Reocurring Cloudy Res Water - Ebb & Flow

CountyBoy

Member
I could use a little help from some senior hydro guys.

Since my first or second res fill I've had cloudy res issues. At first I didn't have the lid on the Rubbermaid container. It's a 60 liter container filled with 27 liters. I'm running Dutchmaster Gold and dose with 15ml of 29% H202 every couple days. Several times I've taking everything apart and scrubbed the shit out of it with high concentrate of H202 and even ran it through the flood lines for a few seconds. The Res water has two airstones blasting on max and the tray floods every hour (or hour and half... can't remember). The only thing I haven't done is take the plants out of the hydrocorn or try and treat the grow media alone. For obviously reasons something I don't want to attempt. The plants are in pots so they're movable allowing me to clean the flood tray. The previous res change didn't start to get cloudy until day six. This one started to get cloudy in twenty four hours. When I cleaned it last time there was a mild slime on the tray walls. No foaming in the res, maybe a slight "fishy pond smell", If so... It's very minimal. The res temps stay at 58f. The previous res by day 5 had rising PPM and PH. I couldn't keep the PH down. I'd drop it to 5.4 and the next day it'd be up to 6.2, PPM's were creeping up. From my research it's probably that piece of shit brown algae. I did add the lid to the res other than a 4x6 notch cutout at the edge for the plumbing. Light is obviously getting in but I doubt that's the real issue. Air rating the water and H202 and proper res temps, I would think, would combat the algae growth even with slight light penetration. So my next step is making a Heisenberg tea. Does this sound like an appropriate next step? This is my first grow. The environment is a consistent 72f - 77f with a varying RH from 40% - 50%, I've added a warm air humidifier to keep the RH up at the given levels. Using tap water that is 150ppm 7.2 @ 58f bumped up to 650 ppm. The plants seem to be happy at that dose. No other issues other than some very minor leaf problems which is probably from the PH flux.

On a side note; RH went really high when I changed the res this last time. My guess the plants were transpiring like crazy. I'm not sure if they liked the change or if they were shocked. The water was probably 10 degress warmer than they were use to, or maybe the fresh H202 got them perked up.

Thanks
 

CountyBoy

Member
What I explained... Does it sound like algae? Can I add a strong dose of H202 to the res? If so how much? I've read mixed opinions on H202 vs. Tea. Is algae harmful to the plants?
 

waterdawg

Well-Known Member
Are you running a sterile rez? If yes I am not sure a tea is the best option (BTW I am also a newb @ hydro). My res water gets a bit cloudy but roots are pure white. I run 50-75 ml per 100L of H2O2 every change. I have never had an issue with algae. I believe you can go quite high with the H2O2 but I'm not sure how high. Also I have had some nutes that cloud water more than others. Obviously the PH thing could be a clue of things not right but again new to this so cant help much. Also my tray is not exactly light proof either. What are you using re: nutes?
 

CountyBoy

Member
waterdawg- My nutes are Dutchmaster Gold. Originally I thought it was the nutes but it's not. The cloudiness takes a couple days to show and I can see a mild slime when cleaning the tray and res. How often do you change your res? What percent is your H202?
 

joe macclennan

Well-Known Member
not familiar w/dutchmaster myself but flooding every hr and half seems excessive, try cutting back on watering times. I do sog and run ebb on my mums and I have been able to cut floods down to 1x per day in hydroton. This has eliminated alot of my rez problems.
 

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
Doubting algae with that much aeration. Consider placing an inline filter. Get rid of the airstones - they are unneeded slime magnets and a source of problems.
 

nick88

Well-Known Member
I've run DM for a while now. I keep my res temps around 65 add a dose of h202 bout every 3 days with no problems.
You want absolutely no light what so ever getting to your res. Are the air lines clear or solid. Eliminate all light leaks and do a fresh res change, see how that works.
 

CountyBoy

Member
joe macclennan - not familiar w/dutchmaster myself but flooding every hr and half seems excessive, try cutting back on watering times. I do sog and run ebb on my mums and I have been able to cut floods down to 1x per day in hydroton. This has eliminated alot of my rez problems.
The plants seem to really like the water frequency. They have healthy bright white roots that are sneaking out of the drain holes. A couple of the fan blades are well over 6 inches. I would think that keeping the water moving every 1.5 hours would help keep the water clean. Do you run a 24/0 or 18/6? What size are your pots?


hotrodharley - ...Consider placing an inline filter. Get rid of the airstones - they are unneeded slime magnets and a source of problems.
I do find a lot of the slime on the airstones. Inline filter? Are you referring to a UV filter?


nick88 - You want absolutely no light what so ever getting to your res. Are the air lines clear or solid. Eliminate all light leaks and do a fresh res change, see how that works.
I added some pandafilm to cover around the plumbing where light was getting through to the nute solution. The res is probably 98% light proof now. All lines are solid black even the ones for the airstones.
 

