rdwc, run tea or sterile rez?

I've done dwc before with tea. Had good success.

Now I'm upping it a bit and running rdwc... I feel like alot of people say keep a steril rez (current culture - rdwc company)...

But I've had friends say they had nothing but probs trying to run sterile, moved to alive and wouldn't go back

What do you think?

Planning on running
Aquaflakes
Rapid start
Protek sylica
cannazyme
Heisenburg tea

does this sounds legit?

There's been lots of discussion about this lately and I am trying to sort it out as well. I have ran a sterile res from the start and have had great luck with only an issue the last run of the year last spring. Res temps got high and roots started to turn off white. H2O2 seemed to keep it under control but it didnt get better and plants were suffering. I added some clear res and it got better but it was probably to late to recover fully. I now run a microbial treatment with my reg nonorganic nutes. I did this more for cost and curiousity then believing its a better method as I have no clue. Pythium is everywhere and can infect your grow by pretty much anything if contaminated. My thoughts are to try benies and see what happens, the cost of H2O2 was not much in the scheme of things but still l'm cheap lol.

Cool any long time hydro growers have any input?

Input from people that have tried both would be nice. Lots here discount things that they have never tried. Just saying trying it for yourself is a great way to see if things work.

I run hot dwc. Gh flora, cal mag, ro h2o and I brew up a batch of orca liquid with brown sugar to add to each nutrient change, weekly in my case.

SnapsProvolone said:

I run hot dwc. Gh flora, cal mag, ro h2o and I brew up a batch of orca liquid with brown sugar to add to each nutrient change, weekly in my case.

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Did you start using it due to issues or as a preventative thing. How much do you add each time? Does it smell at all after brewing? Sorry for the barrage of questions lol. The stuff I'm trying is called microbe lift pl and is for ponds, smells kinda bad in jar but doesn't smell much in the water.

waterdawg said:

Did you start using it due to issues or as a preventative thing. How much do you add each time? Does it smell at all after brewing? Sorry for the barrage of questions lol. The stuff I'm trying is called microbe lift pl and is for ponds, smells kinda bad in jar but doesn't smell much in the water.

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Preventive. Not much smell, subculture b reeked like a sourdough bread factory.

I use a squirt of orca and a tablespoon of brown sugar in a 5 gal bucket with airstone.

Ya I going to try that but dont think I need 5 gals lol. Is there any way to know if you've done it properly. I was going to use some blackstrap and hang a stocking with worm castings as well. I have not a clue what I'm doing but hey I've kinda lived life like that lol. Changing res's tonight so will start adding the brewed stuff in a week or so. I've been adding 10ml of microbe lift pl (no ideal if it is what I should be using) per hundred every 5-7 days, actually the roots are as white as I've seen but yup, stuff would gag a bear lol.

Well I'm going to do the basic heisenburg tea because that's what i did before and had success....

I'm going to try to go 2-3 weeks without changing the rez, just topping off in between. .. does this sounds reasonable?

Thanks

Slimjimham said:

Well I'm going to do the basic heisenburg tea because that's what i did before and had success....

I'm going to try to go 2-3 weeks without changing the rez, just topping off in between. .. does this sounds reasonable?

Thanks

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I dont know about the 3 weeks. I guess try and see if it works out. All I've been doing is watching my PH and when it starts to drop I change res. typically every couple if weeks at the start and weekly at peak flower. Also I never have to add back, res never drops that low.

I run tea made from great white, aquashield, ancient forest humus, and molasses. I cant think of any benefits to run a sterile res vs live.

res change depends on size/metabolism of your plants and how much water you have. I can easily go 4 weeks in flower without changing my 100 gallon res, topping up once. I change 5 gallon buckets every 7 days.

I would suggest what hydroburn has said, using that forumla looks to be popular.