RDWC Mold?

RCatanese

Active Member
Hello everyone. I'm having a bit of a problem and I'm looking to see if anybody can help me figure out what is going on. Before I get any further, let me give some details of my system and what I'm running.

4 - 13 gallon Current Culture RDWC - 53 gallons total according to CC
Strictly RO water at 0 PPM before nutrients.

SLF-100 at 2.5ml per gallon

CYCO Nutrients:
Grow A & B @ 1/8
B1 Boost @ 1/8
Uptake @ 1/8
Ryzo Fuel @ 1/4
Dr. Repair @ 1/4
and top fed with a bit of Great White until roots started hitting the water.

Total PPMs: 150
Water Temp: 65F using a 1/2hp chiller
pH: 6.1
CO2: 1200PPM

Now, with all of that said, my problem has been some mold looking substance growing wherever the nutrient water has touched and then dried. Some of the lids also form some sort of purplish looking mold or algae too. I know some of the CYCO nutes have organics in them so I haven't been stressing too much, but it's starting to become worrisome. I just completely drained the system and sprayed everything down with peroxide, I'm filling it back up with RO as I type this and plan to run peroxide through the system for a day or 2.

The 4 plants are about 2 weeks old, they're autoflowers, and I germinated them in rapid rooters. The rapid rooters also have some moldy looking stuff forming on the top of them, and any growstones that touches them start turning brownish. The nutrient water does have a brown tint though, so I figure it may be from the top feeding.

Also, I run a Hydra-Flex system from a company called Hydraponics that eliminates my airstones. These are basically long venturi jets that sit inside the bucket and recirculate water while pulling air from the room for bubbles. I mention this because these are basically how I've been noticing the mold forming aside from the tops of the rapid rooters. These jets are about 10" long, so sometimes I will lift up a basket to check how the roots are looking and the parts of the jets that are dry and out of the water I would notice some fuzzy mold or something forming up the sides of them.

I didn't think to take any photos before I cleaned the jets off, but I can take photos of the tops of the rapid rooters. For the most part I've been thinking it's probably beneficial fungi or something, but I want to be safe so here I am.

If anybody has any ideas I'm all ears.

Thanks!
 

myke

Well-Known Member
Could be all that extra stuff your adding,stick with just a good A and B. Should be all you need.
 

RCatanese

Active Member
Could be all that extra stuff your adding,stick with just a good A and B. Should be all you need.
The only thing I've added since the last grow was the SLF-100 and the Great White. I ran CYCO's full line last grow and didn't have any issues except towards the end where I was getting some funky pink buildup. That was only after adding some Flawless Finish I had from Advanced Nutrients and that stuff was neon pink so I haven't used that since.
 

5BY5LEC

Well-Known Member
I have no idea what all that nutrient stuff is or if any of it is organic. It may just be mineral salt or organic residue.
I used rapid rooters.....they grew mold, and then my seeds damped off. My experience with anything other than plants growing on the rooter did not end well.
What do the roots look like? Pics!
 
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