DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes

Doer

Well-Known Member
I think I may have overdone it lol. That said, I actually applied 1 cup per gallon in this reservoir (as Hseinberg recommended for bad infestations). I said 3 cups per gallon by mistake (wrote my original post in a panic early this morning).

I believe I did follow the instructions. It said 24 to 48 hours, with 48 being optimal. I opted for 24.

Is this after-slime (good bacteria) or something else? Has anyone seen it before after applying a tea?

Thanks.
Is what after-slime? Can someone post a picture of that? I really don't know what it looks like.
 

Olympus Mons

Well-Known Member
I had to dump my tea because it had already gone bad after only 5 days. My res had a really bad gunk buildup and I dumped all the water. The remains had such a bad sewage smell that I almost threw up. It smelled like feces in my hands. It took a long time to properly clean out everything. So yes you can overdo the tea because i followed his recipe exactly and it only produced minimal roots and the remains smelled like crap.
You are doing it incorrectly. Are you dumping the compost/Ancient Forest directly into your res? That would do it. You need to use tea bags so that the tea has no particles in it. When it's done brewing you should have a slightly amber looking, but mostly clear and clean solution. Filtering it before adding it to the res is easy and help keep you pumps and lines clean.

According to the label Plant Success Granules contains "feather meal, meat meal, bone meal, blood meal, fish meal, and humic acids." Those are organic fertilizers that will gunk up your DWC. Your tea smells like shit because you dumped shit into it. Only use a simple hydro nutrient like GH Micro and Bloom, Advanced, House and Garden, etc and the tea using EXACTLY what is in the recipe. You don't even need to add mycorrhiza to the tea at all, you can just sprinkle it in the res. Great White and ZHO are recommended products.
 

Doer

Well-Known Member
I had to dump my tea because it had already gone bad after only 5 days. My res had a really bad gunk buildup and I dumped all the water. The remains had such a bad sewage smell that I almost threw up. It smelled like feces in my hands. It took a long time to properly clean out everything. So yes you can overdo the tea because i followed his recipe exactly and it only produced minimal roots and the remains smelled like crap.
You can overdo the ZHO. And when you do, you get a horrid stench and gray scum.
 

Doer

Well-Known Member
I tried reading through the entire thread but I could not find the reason for straining the tea. I am using ZHO, Aquashield, and Plant Success Granular. I would think that keeping the Plant Success Granular in the batch would help overall. What do you think Heisenberg? Why do you strain the tea?

Also, would adding Clonex Clone Solution to the batch do anything or would it be harmful to the tea microbes?
- from the FAQ a few hundred miles back, "...don't strain beyond 400 microns."

And what the heck has come over you? Why did you add Organic plant grow booster? Why are you asking about Clonex?

This is so funny. It is all there. It works. People come here concerned for their roots and say I added organics and plant food to the tea, is it OK? I only brewed a 1/4 cup is that OK?

I brew with dirt and leaves I found on my walks, is that OK?

Who are you asking? Mr. H? He won't say anything. Too nice a guy.

NO. NONE IS OK, except the strict instruction which we follow and have success.

Why not just do that?

About your roots. Bottom dead and top alive. Good luck so far. What I do, is put on gloves or wash my hands very well and go among the root and carefully work out all that scum. It is decaying roots and good for nothing. Just gentle and carefully mash and release. Try to separate clumps, repeat. The decay can be released and drained away.

Good luck. If it was easy anyone could do it. :)
 

MrMoPho

New Member
Hi everyone. Just want to say thanks to Mr. H and all the people that have made this a very helpful and interesting thread.

I have read all the way through to page 211. Still haven't found the answer to a problem that I've encountered from using this tea.

I am running a FnD with a 40gal rez. In the rez there is an aquarium bio-filter. Don't have any serious problem, but as suggested I decided to use this tea as a preventative.

Brewed the tea according to what I read.
2gal
handful of AF
2scoop of GW
2ml RE
bubbled for 48 hours, not too much foam, but did get a nice earthly smell.

So I went ahead and add 1000ml (appx 1cup per 10gal). Everything seem fine until the next day. Went and checked my rez. There's this smell best described as "fish aquarium".

Is this expected or should I empty and do a complete rez change? Oh BTW I never change rez. Only top off and never really had any problems.

Ps Mr. H what's your opinion on this idea. Instead of using lava rocks (because they can be pricey), how about using sponges (kitchen scrubbing or something similar) in the brew bucket to inoculate the bennies? Then dropping the sponges into rez?
 

