joe macclennan
Well-Known Member
I haven't added any to my rez in close to a week now. Still crystal clear++++++++
Dare I say I am slime free?
Dare I say I am slime free?
using bleach
- Thread starter joe macclennan
- Start date
flyingsteve
Well-Known Member
Let's hope! My slime wouldn't be defeated. I went a few days with clear water and then BAM it came back. I would keep up with your treatment, though... Don't let your guard down.
El Tiberon
Active Member
I am running outdoor aero. I am keeping an eye on the exhaust tube that empties into my res as a sign of algae coming back. This was where the first sign of it appeared initially. If I see some color, I will slap it with another dose. Here is a video of my set-up.
[video=youtube_share;ucrR55fIVIE]http://youtu.be/ucrR55fIVIE[/video]
[video=youtube_share;ucrR55fIVIE]http://youtu.be/ucrR55fIVIE[/video]
flyingsteve
Well-Known Member
About your peppers, my soil garden planted bell peppers didn't take off until the summer temps were hot and stayed hot. They really enjoy the warmer temps. Everything else flourished and took off but they just didn't do much of anything until late July.
Have you had any thoughts of relocating your reservoir to under your deck to reduce temps?
This was the hydro portion of my garden from last year, F&D Yellow Petite watermelon on the right, Cantaloupe to the left and then the tubes were F&D strawberries. I buried the reservoirs to their rims and covered in Reflectix. Also used Great White Myco. Had no issues with algae or pathogens, despite res temps sometimes climbing to 80+
Have you had any thoughts of relocating your reservoir to under your deck to reduce temps?
This was the hydro portion of my garden from last year, F&D Yellow Petite watermelon on the right, Cantaloupe to the left and then the tubes were F&D strawberries. I buried the reservoirs to their rims and covered in Reflectix. Also used Great White Myco. Had no issues with algae or pathogens, despite res temps sometimes climbing to 80+
El Tiberon
Active Member
I can't relocate it. I am using 1 gallon cranberry juice bottles to keep the temps down. They work really well. I invested in a marine cooler and they are insulated to work in the sun. The plants are still making the adjustment to the heat. I almost wish I had gotten them started in mid April. I will keep an eye on the peppers and see how they will do later on in the heat. So far I am pretty happy with the results. Once the plants started making new roots, they took off in growth. Much faster than anything I have ever seen in soil.
joe macclennan
Well-Known Member
are you sterilizing your bottles before reuse?
I did the frozen bottle thing for a while when I was running nft. It's real easy to keep reintroducing the bad stuff back into your rez.
Sativied
Well-Known Member
I'm in my first run hydroponics, aeroflo-clone-ish diy setup, currently in week 7 12/12 and have been using bleach since the start, but not for the past 3 weeks. No problems keeping my rez cool which seems, besides complete darkness and circulation, to be enough. I also use it to clean the rez but haven't been able to do that really since my roots grew back all the way in my rez.
Oh and here's something I just could help trying out, 'mixing bleach with h2o2', it creates a load of bubbles that seems to very effectively clean my sprayers and air stones
Edit:
Oh and here's something I just could help trying out, 'mixing bleach with h2o2', it creates a load of bubbles that seems to very effectively clean my sprayers and air stones
Edit:
Doesn't freezing them kill all bacteria?
flyingsteve
Well-Known Member
I used 16oz water bottles to keep my rez temps down, they did work very well in 16g of water. It was 42f here last night with that cold snap... Now this week it's going back to 80s+! wtf lol.
It was just my results with the peppers. Hydro does grow FAST. The roots have no resistance in their search for water and nutrients so they literally grow inches a day sometimes. I like your setup and am a bit jealous wishing I had the outdoor space to do that... Unfortunately I am an apartment dweller for this season
Freezing doesn't kill the bacteria, at least not at the temp of your freezer... But maybe not at all depending on the bacteria, may just preserve it until it thaws out. I would spray my water bottles with rubbing alc then drop them in.
cannabineer
Ursus marijanus
I'm in my first run hydroponics, aeroflo-clone-ish diy setup, currently in week 7 12/12 and have been using bleach since the start, but not for the past 3 weeks. No problems keeping my rez cool which seems, besides complete darkness and circulation, to be enough. I also use it to clean the rez but haven't been able to do that really since my roots grew back all the way in my rez.
Oh and here's something I just could help trying out, 'mixing bleach with h2o2', it creates a load of bubbles that seems to very effectively clean my sprayers and air stones
Edit:
Doesn't freezing them kill all bacteria?
Usually not. Bacteria are slowed but not killed. cn
I run a constant low level of bleach in my nutes for outdoor aero, just as a preventative measure. I run drain to waste, so no problem with res temp issues.
