Root rot, brown algae or completely normal?

So I recently just switched from hand-watered coco to DWC. I'm using Coleman coolers with holes drilled out in the lids.

Temps are not really an issue. I had the smallest light leak around where my air hoses come in but that has since been plugged.

I'm using only FloraNova and Roots Excelurator with Toronto tap water (100ppm starting).

Some plants are more affected than others. I've never grown in DWC before (or any kind of hydro) so I'm not sure what to expect but my gut tells me something isn't right. The roots feel a bit mushy and not like bean sprouts (except the really white, fresh roots). The browner, more slimier roots (only faintly slimy) seem to pull away easy but the plants look healthy on top. I've started applying h202 (27%) at about 1.5ml per gallon every few days but it doesn't seem to make any difference. The res itself has a very, very faint pond smell. I'm not being overrun by "slime" but at the same time I don't think things are right. This isn't a RDWC. Each cooler is independent and I clear the res with a submersible pump followed by a shop vaccing to get what is left. Changing res every 7 days.

Res temp fluctuates between 60-70f. Aeration exceeds 1 watt per gallon with airstones. PH is also stable. I started out in coco and transferred the coco root ball into hydrocorn (thoroughly washed first) so there are actual fleks of coco in there causing some discoloration but there is also a slimy/mushy feeling to the browner roots and they pull away very easy. I know Floranova is supposted to stain roots a tan colour.

I am thinking this could be brown algae (cyanobacteria). I bought some physan 20 off ebay just in case as this seems to be the only thing that consistently wors for that and am going to get to work brewing a benny tea today to fight off any bad bacteria that might be in there.

See pics below. I've slowly been phasing in this DWC system over a few weeks as my hand-watered coco crops have finished up. All systems appear to be effected. I've also noticed that some plants have a significantly smaller root mass despite receiving identical treatment. I'm growing from seed so different genetics but same strain.

Pics below. Each pic is from a different cooler. The middle pic is from a batch that is a few weeks ahead of the 1st and 3rd pics.

Blargh. Any help appreciated. And I thought DWC was going to be easy as long as I kept my temps low. Guess I have some fine tuning to do.

I'd add that no air stones or airlines have a slimy feeling to them. The walls of the res also do not have a slime feeling. The closest thing to that is a bit of discolouration at the water line but I think that is just nute residue from the floranova as the water level has dropped.

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bump

nobody has any input?

i won't be able to apply physan 20 followed by a res change and bene tea until next week, but I'm hoping to figure out what ails me in the mean time or whether I'm just being paranoid as a 1st time hydro grower.

Hey im doing my first dwc grow too right now, My roots in the water are white and beautiful but the roots out of the water are brownish, but I believe it is just from the nutrients, as long as they don't feel slimy and don't look like they are shriveling up at all I would say all is ok. Just keep an eye on the plants themselves for any signs of illness.

Do your roots look like my pictures or much whiter? What nutes are you using? It'd be real awesome if you could post a pic.

I'm using only FloraNova and Roots Excelurator. I have a suspicion the Excelurator may just not work well with my hydro system and be the cause of the small bit of gunk on the roots.

My other guess is maybe transferring the coco rootball into the middle of the hydroton was a mistake. I've used the coco for about three grow rounds now wthout any kind of sterilization in betwen and maybe there was bacteria/fungi in there that carried down with the roots as they entered the water. That said, I never had issues when growing with this coco but maybe once the microbes got in the water they began to create problems.

All my next grows will be from clone so if that was the cause it shouldn't recur...I'm just in the middle of hunting for a few different special ladies so everything is seed (growing Serious Seeds Ak47, Sensi Jack Herer, Kandy Kush, Sour Diesel, Kosher Kush, Dr Atomic NL and Atomic Shiva. Those are all in the process of being phased into this new DWC system. Given how much I spent on all these seeds, I sure don't want to fuck these grows up. I'm hoping to find four of five special plants. My experience has been that 90% of everything is crap. The keepers are like finding needles in a haystack. It took me awhile to learn that buying just one feminized seed from attitude and expecting the best from that strain was a mistake (you need to grow 10 and 1 special girl is probably in the bunch)...but I'm high and digress lol.

Regardless of the cause, can't wait for my materials to get here so I can Physan and do a beneficial tea.

To everyone viewing the pics I posted, does anything look wrong? Thanks

did you ever figure out the problem? im having same issue