Situation420

Well-Known Member
Beneficials are definitely a necessary step.
This is my first post but after reading how much insight you have into gardening I had to comment when i saw that.
Even if you grow your plants in a sterile solution using 0.5 percent H2O2 that prevents all microbial growth they will not grow as big as plants that have been inoculated with beneficial bacteria. The correct beneficial bacteria blend will prevent almost every issue in a DWC reservoir outside of ph and temperature issues if they are applied properly. The bacteria prevents disease, breaks down waste, provides roots with more accessible essential micronutrients that are typically overlooked when talking about solutions, help stabilize the ph, and even help oxygenate the roots. Honestly knowing the correct blend of beneficial bacteria with proper enzyme and sugars/starches is what what separates good from great regardless of the whatever companies products are used.
 

kang420

Well-Known Member
AN contributed to a brown slime problem that i have. i used ph perfect sensi ab grow and in that they include wet betty which is an organic surfactant. bc its organic it contributed to the slime problem. all of their base nutes have this, so if you are having a slime problem now and are using AN nutes but cant figure out where it's comming from.... there's your answer.


thanks for figuring out the problem Heisenberg!! my ladies are doing much better now.
I wish i had seen this thread before deciding to go DWC! i bought the AN ph perfect and the vj and b-52 and big bud thinking it was the best on the market when it was so expensive, fuck me was i wrong!!

slime outbreak hit me bad and all the h202 in the world could not help me, i was about to throw in the towel when i found this thread, bought ewc aquashield and zho and it done nothing at all! i was really fucked off when i read through 200 pages only to find this gem about advanced nutrients

i had some old GH micro and bloom and i done a rez change and used GH lucas formula rather than AN ph perfect ( my ph was going sky high with this AN crap! )
and yes you guessed it slime died overnight and roots began exploding, the roots were more or less gone and plant was in flower, even the leaves were burning away and now its back to life better than ever!! my ph for the first time ever is solid and i have not adjusted it in over a week. 3 gallon oxypot.

I am looking forward to starting my next grow which will have no AN products involved and i think if i get a good start with bennies i will be good,
Q. how do people use this stuff without slime wtf???

Heisenberg i want to thank you from the bottom of my broken heart! you saved me and opened my eyes, ive read 200 pages so far and intend to read the rest in the coming days, i just felt the need to come here and tell people who maybe having the same problem,

happy trails
 

Downinit

Active Member
I use AN and I agree they r expensive... That being said, I use AN Ph perfect In a DWC with GREAT results!! This will be my 4th grow and im loving the results. I use the a+B, both grow and flower, DG protekt, b-52, big bud, also. Unless I miss read ur above post I didn't see where u used molasses? That is a KEY ingrediant! I always use Mr. H tea to prevent the problem and I've NEVER had a problem since. Agin sorry if I miss read ur previous post!! Good luck my friend.
 

Stylez C

Member
why is my plant's stems purple and have blotches on the leaves???the ones in soil are growing faster than the one im experimenting with in DWC. I thought DWC was suppose to grow faster? please help
 

kang420

Well-Known Member
I use AN and I agree they r expensive... That being said, I use AN Ph perfect In a DWC with GREAT results!! This will be my 4th grow and im loving the results. I use the a+B, both grow and flower, DG protekt, b-52, big bud, also. Unless I miss read ur above post I didn't see where u used molasses? That is a KEY ingrediant! I always use Mr. H tea to prevent the problem and I've NEVER had a problem since. Agin sorry if I miss read ur previous post!! Good luck my friend.
Of course i use molasses to brew the tea, i follow the recipe to the tee and it works great with lucas formula, if i use AN ph perfect even just the A&B without any bigbud or b-52 or anything root growth stops completely and slime jumps on the roots within 12 hours, this is one guy who will never buy AN again!

like i said i have no idea how anyone is able to use this without disaster, maybe if seedling is inoculated early on it might be able to handle it? when i start my next grow i will inoculate right away and i wont be adding Advanced nutrients
 

Doer

Well-Known Member
why is my plant's stems purple and have blotches on the leaves???the ones in soil are growing faster than the one im experimenting with in DWC. I thought DWC was suppose to grow faster? please help
Well, are you using the tea? Can you post a picture over in the problem section? DWC is the fastest way overall, but you don't say how long it is you compared. In fact you said very little.

In fact, please read that first sentence again and see what I mean about not nearly enough information to help you.

In fact, please ask yourself, without giving us any useful information, how are we suppose to know? :)

Oh, and what I tell every single kid these days with "Why" questions.....

Think of another question. There is no ultimate answer to Why.

We don't know, Why Anything. That is so we can have:

Who, what, where, when, how?

Why is not relevant in troubleshooting, only what to do next?

To fix anything we need to know HOW you got there, not why.