Personally i would decrease the misting and pause duration to say 10 seconds every 2 minutes for full sun. 10 seconds every 8-10 minutes would be ok at night when the plants dont need as much.
Personally i would decrease the misting and pause duration to say 10 seconds every 2 minutes for full sun. 10 seconds every 8-10 minutes would be ok at night when the plants dont need as much.
El Tiberon
Active Member
I have not been sterilizing the bottles. They basically float around in the res and get drenched in nute solution that contains the pool shock. I have not seen anything remotely close to the algae I had before. The 2 grams per gallon and 1 ounce per gallon of res worked perfectly and has kept things under control. I am pretty transparent about all things I do growing wise. It does not bother me to list my failures or successes. I am tempted to run this solution for another week but in the end it would not be beneficial to the plants, so the res will still be changed weekly. I just open the exhaust valve into a bucket and pour the res solution around the plants in the yard each week. Good place to get rid of it and still get some use from the unused nutes. As close as I can guess the plants are using about 4 gallons of water a week but it is still very early in their life. Soon I expect that number to double or perhaps triple.
I built this system to be taken apart and put back together as quickly as possible. My end caps are all sealed and held in place with a simple nylon nut and bolt. If push came to shove, I could tear this system down, wash it completely and rinse it and put it back together within one timer cycle. I have a lot of photos from the build on another site so if anyone comes across a problem with their own build or needs an idea on how to improve an particular aspect of a build I probably have how-to photos readily available. I am most proud of my end-caps and exhaust drains. They work perfectly. The system is 100% light-proof and leak-proof. Completely sealed.
I built this system to be taken apart and put back together as quickly as possible. My end caps are all sealed and held in place with a simple nylon nut and bolt. If push came to shove, I could tear this system down, wash it completely and rinse it and put it back together within one timer cycle. I have a lot of photos from the build on another site so if anyone comes across a problem with their own build or needs an idea on how to improve an particular aspect of a build I probably have how-to photos readily available. I am most proud of my end-caps and exhaust drains. They work perfectly. The system is 100% light-proof and leak-proof. Completely sealed.
El Tiberon
Active Member
This is something I have been considering. I have been noticing wilt coming on during the hottest part of the day and a fast recovery shortly afterwards when the shade finally hits. I am assuming this is hardening the plants off but I don't want to take a chance at killing them once the 90 degree days begin to wear us out here. They are accepting of the 8 minute off easily from what I have seen, even in full sun but as I mentioned there is some wilt that happens. Most plants even in soil will show wilt in very hot sun around here and they have not died as yet. I will try a couple days of a faster time during the day and see what the results are. If push came to shove I can simply unplug the timer and run the system as DWC with a 800 gph flow through the rails. This pump puts out the water certainly.
flyingsteve
Well-Known Member
You need a temperature/humidity sensor and an arduino so you can have watering controlled automatically! BYAAAA!!!
El Tiberon
Active Member
Tried to rep you again Steve. Thanks for the tip.
joe macclennan
Well-Known Member
Oh and here's something I just could help trying out, 'mixing bleach with h2o2', it creates a load of bubbles that seems to very effectively clean my sprayers and air stones
Edit:
Doesn't freezing them kill all bacteria?
never ever mix bleach and h202 ! bad bad
It causes a chemical reaction and those bubbles you saw are chlorine gas as well as hydrogen and oxygen. Two sides of the fire triangle and the chlorine gas is toxic if at high enough level.
as far as freezing killing bacteria, no
cannabineer
Ursus marijanus
I loved mixing strong HCl with 30% peroxide. Even better than aqua regia for stripping platinum metals off the catalyst bed, and no annoying nitrosyl complexes to decompose. cn
El Tiberon
Active Member
my first job was in fast food in 1982. I mixed bleach and ammonia together to mop the bathrooms. I almost passed out and had the worst headaches I have ever experienced for a few days afterwards. Don't go mixing things that will kill you even if you don't know what they will do. I have been reading up on chlorine and it's potential to cause cancer since I have had this algae issue. I don't know if this is the right way to go IMO.
joe macclennan
Well-Known Member
We are running such a small amount I personally am not worried about it. Eating at mcdonalds will prob. kill you quicker
1itsme
Well-Known Member
I've used bleach b4 when i wqas doing hydro it seemed to work as a preventitive, no luck as a cure tho. never thought of using cal-hypo tho. thats some realy strong stuff, we used to use it when i used to clean pools. cool idea if it doesnt kill the plant, it should kill everything else.
flyingsteve
Well-Known Member
Thanks. I use Arduinos to do lots of projects. I have one controlling my chiller now and I used one a while back to control a high pressure aeroponic setup. That's one method I plan to re-visit some day soon.
rofl
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