CountyBoy

Member
hotrodharely - Doubting algae with that much aeration.
The res gets cloudy in 24 hours. The nute solution is dosed with H202 and continuously aerated, what bacteria or chemical reaction could be causing the cloudiness?
 

joe macclennan

Well-Known Member
I only use bleach to clean my res about every other water chg. Al b. Fuct says NO to bleach in nutes emphatically. I am a believer in h202 and airstones. I am a devout follower of AL the man is a legend around here, and his no nonsense advice on rez maintenance is spot on. IMO.I do not know of to many ppl here who have written for high times.
I run 18/6 with 10 inch netpots in 3 gallon buckets I run 15 mums and flood 1x a day with no problems while my room stays around 70 degrees. In summer I will increase to 2x. Same way with my sog 1x a day and my gurls are sooo much happier but as my room temps start creeping up towards 90 i will increase to 2x there as well. A common problem most ppl have in hydroponics is overwatering when in doubt cut back once and see. you might be suprised at how they react. as for your h202 dosage I say again check out AL.
 

CountyBoy

Member
...I am a devout follower of AL the man is a legend around here...
I'm also using a lot of what Al B. Fuct says to use and how to use it in my grow. I've read all his threads several times. I do believe that he is highly skilled craftsman in SOG and 95% of his knowledge is spot on... I also do believe that some of his practices aren't the most efficient. If you follow his threads you would find out that he was still fine tuning while writing his " How to get a harvest every two weeks" and even after. I don't believe his rockwool cloning is the best method and his 1000k might be overkill. It sounds like he is finally excepting digital ballasts for what they are. With that said, I'm not taking anything away from him. In my opinion he has given this community some of the best knowledge out there. Sorry... I kinda got of the subject. I guess what I'm trying to say is, not a single person holds all the knowledge. So bleach could be a great option. I was actually going to search Al B. Fucts thread to find out how much H2o2 he recommends to rid algae or whatever my res issue is... but I felt bleach could be a better option and just wanted some feedback on if anyone else has used it. Thanks for the input joe macclennan... much appreciated! Have you had any res issues?

I did cut back my watering so we'll see how the gurls like it.
 

joe macclennan

Well-Known Member
I'm also using a lot of what Al B. Fuct says to use and how to use it in my grow. I've read all his threads several times. I do believe that he is highly skilled craftsman in SOG and 95% of his knowledge is spot on... I also do believe that some of his practices aren't the most efficient. If you follow his threads you would find out that he was still fine tuning while writing his " How to get a harvest every two weeks" and even after. I don't believe his rockwool cloning is the best method and his 1000k might be overkill. It sounds like he is finally excepting digital ballasts for what they are. With that said, I'm not taking anything away from him. In my opinion he has given this community some of the best knowledge out there. Sorry... I kinda got of the subject. I guess what I'm trying to say is, not a single person holds all the knowledge. So bleach could be a great option. I was actually going to search Al B. Fucts thread to find out how much H2o2 he recommends to rid algae or whatever my res issue is... but I felt bleach could be a better option and just wanted some feedback on if anyone else has used it. Thanks for the input joe macclennan... much appreciated! Have you had any res issues?

I did cut back my watering so we'll see how the gurls like it.

