Reservoir stinks Ive tried everythink (Please Help)

IgrowUgrow

IgrowUgrow

Well-Known Member
I have a question for you RIU, I changed my reservoir day before yesterday and it is cloudy and has a slight fowl odor like the water is sour. My temps are around 68 degrees constant I have a pump that runs every 2 hours for 15min that is connected to my top feed drip line, and 3 air stones and 2 air pumps. It will go roughly 2 days without changing the water and its fine but after that it smells terrible. I have tried using 3% hydrogen peroxide at 1/4 cup - 10gal and it still does the same thing. The first time I filled the reservoir I used hygrozyme at 5ml per gal and it did the same thing. Everything was sterilized and soaked in alcohol for 24hrs then I left the alcohol in there and added water then hooked everything up and let it run for 24hrs without the plants of course, then I rinsed multiple times with hot water and filled it back up with cold water. I then PH to 5.6 and set my ppm at 550 and it continues to get this sour smell like bath water that has sat for days.
 
IgrowUgrow

IgrowUgrow

Well-Known Member
deadgro said:
What's your water source? Where is your grow space? What's the airflow situation?
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Water source is tap water and ppm in less than 150 and my water is very soft and alkaline, also very low in chlorine and bromine and ammonia. I have been using it with my fish tanks for years and don't even use water conditioner and never had a problem. Grow space is a grow tent 2x4x5 with 2 passive intakes a 600w cool tube reflector that is dimmed to 75% I have 2 - 4" inline fans, one fan is exhausting through cool tube and the other is pulling air through carbon filter and exhausting strait out the top. The internal temperature of the tent stays between 76-82 degrees and the water temp never exceeds 70degrees. Airflow situation is great I have a oscillating fan moving air around and my tent is under negative pressure so the air stays pretty fresh.
 
nomofatum

nomofatum

Well-Known Member
Is the stink before or after adding nutes? What nutes?
Is the stink before or after adding plants? What do roots look like?
Are there any light leaks?
Are you using any organic nutrients?
What medium?
Under lights?

Have to figure out what is growing in there, so need to know if it has light and what it has to eat.

Also possible is if you have a oil lubricated pump with a blown seal the oil gets mixed in and eaten by bacteria, pump could still work for a decent amount of time with or without symptoms other than the oil.

If it's just PH'd water I would stop drinking that water and get it tested. Add some bleach to the water and let it sit with a bubbler for a few days if you want to rule out contaminated water.
 
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DrCannaPath

DrCannaPath

Well-Known Member
My friend, let us know if your airstones that are connected to the air pump are actually on, pumping air in the res 24/7! If your airstones are only pumping air for 15 min every 2 hours, you're depleting the oxygen in the res and letting the anaerobic bacteria (bad smell like a sock or gym etc) thrive and take over. Also how big is your res? And how many watts does your pump have? What nute and other additives are you adding to the res? Hygrozyme, if used in suboptimal situation will actually feed the bad bacteria and allow them to take over!
 
weedenhanced

weedenhanced

Well-Known Member
IgrowUgrow said:
Water source is tap water and ppm in less than 150 and my water is very soft and alkaline, also very low in chlorine and bromine and ammonia. I have been using it with my fish tanks for years and don't even use water conditioner and never had a problem. Grow space is a grow tent 2x4x5 with 2 passive intakes a 600w cool tube reflector that is dimmed to 75% I have 2 - 4" inline fans, one fan is exhausting through cool tube and the other is pulling air through carbon filter and exhausting strait out the top. The internal temperature of the tent stays between 76-82 degrees and the water temp never exceeds 70degrees. Airflow situation is great I have a oscillating fan moving air around and my tent is under negative pressure so the air stays pretty fresh.
Click to expand...
I once had this prob I setup a top feed system setup in a laundry toilet and the res sat on the toilet and above I had a bread crate pots full perlite on the bread crate water would go back to res after pumped up and I had this seriously bad smell I cleaned the fck out my res every time light came on fuck it would stink it was fcked nothing I did to res would fix it
IT WAS THE FCKING TOILET BOWL UNDER THE RES THAT WAS STINKIN I COULD NOT BELIVE IT DIDNT REALIZE TILL AFTER MY GROW WAS DONE AND I WAS CLEANING
so my advise is cheak under ur tent cheak around the tent cheak under the spill mat
Cheak under the floor of the tent even could be a dead rat and when tent heats up could be making it smell
 