You know why.....it was you. :)
 

Doer

Well-Known Member
Of course i use molasses to brew the tea, i follow the recipe to the tee and it works great with lucas formula, if i use AN ph perfect even just the A&B without any bigbud or b-52 or anything root growth stops completely and slime jumps on the roots within 12 hours, this is one guy who will never buy AN again!

like i said i have no idea how anyone is able to use this without disaster, maybe if seedling is inoculated early on it might be able to handle it? when i start my next grow i will inoculate right away and i wont be adding Advanced nutrients
I've been having good success finally since I switched to Dutch Masters ONE. It seems more expensive until I realized trying to push the ppm to 1200 and more is foolish unless you take a good long veg time to get them up to that.

Of course, we see all kinds of claims. But, if we look here, one of the best sources in the world for fellow grower tips, we see that 400 for a 1 foot plant is Big feeding in Hydo.

So, I'm in 70 liter uc, and it just takes 50 to 100 ml of product. The DM ONE has a base mineral solution, Add.27 that in my pond is .5 ml per 1 PPM. Add 100 ml, push 50 PPM.

The Flower and Bloom formulas are the opposite. 1 ml = 2 PPM

So, it is really not that expensive. I also run, Exeluartor, and Tea. Plus Gravity the middle 5 weeks of Bloom. I got rock hard thumb sized nugs last time from the Gravity.

Again, just tiny amounts, work up to 1/2 strength.

Then to really be cheap, I foliar feed with Liquid Light and Satuator 3 x week. Spray with Snowstorm Ultra, once a week.

Oh, and to harden the roots I use B-1 dip between transplants.

It is all about growing roots. If you can grow roots in hydro, the rest will take care of itself. I will go in again today with gloves and clean up the roots. I am thinking, "maybe next time" I won't crash my roots within the first 2 weeks. :)

But, when I do, I go in now over many days and keep cleaning them until the scum patches are out. Those also wreak the pH.

I know I'm good when the pH just sticks a 5.8 or 5.9 for the entire week.
 

Downinit

Active Member
Of course i use molasses to brew the tea, i follow the recipe to the tee and it works great with lucas formula, if i use AN ph perfect even just the A&B without any bigbud or b-52 or anything root growth stops completely and slime jumps on the roots within 12 hours, this is one guy who will never buy AN again!

like i said i have no idea how anyone is able to use this without disaster, maybe if seedling is inoculated early on it might be able to handle it? when i start my next grow i will inoculate right away and i wont be adding Advanced nutrients
Hard to believe its not working and u are blaming the nutes. Could it be user error? Like I said it works GREAT. For me in DWC, as a matter of fact my PE will be cut down Saturday and I'm thinking 6oz from one plant grown in 5gal DWC using AN & mr. h tea.. Just trying to help but it seems u already have it figured out... As I said I too use AN ph perfect. Do ur thing man, whatever works.
 

kang420

Well-Known Member
Hard to believe its not working and u are blaming the nutes. Could it be user error? Like I said it works GREAT. For me in DWC, as a matter of fact my PE will be cut down Saturday and I'm thinking 6oz from one plant grown in 5gal DWC using AN & mr. h tea.. Just trying to help but it seems u already have it figured out... As I said I too use AN ph perfect. Do ur thing man, whatever works.
Ill say again the tea is working flawlessly i could not be happier with it and i brew it the same each time and it works a treat, the only time it does not work is when i use AN ph perfect instead of lucas formula, like heis said the ph perfect has wet betty in it which is organic and that is what is feeding the slime, it works for you because you have the slime well beaten by the sounds of it, i wont take any futher chances with AN its just not worth going back to slime and adding weeks/months to my grow.

so ive just finished reading every post in ever page of this thread and what a wealth of info, i have a couple of questions that i dont think were asked if anyone could shed light on it,

1. for the first time in dwc my ph is stable and not sky rocketing it stays around 5.4-5.6 i would like to take it up to 5.8 even only for a day or two if the ph were to fall but i dont have any ph up as ive never needed it, i have however liquid silicon and wish to know if it would be safe and ok to use as ph up rather than buy normal ph up, i know it will raise my ppm a little but not much, i only have one plant in a 3gallon oxy-pot so it dont take much liquid silicon to raise the ph

2. i have rhizotonic and was wondering if anyone adds it in the rez or only for brewing tea/folair spray? when i start my next grow should i add 10ml per gallon to the tea to give it a boost? my tea recipe now is:
1gal ro water zero ppm
an 8th teaspoon subculture-b
7.5ml aquashield
1 handfull EWC
4ml molasses
and after 46 hours an 8th teaspoon zho powder

should i add rhizotonic to that when i have it?

i will take heisenberg's advise and soak the rockwool in ro water with a little fresh tea and after soaking seeds in water to it sinks ill roll it in zho powder
 

Malevolence

New Member
so ive just finished reading every post in ever page of this thread and what a wealth of info, i have a couple of questions that i dont think were asked if anyone could shed light on it,

1. for the first time in dwc my ph is stable and not sky rocketing it stays around 5.4-5.6 i would like to take it up to 5.8 even only for a day or two if the ph were to fall but i dont have any ph up as ive never needed it, i have however liquid silicon and wish to know if it would be safe and ok to use as ph up rather than buy normal ph up, i know it will raise my ppm a little but not much, i only have one plant in a 3gallon oxy-pot so it dont take much liquid silicon to raise the ph
You did better than me... I only read Heisenberg's posts... too many pages and still took a month. The cloner looks pretty nice, wonder how that's working out or if there's a version 2.

