems. Do I use half the strength listed on the bottle as with most nutes? What are the names of the canna terra grow nutes and the other rock resonator flowering nutes you use? The canna terra stuff was about the same price as the GH stuff so it’s worth a shot. I’m not gonna be able to change my water until I look into getting an RO system for my house. It won’t happen this grow. I’ve also been rethinking blindly changing the water simply because it’s been 7-10 days. These particular root rot problems popped up the day after I changed the water when they were really all doing fine in the water they were in.