Strange Slime buildup on roots

guice · Apr 6, 2007

I have a strange slime appearing on the roots of my plants (big bud). The slime is clear, and it is only on the very tips of the roots. The tip of the root turns dark brown and can be pulled off with very little effort. It isn't on all of the roots either, just some.
Setup-
20 gal DWC w/ RO water
pH 5.8
TDS 680 ppm
4 flexible air stones
Water temp between 64 and 69 degrees F
FloraNova nutes
Hygrozyme
Hydroguard
Even Keel pH stabilizer
Hydroton medium w/ rockwool

Here are a couple pics of what the slime looks like (All of the pics were taken 1 day after a res change):

This is what some of the leaves look like on the plant whose roots are pictured above. This plant is still showing new growth regardless of the root slime:

This is a picture of new root growth that has no slime on it at all and looks perfectly healthy.

Here is a plant that is in the same res as the one with all the slime on the roots. Looks perfectly healthy, shows new growth every day.

MTF-Sandman · Apr 6, 2007

Sound like root rot getting started...could be staining from floranova nutes, but that wouldn't cause the roots to pull apart easily - but root rot shouldn't be happening if the res temps are staying under 70 as long as there's plenty of O2 in it.

Are all the roots submerged in the DWC or just the ones that are having issues?

Any plant response to this?

Can you get some pics?

What's in the Even Keel? Sound like it's intended for soil usage from what I read...

MynameStitch · Apr 6, 2007

Agreed with sandman!

Hiya sandman how's things going man? :wave:

Snowdog27 · Apr 7, 2007

Dose it look like this?

this is after a couple of days, notice that the roots and slime are still somewhat white.

This is after about a week or so.

it starts off clear like snot and if not treated it will start to look like those pics, it turns brown when the roots start to die off. If this is what you are experiencing it is not root rot but a type of algae, that choke's the roots of your plants. If this is what you are going through the only thing I found that took care of the problem is Physan 20.
Hope this helps

Guest · Apr 7, 2007

drop your res temps to mid 60's and maybe add 1-3 ml (1 tsp) per gallon of each of hydroguard AND hygrozyme since you have it...keep the temps low and it should clear up in about a week if you caught it in time...good luck :joint:

guice · Apr 11, 2007

I am already using hydroguard and hygrozyme. When I put a sample of the roots into a clear plastic bag with tap water, the stuff on the roots looked white and fuzzy, kind of like mold. So I took a sample of the roots into the local hydro store, and the guy told me it looks like I might have had a bad batch of hygrozyme or that my hygrozyme possibly went bad. He thought this b/c hygrozyme is suppose to take care of this kind of problem. But seeing as it is an organic solution, it is possible that it went bad. I cleaned the rez out and cleaned everything but the plants and net pots. I cleaned the roots with a mixture of h2o2 and water @ a concentration of 20ml h2o2/gal.
Started a fresh bottle of hygrozyme.
Hopefully this will take care of the problem.

guice · Apr 12, 2007

Bump. Posted pics of the slime.

Ghost · Apr 12, 2007

Snowdog27 is spot on. I have had the same problem and Physan 20 is the ONLY thing that will cure it- it is algae.

Snowdog27 · Apr 17, 2007

Guice
Hope things have gotten better for your plants.

Ghost, thank you its nice to see I am not the only one who uses Physan20, this stuff works.

Here is a little info I found when I was going through this problem

Bacterial slime and other horrifying nasties

These are not the beneficial bacteria and fungi that we have already spoken about. These bacteria cause cloudy reservoirs, slimy build up, weird reservoir fuzz, gelatin growths and wild pH fluctuations. These are the reservoir monsters.
When these bad microbes are present at high populations and are happily feeding on organic matter, they use up just about all the oxygen in the nutrient solution, suffocating the plants. They release toxic substances as a biproduct of their life cycle. They also suppress the good microbes at the root zone and cause problems with nutrient uptake and plant growth.

