Brown Algae, or not?

[Jim Dunlop]

Ok I had this problem slightly on my last grow but I was using DWC buckets. I have a new system now, I have cleaned it twice with bleach only to realize that my tent was gassing my plants.

PPM - 600
Res Temp - 72
Room temp and RH - 78 and 41%
Nutrients - Botanicare Pro-Grow, Sweet Citrus, Liquid Karma
Strains - Great White Shark and Big Bang
Light - 400w MH
R/O Water

Once I got this figured out I thought everything was ok and my plants were finally growing. Well...

They are 3 weeks old and they are starting to show signs of slime buildup. I read the thread on brown algae and it looks very similar except I have NO pH swings and my leaves look completely different, more like nutrient lockout. Could this be any way related to the brown algae.

You can see in one of the pictures that the roots are nice and white at the bottom, they are only brown close to the net pot.

If it's not brown algae and the roots are ok with that little bit of brown at the top then how to I solve this?


....it wont let me add pictures. Your Post contains one or more URLs, please remove them before submitting your message again.


EDIT: PICS ARE IN MY MEMBER GALLERY

 

[crzygirl]

Looks like root rot ?? Maybe you could try to clean the roots off by putting it in clean heavily airated water, lifting it out, putting it back in, lifting it out etc. etc. to help knock off some of the brown crud.

You could possibly drain the system and refill with fresh water, add a decent amount of H202 and let it run with that for a day or two.

I do not know for sure, am just making some suggestions for you to think about and research. Good luck with your gunky root problem!

 

[chuckyoufarley]

you should make you rez cooler 65 or so

 

[Jim Dunlop]

Looks like root rot ?? Maybe you could try to clean the roots off by putting it in clean heavily airated water, lifting it out, putting it back in, lifting it out etc. etc. to help knock off some of the brown crud.

You could possibly drain the system and refill with fresh water, add a decent amount of H202 and let it run with that for a day or two.

I do not know for sure, am just making some suggestions for you to think about and research. Good luck with your gunky root problem!

Thanks for the reply! I have thought about root rot as being the problem but after reading the entire Brown Algae thread I'm thinking otherwise. I will put some h202 in the res to see if that helps. Thanks!

edit: need to get that 35% stuff so I will update after I get it.

 

[crzygirl]

Hi Chuck

you should make you rez cooler 65 or so

I wish it was that easy!

 

[FreezerBoy]

Botanicare Pro-Grow is "Fish meal, composted sea bird guano, seakelp, spirulina, soybean protein..." Are you sure it's not just nute stain?

You need 3 posts to include pics. You should be good to go from here out.

 

[Jim Dunlop]

Thanks for that FreezerBoy, never really read up on the components of Pro-Grow.

It could be and probably is nute stain but that doesn't really explain the leaves... I will post some new pics.

 

[FreezerBoy]

I can't smell the water or feel the roots. They just don't look "bad" to me.

Without info on water and nute readings. I'll guess nute lockup from bad pH (5.8 plus or minus .2 is ideal) or Mag deficiency from RO.

 

[richyrich]

Find out what conversion your TDS meter uses; .5 or .7. If .5, yes add some cal-mag to your RO water first. Bring the ppms up to 250 with the cal-mag, then add your Botanicare Grow to bring it up to 600-650. Check the calibration on your pH meter and get it at 5.8 +/- .2. Drop the Sweet and Liquid Karma for now. Start using them in flower after you get this figured out. You have a mag deficiency that is most likely from the RO water, and the grow nute not having enough or your pH is off causing lock out. Then you could have brown slime algae that is choking your roots causing the loss of nute uptake. Looked at your pics. Hard to tell right now. It starts off looking like that, but at this point it looks like your nutes are staining the roots at the water line. You have to many healthy roots at this point to have such deficients plants. You might want to consider some hydroguard, too, since your on the botanicare line up.

 

[stinkyattic]

Need calmag.
If bleached, rinse VERY well.
Hydroton needs to be set to pH 6 before use- did you?
Lose the additives and go back to base until fixed.
Add Cannazyme or another enzyme product.

I pretty much agree 100% with richyrich up there ^^^

 

[richyrich]

Nooooooooo enzymes right now. If you need my reason read the brown slime algae sticky.

 

[stinkyattic]

Is it because of the amount of N that is released back to the res water when they start to work? I'd definitely change out the res more frequently when first starting to run a 'zyme. I'll trust your insight on this one though for sure.

 

[Jim Dunlop]

Thanks everyone for the replies, all of your suggestions really help me out.

I did soak my rockwool and I rinse my hydroton after every grow. This setup is new so I'm still getting used to the aero and everything. I'm not putting any more additives in, and in the beginning only put about 8ml of LK and 20ml of Sweet (into 12 gal of water) so it shouldnt hurt too bad. I got sweet because it has Mag in it so I was thinking of using that to cure the deficiencies.

However, its funny you bring up the Cal-Mag because I was moving stuff around in my garden and added some more Pro-Grow after another 5 gallons of R/O and I read on the back of the bottle that it is recommended to use Cal-Mag if you use R/O water, never really came across that before.

I did buy some Hydroguard and Dutch Master Zone and I will be placing another order for some Cal-Mag. I have a lot of Botanicare products including my Aero setup so I trust them a lot.

I have a Control Wizard 24/7 Tri-Meter. How would I go about figuring out the conversion factor? I looked on CW's site and the manual has no information about this. I am going to use the Cal-Mag anyways because the bottle said to and you guys are recommending it, but I have been asked a bunch of times about my conversion factor and don't know how to find it.


edit: Just found out my meter has a 500 ppm to 1 EC conversion

Again thanks for the replies!

Jim

 

[richyrich]

I found it for you. Control wizard uses a .5 conversion factor, so go by the numbers I gave you. Stick to the cal-mag. You are correct that sweet has mag in it but it does not have the correct balance of replacement nutes stripped by the RO filter. And, do not use the Zone with the Hydroguard. Zone will kill the beneficial bacteria in Hydroguard. One or the other.

 

[richyrich]

Is it because of the amount of N that is released back to the res water when they start to work? I'd definitely change out the res more frequently when first starting to run a 'zyme. I'll trust your insight on this one though for sure.

It's because if you do have brown slime algae, adding an enzyme is like feeding it jet fuel. The enzymes break down old plant or root material and makes it available as an organic nutrient. For some reason the slime loves it and will explode. Using a partial organic nute such as botanicare is already pushing it.

 

[Jim Dunlop]

Thanks for the help richy, I really appreciate it. I think you're right about the mg deficiency. I added some sweet last night and the new growth isnt turning rust colored like the older leaves so I think I got it somewhat on track. I got some Cal-Mag, should be here next week so I will use that from now on. I'll keep this updated. I will flower once I see a couple more leaf sets of healthy growth. Also waiting to see my LST do its job. Thanks again.