I just got slimed... unleashed a slime bomb

Ive never successfully completed a RDWC grow, always getting pythium from high temps or slime'd.

Until my current grow all was going great, pristine white roots. I was using the heisenburg tea, all was going amazing for the first time...

Then i did a resevior change at week 3 veg and it all went wrong.....

I have a 250L water butt which is filled with RO water, i have the water circulating thro a UV light so i thought all was fine. I emptied the system, filled the system back with the water butt and added the tea and a very light feed.

Then the next day i noticed the roots were sticking together, this to me is one of the first signs something is bad. Then the day after i notice discolor and its apparent the roots are fukd.

So after emptying the system and filling with tap water and H202, i run for 48hrs until my new tea was made. Then i added the tea, didnt think they would survive and gave up hope but decided to see if any change...

Anyway today i go look at the roots. WOW, they are growing again......

I put my hand inside the water butt and all the sides are slimy, as the water was stored for a couple weeks with little air the UV filter maybe wasnt enuf to kill off the slime. plus the temps were red hot in the water butt... lesson learned....

gand3r said:

I filled the system back with the water butt and added the tea and a very light feed.
Then the next day i noticed the roots were sticking together, this to me is one of the first signs something is bad. Then the day after i notice discolor and its apparent the roots are fukd.

So after emptying the system and filling with tap water and H202, i run for 48hrs until my new tea was made.

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Expect bad things to happen if you run a "light feed" for 2 days, then try to correct it by running pure tap water for 2 more days.

RIP following the advice you're getting. Set the EC between 0.8-1.5 at all times. Lower will cause deficiency.

churchhaze said:

Expect bad things to happen if you run a "light feed" for 2 days, then try to correct it by running pure tap water for 2 more days.

RIP following the advice you're getting. Set the EC between 0.8-1.5 at all times. Lower will cause deficiency.

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yep thats for sure right that flush needs to occur..

stored water has to have a air pump inside it running 24/7 or it will get super shitty.

church haze might wanna chime in on this but it might not be a bad idea to use a VERY VERY small amount of H202(30%+ not store brand crap) in your tap water portion..once ... but only at like 1ml - 5gal.. it can help clean up and aid in boosting the oxygen to your clogged roots.

do you have anyway to maybe place your resivor in basement on the floor and use that for some kind of cooling? or ever thought of getting a cooler for your water? they are kinda costly sometimes. thats a pain to deal with in hydro is warm/hot water going to the plants..

churchhaze said:

Expect bad things to happen if you run a "light feed" for 2 days, then try to correct it by running pure tap water for 2 more days.

RIP following the advice you're getting. Set the EC between 0.8-1.5 at all times. Lower will cause deficiency.

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I did as you said, feed is at 1.0EC running a TEA. I also removed all old roots and all looking good.

phil k said:

yep thats for sure right that flush needs to occur..

stored water has to have a air pump inside it running 24/7 or it will get super shitty.

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Yeah i learned this the hard way, i kept getting rot past years. Blaming it on everything except the water butt, i put my hand in the butt and amount of slime on the sides and pipes was crazy. The UV light wasnt enuf to kill it all, maybe it was only circulating certain areas of the butt and the sides or lower portions wasnt getting pulled into the uv filter.

phil k said:

church haze might wanna chime in on this but it might not be a bad idea to use a VERY VERY small amount of H202(30%+ not store brand crap) in your tap water portion..once ... but only at like 1ml - 5gal.. it can help clean up and aid in boosting the oxygen to your clogged roots.

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Yeah all sorted now, i just cut old roots off once i see new white roots apear. Ill update with new photos in a few days.

phil k said:

do you have anyway to maybe place your resivor in basement on the floor and use that for some kind of cooling? or ever thought of getting a cooler for your water? they are kinda costly sometimes. thats a pain to deal with in hydro is warm/hot water going to the plants..

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I had this also in mind, but cost of chiller is too much to run. I am going to fill the ater butt only when i need to use it, im also replacing all my filters in my RO system.