I think you are absolutely right noone has all the answers and al may not be the most efficient on some things. On rez maintenance i believe he is spot on tho. As far as me havin rez problems yes I have. I'll tell ya a story.
I grew flood and drain for around 5 yrs. Always used dyna-gro and had relatively few problems. No co2 tho. I got a new job and was extremely busy so I quit growin for around 4 yrs. Well I got back into it bout three yrs ago and "thought" I knew a thing or two and decided to jump straight in to a stinkbud system. Instead of going back to the tried and true flood and drain. My first run of clones popped off in 5 days in my aero cloner and I thought wow this is great after that I spent 6 months with about a 85% death rate in my aerocloner. I tried it all h202,UV sterilization and yes even bleach I couldn't get that damn aerocloner to work right again. I also could not get rockwool cubes to go during this either. I ended up sinking 1500$ into chillers probably another 100$ in a uv sterilizer and other bs. All to no avail.I did manage to get a few crops thru out of my stinkbud systems. I will say when they work the growth is amazing in NFT or low press aero. But maintenance maintenance maintenance Tearing everything apart cleaning, cleaning Did I mention cleaning? wow Very inefficient when you consider all of the extra power for running chillers pumps and AC since room temps have to be lower to help stave off root problems and constant fighting pythium Which I believe to be the cause of my aero cloner and rockwool cloning attempts not working due to pythium infestations getting transfered back and forth.
Long story short have I had rez. issues fuck ya for bout a year till I dropped the NFT and aerocloner and went back to flood and drain, and discovered root riot plugs. Since then relatively few problems. Damn near 100% on my clones in the root riot plugs. I haven't needed my chillers at all (which kind of sucks that I have three chillers not being used I am real close to selling a few)and I don't treat my rez, with anything no h202,or anything.(I don't follow Als lead 100% either)But you can bet your sweet ass that if I start seeing my rez. foam up I'll be dumping the H202 in.The biggest problem I have had was my Oakton Ph2 just went bad and caused me about a month of headaches. I would calibrate it and it was still off. I finally bought a new one and good to go. I also just bought a bluelab truncheon EC meter like al recommends and I luv that thing.
Another area I do not follow al completely is in nutrients I cannot get canna @ my local store so I run primarily dyna gro but in flower it is a little low in potassium especially in the last few weeks of flower IMO so I mix a little botanicare pro gro in to up the k. Now I know this is organic and h202 will kill the bennies in it, this is why I do not use peroxide on a weekly maintenance schedule as al suggests. I figure if i don't need it why add it? I am not seeing any problems so I must not need it. I am still experimenting with mix ratios of the two nutes and am not totally convinced this is the right combo. But the gurls do look better than on dyna alone. Especially in the last two weeks of flower. I am looking for a synthetic nute that is a little higher in k for flower but am very happy with the dyna in veg and for my mums. So i guess i am not an extremely pious follower of Al either but if I start having problems I go right bak to his advice.
sorry bout the book but thats my story.
 

joe macclennan

Well-Known Member

  • "I did cut back my watering so we'll see how the gurls like it."



the only other time i have had rez problems was when I went to ebb and flo for my mums. I was flooding 2x a day cut back to 1x and it cleared up. I should add that I upgraded my cap ebb and flo to all 3/4 inch hoses and fittings so I can flood 15 pots and drain them in under an hour.I have found cutting back on waterings will clear a-lot of rez problems up.
 

Malevolence

New Member
Ive used bleach water to soak and flush slimed roots and it got them pretty clean with no bad effects. Ive never used it in res maintanance.
 

CountyBoy

Member
joe macclennan - Thanks for all the information. As of yesterday I cleaned my res and tray with a strong mixture of bleach and water. I cut my light from 24/0 to 18/6 and reduced my watering to every hour to only four times a day. I'll see how the gurls like the new feeding schedule for a few days and then reduce from there. So far so good. They seemed to droop from the initial miss feedings but are back to their perky tits selfs. The res is still crystal clear, though it's only been twenty four hours.

Malevolence -

Ive used bleach water to soak and flush slimed roots and it got them pretty clean with no bad effects. Ive never used it in res maintanance.
Thanks for the input. I also haven't seen any negative effects from cleaning with bleach. Honestly I didn't even flush the system that well after. I sprayed everything down ran some clean water through the lines for 30 secs and then dumped and filled with fresh water/nutes/H202.
 

joe macclennan

Well-Known Member
I hope it works for you bro. But If you were experiencing that much ph fluctuation It will probably take a couple of weeks and water changes to work itself out. Dont freak out if things start getting out of whack again. It probably will. I have found rez/root problems can take a month to really clear up. How big are your pots? You do still have the airstones in right?
 

hellraizer30

Rebel From The North
All i can say is fuck h202 and get bennys in your system!
i have run almost everything under the sun and bennys
are the way to go.

If your water is murking up its do to your nutes spoiling!
could be cause by the h202
 

joe macclennan

Well-Known Member
All i can say is fuck h202 and get bennys in your system!
i have run almost everything under the sun and bennys
are the way to go.

If your water is murking up its do to your nutes spoiling!
could be cause by the h202
This is some funny shit right here. Spoiling nutes? Come on bro. Nutes arent milk. They don't spoil. Caused by the h202? seriously got a good laugh out of this one. Where on earth did you come up with such bullshit? I'm not saying bennies are wrong it just depends on which way you want to go, Organic or sterile.
His water murking up is more likely due to his flooding every hour and a half not the peroxide.
On a different note it seems to me a mod. shouldn't be so opinionated about things. A moderator should be moderate.To say Fuck h202 get bennies. This is pretty messed up.
I do believe bennies can and are helpful, and in a good working system natural beneficial bacteria is all you should need. But if you have to keep mixing teas or adding bleach or h202 on a weekly basis. Something else is going on. I don't mix teas and rarely use h202 no problems here. (thank god) I scrub my rez. bout every other water change with bleach water. That's it. So if you want to live your life mixing shit up and constantly living in your rez. Have fun with that, i'll be in the other room with a pair of scissors in my hand.8) But if constant rez. maintenance is not your thing, then water less, good aeration, mid 60s on temp in your rez. and I will guarantee you will have less problems.
 
Top