IgrowUgrow

IgrowUgrow

Well-Known Member
weedenhanced said:
I once had this prob I setup a top feed system setup in a laundry toilet and the res sat on the toilet and above I had a bread crate pots full perlite on the bread crate water would go back to res after pumped up and I had this seriously bad smell I cleaned the fck out my res every time light came on fuck it would stink it was fcked nothing I did to res would fix it
IT WAS THE FCKING TOILET BOWL UNDER THE RES THAT WAS STINKIN I COULD NOT BELIVE IT DIDNT REALIZE TILL AFTER MY GROW WAS DONE AND I WAS CLEANING
so my advise is cheak under ur tent cheak around the tent cheak under the spill mat
Cheak under the floor of the tent even could be a dead rat and when tent heats up could be making it smell
Click to expand...
No it is definitely the res that smells because when I run the drain line out the back door and release the valve it drains my res and you can smell that stink as soon as the water starts draining.
 
IgrowUgrow

IgrowUgrow

Well-Known Member
nomofatum said:
Is the stink before or after adding nutes? What nutes?
Is the stink before or after adding plants? What do roots look like?
Are there any light leaks?
Are you using any organic nutrients?
What medium?
Under lights?

Have to figure out what is growing in there, so need to know if it has light and what it has to eat.

Also possible is if you have a oil lubricated pump with a blown seal the oil gets mixed in and eaten by bacteria, pump could still work for a decent amount of time with or without symptoms other than the oil.

If it's just PH'd water I would stop drinking that water and get it tested. Add some bleach to the water and let it sit with a bubbler for a few days if you want to rule out contaminated water.
Click to expand...

I have tried it before and after the nutes

General Hydro Flora Grow 200ppm

The stink was before and after adding plants, I cannot see the roots yet they are in 8" netpots with hydroton. The plants are just getting their first true set of leaves.

There may be some small light leaks but very little if any. I wrapped the whole reservoir in aluminum tape the only place light can get in is through hydroton.

NO ORGANIC NUTRIENTS

Medium is hydroton and seeds were planted in those seed starter plugs from the hydro store. The brown ones, Im not sure what they are called.

Under a 600w MH in cool tube

The water pump has never been used its new out the box
 
DrCannaPath

DrCannaPath

Well-Known Member
There's no such thing as #1 cleaning solution!
Many products work/claim to work ..... However the first step in combating a problem is catching the reason as to WHY there is a problem in the first place. Usually, it is a suboptimal environment!
Once you make sure you have enough air going into the res, the res temp is within normal limits (high 60s or low 70s if you're adding beneficial bacteria tea that you brew yourself which I highly recommend. Check out the Heisenberg thread) and all organics are out of the res, THEN you can focus on a sterilizing products. Those range from enzymes, to beneficial bacteria/fungi to even plain H2O2, chlorine (bleach) or chloramine (physan).
My brother, I've been where you are like many others. We all can help you giving you suggestions and tips. But first, we all need to know exactly what's causing your problem to BEST suggest a solution for ya!

https://www.rollitup.org/index.php?threads/841773/
 
nomofatum

nomofatum

Well-Known Member
Pump failures are usually (if you don't run it dry) either after a good long service life or within the first few days/weeks when brand new, so don't rule it out because it's new. Oil mixing with water would make the water milky and would result in stinky bacteria after a few days. Best theory I have with what you have given so far.
 
nomofatum

nomofatum

Well-Known Member
IgrowUgrow said:
I think I may have found the problem I only have 6w of air pump and I have a 10-12 gal res.
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If you are talking about a 15 liter per minute pump (watts are absolutely silly to use to size a pump) that should be way more than enough for 10-12 gal, make sure the stones are not clogged and that they are putting out smaller bubbles.
 
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