Do you think water sat in a water butt without air would be ok for 10hrs?

gand3r said:

Yeah i learned this the hard way, i kept getting rot past years. Blaming it on everything except the water butt, i put my hand in the butt and amount of slime on the sides and pipes was crazy. The UV light wasnt enuf to kill it all, maybe it was only circulating certain areas of the butt and the sides or lower portions wasnt getting pulled into the uv filter.



Yeah all sorted now, i just cut old roots off once i see new white roots apear. Ill update with new photos in a few days.



I had this also in mind, but cost of chiller is too much to run. I am going to fill the ater butt only when i need to use it, im also replacing all my filters in my RO system.

Do you think water sat in a water butt without air would be ok for 10hrs?

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im not sure where you are but i know here in the states all the major colleges like UofM have a resale store and they sell lab water-cooling systems.. its always hit or miss but you can get them for like 50$ i buy vac ovens and hot plates... atomizers all that shit there.. but they generally always have water coolers

its just a easy cheap way if you have that option but obviously you want one big enough to handle major loads fast.. most the lab ones that you can get used are for like 15 gallon resivors.


as for the oxygen and water yeah 10 hours won't really be stagnant i generally soak my root cubes for like 8 hours overnight and clone the next morning.. but ideally you want oxygen pumping into and sitting water all the time it will loose oxygen just sitting...

actually to add on to that if your feeding that water the next day thats been sitting for 10hours.. i would at least re-oxygenate it for a while before feeding or AT WORST you can be lazy and supplement 0.5ml H202(30%+) per 5 gallon of water to supplement chemically.. at that ratio it oxygenates the water enough for plants but not so much that it kills anything beneficial.

In my cloning rez I always use calcium hypochlorite. Just as an experiment, I've been able to keep the same water in the cloner for almost two months slime free.

Not sure if this would work with what you guys have goin on, but I can tell you that it's definitely effective against slime.

With the calcium hypochlorite you really don't have to worry about temps either.

i don't know if i would keep the same water in anything for 2 months ... I'm not saying don't do it and your not successful if it word it works but most aren't going to have success keeping the same cycling water in a cooer for two months with just the addition of calcium hypochlorite

and you still have to worry about temps... if that resivors water gets to 90 your going to have all kinds of fucking issues.

I dont ever keep it unchanged but did it to see how long it would keep the water clean. I'm just letting people know that it works against slime. That I know 100%. Even once slime has established itself

Lol and I know you have to keep extreme temps at bay but before I had to keep temps really low to avoid slime which would slow rooting for me ime

UPDATE............

I removed the roots and new roots looked to be growing, after another week of adding tea its not working. The rot is up into the hydroton, ive used hygrozyme to remove the dead root, no slime has formed as im using the tea and a good amount of the dead root has gone. But im not sure if its enuf, roots look bad.

going to physan, sterilize system and roots then flush out physan and new strong tea.

Thanks also to above responses, ive got some calcium hypochlorite but the tea was working. adding stagnent water from the butt caused this, its also been added over weeks as i was top feeding from the water butt for weeks before i did a res change and relased the motherload of bad bacteria. i was even using the water butt to make the tea

yep stagnant water will do it. its basically dead water.

hey i wanna know something i missed earlier.. your running hydro setups with teas? did i read that right?

will hydroguard fight against slime?

phil k said:

yep stagnant water will do it. its basically dead water.

hey i wanna know something i missed earlier.. your running hydro setups with teas? did i read that right?

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Yes,

Making tea add adding into DWC.

Im not sure to go Dutch master ZONE next try and stick to sterilized setup, or as near enuf to it.

I have chiller etc but still fuking up all the time. It makes sense being the water butt, it has too be.. Thats why the rot is up in the hydroten, im pouring slime directly thro the hydroten and around the rockwall once every few days. plus im making the tea with the dead water.

chopNcrop said:

will hydroguard fight against slime?

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Yes hydroguard will, its got the essential bacteria needed to protect against slime.