Brown Algae (snot) and GH Subculture (pics)

Heisenberg said:

Slime loves roots that are constantly in water, so lowering the water level should have helped. However you don't want to lower the water as the roots grow, it should be an inch or so below the net pot.

So looking at the pic I assume that the black gunk starts at the water level, which is why the upper roots look ok? I thought it was jsut left over from the previous infection, but it just showed up? The gunk certainly isn't natural, but it also doesn't look like the slime exactly. It looks like there are new white shoots coming out of the gunk, and that is a good thing. Slime halts almost all root production, so what your looking at may be harmless.

I don't think this is the case, but sometimes you can add too much molasses to the tea, it doesn't all get eaten in 48 hours, and once in the res it feeds the slime. Also if you add too much fungi you can get a similar slime. If you use any sprays be sure they don't drip into the res. If they are organic they will feed the slime, if they are pesitcides they will kill the bennies.

I use a clean contianer for each batch. I go buy the 2.5 gallon plastic jugs of water with a built in spout. When each batch is done, the container gets tossed. Bleaching your bucket isn't nessesary, dawn antibacterial dish soap is fine and rinses away better. Bleach does leave residue but also breaks down pretty quickly, seems unlikely to be the problem but maybe.

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I may have been wrong, the ph does jump from 5.5 to 6.5 in a 24 hour period but I remember you saying that was ok, the black gunk, IT has always been there to a point, maybe there is more now, but not much and the roots are still growing, Ill check them again in a few min, I just got back from the hospital with my lil boy, SO I havent had a chance to check them this evening. Ill put up some more pics of the roots here shortly.

use bleach from the getgo . 1tsp per 25 gallons. commercial greenhouses use it regularly.

I've got GH M&B and had very similar problems. Personally I think the stuff is garbage and has no place in a hydro system. I only use it in my soil plants now. I just add plain uncented 5.25% bleach once a week. I have a 50 gallon res and I add bleach 3 days before every res change and let it flow through there a bit. Nothing but white roots in my latest grow. Every grow subsequent to this one has slowly but surely ended in root rot.

ky|e said:

THis brown algea issue can easily be solved with subculture B.. had the same problem and now I have flawless white root's like on the label... I've noticed that the subcultures stick to the roots really easy, so if you change your rez water alot I would start using smaller amounts... and the subculture M will give ur root ball a brownish look also.. but that's just build up.

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Can you provide a picture of the brown build up on your roots from the Sub-M?

FeFiFoFUM said:

hey I think the slime is comming back, my airstone feels slimey to the touch, and my ph has jumped from 5.5 to 7.2 in less than 24 hours.

I made the tea exactly the same as last time So I dont know whats wrong.

After the last batch of tea I made I cleaned the bucket and airstones i use for the tea with bleach and water, then rinsed for a day and then they air dryed, could this be where the problem lies? if that is the problem would it have rendered this new batch of tea useless? It foamed up like last time I thought that meant the microbes were awake.

IM sure its something Ive done since last innoculation as the tea worked a charm.
also Im using the tea and seaweed as a foliar spray. could this be the issue?

Here is a pic of the airstone and the root massView attachment 1210333

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I think I have that same dark gunk on my roots...did it end up hurting your ladies? I thought it was from the dark sub culture (b?)...

if you are still seeing new root growth and new shoots, you are probably okay. Gunky build up doesn't always indicate infection.

i had the slime an i cleared it up but scrubbing everything out with bleach soaked ph meters etc in h2o2 an replaced air stones with new ones as there cheap and rinsed system with warm water put all back together an then started trimming off bad roots an gave them a little bath in h2o2 i cut some of the large fan leaves fingers in half as if they were clones only this time round when i put plants back into the system i let the water sit in there for 24hours with airpump running an did not ph water just straight tap water the next day i ph'd water to 5.4 an added nutes (JUST BASE NUTES A+B)no enzymes no superthrive no nothing else just base nutes at low concertration about a 3rd of reccomendation also made sure tubs were 100% light proof even some black buckets/tubs that you think are light proof because there black are quite thin an let abit of light through so yeah put the plants in nice clean system an plants have been thriving ever since no more problems i noticed every time i added any zyme products or any other sort of bene supplement things got outta control so this may not be the case for everyone as alot of peeps do not have light proof tubs and your water gets over 72 degrees then thats when your problems also start an one more thing every time you lift that pot to look at your roots you might snap one off it starts to decay in your system an then you start to get your problems this is just my opinion now i just ph water add just base nutes no boosters enzymes etc an there thriving

just some info for those with this problem fox farms puts out a couple products called micro brew and kangaroots root drench sounds like thy have damn near all ath stuff your talking about and you wouldn't have to make the tea. hell one of the two is dreived from worm castings so it sounds like some one already cashed out on your big idea which is a bummer but easier for me

yeah, everyone dont listen to the above post. if your fox farm products were such a great solution and 'easier for you', why is it you continue to post about your ongoing slime problem on other threads?

if anyone needs a REAL solution, here it is:
https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/361430-dwc-root-slime-cure-aka.html

cheers
mr.bond

that sub M is junk for dwc for some reason. same thing happened to me in my dwc (made slime worse). I stopped using in and just added the B and the slime went away. Then I added some great white from plant success and roots were everywhere. letely I have been experimenting with with any myco product I can get my hands on and I add them directly to my res...different ones mixed together in different tubs between gh, humboldt, plant success, So far I found the humbolts white widow&sub B to be working the best. My roots are just a crazy huge whiteness fuzzy ball now

*That heins bennie tea brew will work good 2

*damn after writing all this I realized everyones posting to a post from jan 2011

Trying Subculture B/M out now, because I have to (brown slime). They were just launched tonight.

I'm trying something mentioned on another forum - 'Best thing I EVER added to my res...' https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=254482

A $20 aquarium bio-filter with the subculture b/m added into one of the filter packs. I went out and purchased a tetra whisper filter 10-20 at Wally-World last night.

I've got a UC home-built system that has had brown-slime issues for two weeks now. Nothing seems to be working. I've read, and tried, nearly everything except starting over. Everything seems to help, but it comes back every time after a few days.

The white-mesh filter bag is easily open-able, so I put some Subculture B and M in there and am running the system now.

Reading through aquarium tank-care has been an eye opening adventure of the 'Nitrogen cycle'. I have 'high' expectations this will work. A test of subculture microbes - are they up for the task?

Update:

This is the worst thing ever added to my res. Granted, I'm the one at fault, somewhat. I tired to bypass starting the beneficials in a separate bucket and adding directly to the res with the biofilter.

I can say the biofilter helped encourage growth - of the wrong organism. Less than 24hrs after adding, the bad bacteria / algea / WTF had eaten most of the root system of my plants.

So... don't do it this way. If you have a infestation, don't add a bio filter to the res. I guess you'd have to pre-start the beneficials in a separate bucket and transfer.

As an aside note, I bought some EPA certified (fairly accurate) chlorine test strips to test Free Chlorine so I could disinfect my reservoir. Drained, refilled with fresh water - added chlorine to get .5ppm and tried to hold for an hour. I added, at times, 90ml of chlorine to get FC up to 1ppm. FC dropped like a stone after being added. I probably added over a cup of bleach over the course of yesterday to achieve any workable FC level. An interesting experiment, illustrates how tough the brown slime can be. Drained and added fresh water again.