algae build/slime up in reservoir

Freezy_

Active Member
I have a chiller running keeping my res at 68 degrees. I am running the full line of canna coco at around 650 ppm. Why is there algae/brown slime all over my pumps and lines every few days? I run mammoth P too but I have been reading people had no problem for up to 10 days with that in their res... I have it chilled with a 300 gph waterfall coming out of the chiller. I keep cleaning it every week or so and its a pain in the ass. Is there something I can run along side the canna nutes that wont harm the enzymes and bacteria? it looks like a brown slime that when I empty my res I can see is all over my lines and pumps. Will something like florakleen kill this bacteria? I'm due for a flush anyway..
 

bomb hills

Well-Known Member
I've been running a recirculating hydro system using GH nutes for years and have never been able to get rid of the brown slime that builds up in the lines. Water is chilled and I use h202 but still have to clean the lines out every 4 weeks or so. Tried Dutch Master Zone too, and that didn't work either. Far as I know florakleen is just for flushing salts away.
 

newguy123

Well-Known Member
I use floranova, great white, cal mag and silica and I get the brown slime after a couple of days. Not harmful just nasty
 

Freezy_

Active Member
Okay so maybe this is something I'm just not used to dealing with. I was always doing organics before and thats not really an option with a drip system. Thanks for the input guys.
 

newguy123

Well-Known Member
I threw out my top feed because it wasn't necessary. Just fill the res more and the turbulence from the air pump will get the roots wet.
 

Freezy_

Active Member
My res is actually outside my room so I run drop lines into the room and then the table is drained back outside the room so sounds like a different setup. First time running coco so I'm sure I'll tweak it a bit as I go but this is the healthiest grow I've had yet and I've been doing this for a few years now.
 

Frostythesnowman88

Active Member
I had that issue running mammoth and hydroguard in my rdwc.... switched to sterile res using uc roots and haven't seen any of that slime/foam since.
 

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
I ran hydroguard for a couple of years and didn't get it. Tubing if not light proof got it. The question I asked re well water was to find out if it could be iron bacteria
 

Freezy_

Active Member
I run tap water through a carbon filter thats supposed to take out all the VOC's but leave trace minerals so it may have iron in it... My lines are all light proof and my res is like 98% light proof.. I'm sure theres some very very small light leaks near where the hoses come out of the lid but even still my basement is dark. I turned my chiller down to try to run closer to 66 degrees instead of 68 to see if that helps.
 
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