Bacteria slime and cloudy reservoirs
Bacteria can make the water cloudy, but tend to produce more of a slime or jellylike, smelly mass in the system.If you have it, you will notice slimy reservoir walls and perhaps an oily slick on the water. Another symptom can be a foamy buildup in the reservoir. If left to their own devices, these bacterial growths will smother the roots, depriving them of oxygen. Some species of anaerobic bacteria thrive in an environment deprived of oxygen and can produce chemical metabolites, such as alcohols, aldehydes, phenols and ethylene, that are toxic to plant roots and to other microorganisms.

Other symptoms of bacterial infections can be fuzzy, cotton like growths, or the growth of fur. Just in case you are wondering, that white fuzzy growth you see at the tip of your roots is desireable. That is not bacteria - That is the good stuff - you should see tiny fine white hairs at the roots.

All of these nasties require organic matter to feed on. They may be there as the result of a buildup of dead roots and leaves in the root zone, but usually they are the result of adding an organic product to the reservoir. If the conditions are just right, the bacteria will begin to thrive.

Hope this helps

mtnjohn · Apr 17, 2007

good post snodog27

the pics in this thread are exactly what my roots looked like when i used
AN's tarantula and piranah...and i had several bad grows that i attribute
directly to those products..
on my last grow with T&P ..i was still early in flower when the slime started up....believe it or not...i took my plants out of the unit and "washed the roots" in the tub under cool running water for about 10 minutes and quit using the T&P....the plants turned right around and i havnt seen a problem since.

a side note here....after i decided the T&P werent good for a hydro grow
I gave them to a friend who grows in soil....he had the worst grow ever..
idk if i got a bad batch or what...but i'll never use those products again

just my 2¢

mj

badboyg · Apr 17, 2007

ok good call I have had the same thing.. just out of the blue. ok SOO whats the cause,, I mean had several grows same methods used,, then BAM.. clear gel shit,,,

I fixed?? servived mine with a few good rinces and H202.. then moved to cooler tubs once they recovered abit..

I was wondering,, where it comes from,, the water or what,, shit is nasty ,, good luck!!

krys0513 · Apr 18, 2007

I had the same thing happen when I was cloning in Hydro....it is the temperture being too high. Also I am not sure why but I never had this problem when I cloned using DI water. I never trouble shooted it past the point of going back to cloning only with DI water.

I would be curious as well as to what causes the slim if anyone knows.

badboyg · Apr 19, 2007

ok what is DI water.... distilled??
in fairness, the clone area and the res(s) are not cooled like the main res(s).. but it seemed to come and go,, I am guessing,, (realy guessing) that the water quality changed.. OR my RO was sick,,

I need more time to study this shit,, SO many factors with our high quality air/water/light we have these day,,, who knows what crap is pumped to us,,,

FYI having a bottle of 30% H202 on hand is realy a good idea,, I have recoverd a lot of OH SHITS with that,....

ok one of you gurus must have a degree in water quality or some shit,,, come on fess up

mtnjohn · Apr 19, 2007

DI= deionized

mj

krys0513 · Apr 20, 2007

Di water is distilled water. Or water with everything taken out of it or all impurities are gone.

Come guys someone must know what cause this shit.

krys0513 · Apr 21, 2007

Still no one knows what specificlly causes this? What if you got it and you were not using organics? I got this problem while using concentrated Green Fuse Root Stimulator. I know that is not organic. Has to be something else causing this.

icough2getoff · May 1, 2007

I have also been having problems with some kind of root slime. Mine is a darker brown but it's some type of slime nonetheless. My water temps are usually between 66-71F. The only thing I'm using is flora nova grow, the bottle of which was opened over a year ago. I first saw the symptoms when I was using my nutes + hygrozyme (also over a year since I opened it). I changed the nutes and this time just used my flora nova grow 1 part nutes and it started to grow back. I recently painted the buckets black to make them lightproof and it still seems to be slowly getting worse. I think I'm gonna try some of that Physan 20, and possibly buy new nutes. Anyone that has more info on what might be causing this would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT/UPDATE: I've concluded that this is NOT brown algae, this is root rot from not enough oxygen in the water (needed a better air pump).

richyrich · May 2, 2007

Jump directly to post #1230 for the consolidation. Everything you need about the slime is there. Click the link.
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=55259&page=82

We have the pictures, the testimonials, and the proof that the slime can be beat and it does have a scientific name.