A lot of people use silica as ph up or add plain water. Obviously your silica would have to raise the ph, because some drop ph like I think silica blast. Pro-tekt is often used as ph up.
 

kang420

Well-Known Member
You did better than me... I only read Heisenberg's posts... too many pages and still took a month. The cloner looks pretty nice, wonder how that's working out or if there's a version 2.

A lot of people use silica as ph up or add plain water. Obviously your silica would have to raise the ph, because some drop ph like I think silica blast. Pro-tekt is often used as ph up.
The liquid silicon i have is like a ph up, its called growth technology see link below, if i add 1ml to my 3 gallon oxy-pot it takes the ph from 5.4 to 5.6 so it takes very little, just wanted to make sure its safe and wont cause slime or i will have to get normal ph up

http://www.growthtechnology.com/liquidsilicon.asp
 

Ickyness

New Member
Hey all, first post. I read patiently through the first 108 pages and I saw no mention of this, so I think it'd be safe to ask. I have AN's full line of Ph Perfect bigger yields grow bundles. (I inherited all my nutes for free from my brother who no longer grows, so $1000 worth of AN stuff for free isn't bad I'd say)

He swears by AN's Ph Perfect line. I have two questions regarding the tea and AN products though:

1. Making my own tea from tarantula, piranha, and voodoo juice is what made my slime problem worse. Right now, my system has been running distilled water and h2o2 for about 24 hours to sanitize while I brew my "HeisenTea" (Auquashield, ZHO powder, and EWC in a pantyhose, 24 out of 48 hours brewing so far). Am I safe to completely leave all AN microbe products off my feed schedule from now on? Will that interfere with AN's PH perfect line of things? I don't even have a PH meter because my hydro guy was so confident in the Ph Perfect line he told me I would never need one. So, I'm a bit concerned as I'm fairly new to the scene.

2. I've also been studying on the effects that carbs have on plants when fed a small amount of carbs their whole life. Will carbohydrates cause my slime problem to explode again? I'm no scientist (yet!), but I think carbohydrates are included in the organic material that Heisenberg has told us all to not use. Specifically, I have AN's carboload and bud candy for carbs. Carboload during Veg, and bud candy for bloom.

Are there any AN people out there who could shed some light on this? Thanks in advance!

Oh, also I feel that I should mention I use a perpetual Aero system for veg and bloom.
 

Downinit

Active Member
Hey all, first post. I read patiently through the first 108 pages and I saw no mention of this, so I think it'd be safe to ask. I have AN's full line of Ph Perfect bigger yields grow bundles. (I inherited all my nutes for free from my brother who no longer grows, so $1000 worth of AN stuff for free isn't bad I'd say)

He swears by AN's Ph Perfect line. I have two questions regarding the tea and AN products though:

1. Making my own tea from tarantula, piranha, and voodoo juice is what made my slime problem worse. Right now, my system has been running distilled water and h2o2 for about 24 hours to sanitize while I brew my "HeisenTea" (Auquashield, ZHO powder, and EWC in a pantyhose, 24 out of 48 hours brewing so far). Am I safe to completely leave all AN microbe products off my feed schedule from now on? Will that interfere with AN's PH perfect line of things? I don't even have a PH meter because my hydro guy was so confident in the Ph Perfect line he told me I would never need one. So, I'm a bit concerned as I'm fairly new to the scene.

2. I've also been studying on the effects that carbs have on plants when fed a small amount of carbs their whole life. Will carbohydrates cause my slime problem to explode again? I'm no scientist (yet!), but I think carbohydrates are included in the organic material that Heisenberg has told us all to not use. Specifically, I have AN's carboload and bud candy for carbs. Carboload during Veg, and bud candy for bloom.

Are there any AN people out there who could shed some light on this? Thanks in advance!

Oh, also I feel that I should mention I use a perpetual Aero system for veg and bloom.
I hope this helps.. I also use the AV ph perfect line but in DWC. I DO NOT use any of their microbes as i dont think u need them with the tea. Not sure if u use flouralicious but i swear by it!!!I only use the tea! As for carbs I use general hydros pineapple rush and I swear by it!! It does have things that are "sourced" from organic material but it's NOT organic so it's SAFE to us in ur system. Hope this helps bro!!
 
Top