Algae? Whats this slimy stuff in my DWC water?

I'm doing some maintenance to my room today and I drain one of my RDWC buckets to find some brownish stuff on the bottom and the sides. When rubbed off it sticks to itself and floats around in the water. It is in all 4 buckets. How does this look and what should be my plan of action?

This was on my drain. I only took a picture of this because it comes right off, but in the bucket most of the bottom has a layer of this brownish stuff.

H2O2.

The higher percentage, the better (I use 35%, but 3% from any pharmacy will work).

Getting more DO (dissolved oxygen) in your water will help as well - more air pumps are never a bad thing.

How much pharmacy grade do you use per gallon? Where do you get 35% hydro store? What does the h202 kill?

cardholders said:

How much pharmacy grade do you use per gallon? Where do you get 35% hydro store? What does the h202 kill?

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I like to use 2-3 tablespoons of the 3% per gallon of water as a preventive measure from time to time. I imagine you could use at least twice as much without harm. I think for 35% that works out to about one tablespoon to six gallons of water.

H2O2 kills all bacteria. Doesn't always work on algae.

Ok, nice. I'm gonna do that in the moning.

Any ideas what the brown stuff is?

I put the H202 in, and a couple days later it was still full of the brownish stuff sticking to the bottom, and the sides.

yesterday I replaced the water. I Drained everything, and cleaned all of the buckets thoroughly.

Last night, it had stuff in the bucket already. I put h202 3% in, and today it has accumulated more of the slimy stuff.

Just checked Ph and it is at 7. water temps are cool, bubblers bubbling good, room temp goes into the 60's at night, and is in low 80's at hottest part of day.

Whats my problem here?

disgusting. get new stuff or scrub everything. cut away the root rot if there is any
mix a new solution with only salts and h2o2, oxygenate it very well - pH it to 5.8 - make sure it stays below 65F - no organics and you should be fine. don't fuck around with trying to keep your organics and trying to use the same res and that shit - be brutal with the rot on the roots and you won't have to do it several times, the problem WILL just come back if all you use is h2o2. You actually take a pair of scissors to the roots and perform some surgery bud. the roots will grow back. unless your mid flowering it won't be a HUGE deal to recuperate but I personally fucking hate root rot.

you need a sponge, rubbing alcohol or anti-bacterial soap, hot water, and elbow grease...


check your pH every 12 hrs if you can and lower it to 5.8 - nasties thrive over 6.5 so 7 is just too high man. - any abnormal rise in ppms or root chunks floating around mean you need to keep changing it until it is clean.


since ur in RDWC this should be easy clean just get some more 5 gallons and set the plants in them with a good cleaning solution (i.e. 1.2 EC, 35% H2O2 3-5ml/gal or 15ml/gal of 5%) and lots of air while you scrub.

Ok, so besides H202. what should I put in the water? Currently there is Gen Hydro 3 part and H202 in the water. What kind of salts are you talking about? Epsom?

I think I found where some light was coming in. Everything seemed to be covered, but the clear 1/4" air line going into a hole in the bucket was probobly the culprit. Hopefully that will keep it from coming back.

So, what should I add to the water?

The main thing when dealing with algae is prevention:
#1 is light.; any light getting into the resevoir is never a good thing, it will promote the growth of algae.
#2 is Temperature; Higher temperatures will also promote the growth of algae.

If you take the proper steps to prevent the growth of algae you will never have to battle it !!

I would stay away from using peroxide in your hydro system, it eliminates the algae yes, but it also kills alot of the micro-organisms in your nutrients that are very benificial to your plants growth.
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/278797-first-time-grow-1-killer.html
I personally would not add anything to the water, I would remove everything from the resevoir and rinse everything under the tap Including the roots of the plant or plants. I would not use any cleaning solution.
Put everything back together and your good to go. Keep an eye on it, if you prevent it it won't be able to grow.