GOT SLIME ???

So you got slimed... WELCOME TO THE SLIME HATERS CLUB

The solution and everything you need to know about the dreaded hydro herpe correctly named brown slime algae (a misnomer because it's actually a cyanobacteria) is here and within this thread.

From 2007 thru 2009, the unknown snot slime was first correctly named and documented here, its source was first discovered and documented here, and the solution to defeating it was first discovered and documented here. If you think you are going crazy because you are slimed right now, imagine 5 LONG years of an unknown slime from hell wreaking havoc upon you.

That's exactly what I went thru and I never gave up. At the time I had no website or forums to find the answers, nor anything on the slime. The only thread anywhere was this one started one month before I found it because they were all asking what this snot slime was themselves. I discovered what this slime from hell was and I discovered how to slay it.

I documented my quest here, so no other person shall have to suffer the untold misery it can cause. I would wish this on no person. I was gone from here a good long while and I have seen how the discoveries here have gone wide and far because it works wonders. I should have known hydro/garden manufacturers and retailers would take advantage of this thread. I have seen them selling teas of the same recipe and crazy expensive contraptions to brew tea. All you need is a $3 dollar five gallon bucket and my original tea recipe. Don't get fooled by the manufacturers and retailers. Little do they know I have been a busy bee while I've been gone for the past few years. I have awesome customized tea recipes for hydro systems and my own contraptions that do much more than just brew tea. When the time is right I will reveal.

This thread is epic, so do read through the entire thread when you can if you want to know all the details and other ways to deal with this dreaded problem, and other problems too. You will have no further questions once you read it all. This will be one of, if not the best thread about growing mmj you will have ever read.

An immense amount of credit is due to all the other icmag members that contributed their blood, sweat, tears, and time, so let's give credit where credit is due. As for me, you can thank me by posting your success stories and before and after pictures. Those type of posts are truly satisfying.

There are a lot of pictures and success stories contained within this thread. The results with an EZ Cloner are nothing short of amazing. You will learn a lot and that's a promise.

The following pictures are of your enemy the brown slime algae (aka: hydro herpe, snot slime, hydro nasty, slimy cyano).

You must get your yourself a bottle of Physan20. To sterilize and clean your system and equipment use Physan20 at 3mL per 25gallons. Unscented regular bleach is fine if you do not have Physan20, but do get it asap.

When you have a crop that is on life support and you think it might be salvageable, you can run Physan20 (not bleach) through a hydro system with plants in it. Run it through the system for no more than 6 hours and dump it, then flush with clean water, and then make a new rez. That is how you sterilize your system from the slime and everything else.

The next step is to make a compost/ewc tea according to my recipe. You can use the tea in hydro systems, rockwool, soil, coco, etc.. All plant types and all types of growing media benefit tremendously. Besides keeping away the slime, we are replicating mother nature by attempting to provide all the beneficial microbes that are found naturally in soil.

Okay, now on to the RichyRich Tea Recipe and Instructions:

1. Put 4 gallons of RO water or bottled water in a 5 gallon bucket.
2. Add an air stone to the bucket with an air pump.
3. Any pump is fine.
4. If you only have tap water, bubble the tap water for 24 hours with the air stone to get rid of the chlorine.
5. The chlorine will kill the good microbes you are attempting to brew.
6. Add the following to the bucket directly or put it in a sock, nylon, mesh bag, etc. and hang it into the bucket.
7. Add 2 to 3 handfuls (or cups) of earth worm castings or Ancient Forest which is even better or go for a mix of both.
8. Add 25mL of liquid carbo load or molasses per 24 hours of planned brew time.
9. As an alternative use 1tsp of powder carbo load or brown cane sugar per 24 hours of planned brew time.
10. Add 1/2 to 1 scoop of ZHO powdered microbes.
11. Add 1/2 to 1 scoop of Great White powdered microbes.
12. Add 5mL of Root Excelurator.
13. add 30 to 100mL of Aquashield
14. Bubble your brew for 24-48 hours and no longer.
15. Separate the solids with cheese cloth, a t-shirt, etc. and put in a clean container.
16. When it is brewing you will see frothing usually by the 12th hour.
17. The frothing indicates you have active good microbes growing.
18. When the frothing diminishes that means your microbes are about done with their food (the sugar product you added).
19. That is good and is where you want to be.
20. You do not want to be adding any unused sugar remaining in your brewed tea when you add the tea to the rez.
21. That unused sugar will be a food source for the slime.
22. You must fridge your left over brewed tea.
23. You can fridge your tea for 7 to10 days.
24. Always give your tea a sniff test before you add it to your rez.
25. If your tea ever smells rank then get rid of it.
26. Your tea should smell earthy.
27. Don't worry about screwing up your tea mixture.
28. It's almost fool proof as long as you do not add too much of a sugar product.
29. For a new fresh rez you will add tea at a rate of 1 to 3 cups per 10 gallons.
30. In between rez clean outs you will add 1 cup of tea per 10 gallons every 3rd day to replenish the microherd army.
31. During a rez clean out, do not dump out your entire rez because you will keep 1 gallon per 10 gallons unless your rez is infected.
32. Make your new rez preferably with all chem ferts and not organic ferts.
33. Do not use enzyme products such as hygrozyme, sensizyme, etc. as these break down dead organic matter which are a known source of food (jet fuel) for the brown slime algae.
34. You can use the zyme products and organic ferts once you become more advanced.
35. Do not add sugar products such as carbo load directly to your rez unless you want to cause a slime explosion.
36. Remember to keep it simple (KISS: keep it simple stupid).
37. Don't over think everything or it will drive you crazy.
38. Last, enjoy explosive white furry roots and massive yields.

Enlarge the pictures to see the recipe products and a frothy batch of tea brewing.

Don't worry about precision and having every product in the recipe. If you were to make a tea with just earth worm castings and molasses to get by until you can get the rest of the products, you will do okay. The main thing you are attempting to do is provide a plentiful amount of good microbes to outplace the bad microbes and especially the slime from getting a foothold and taking over your system and/or rez.

For those of you that prefer to grow in a dead rez, that is growing completely sterile, you will find how to do that within this thread. I also found success with UV lighting to combat the slime and there are additional success stories too. Going sterile as such is effective but I advocate using my tea recipe and instructions instead because nothing is better than getting close to replicating mother nature. With tea, the plants are more hardier, more resistant to stress, and the root masses get much much larger. In short the roots are amazing. A larger root mass equals a larger yield!

richyrich · May 4, 2007

The following pictures are of my roots that were given this magical tea. The water temps did not matter. I cloned with temps at 84 degrees F. Some got away with temps higher up to 89 degrees F. That is a death sentence for cuts/clones in an ez cloner.

This is a tea treated ez cloner at day 5.

This is the same cloner at day 6.

And the cloner at day 8.

This is a tea treated DWC net pot system. This was day 3 after putting the clones in the net pot from the cloner.

This is a tea treated medium less hydro system with net pots. This was day 5 after putting the clones in the net pot from the cloner.

No product on the current market can compete with these results!!!

badboyg · May 4, 2007

good old H202 .. natures best... good luck

Strange Slime buildup on roots

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Out of the slime, finally.

Out of the slime, finally.

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