EZ cloner problems.

[juggernaut]

I have the EZcloner and I like it but I'm having problems.

I am getting a thick film, (almost like when u make a creame of mushroom soup and you get that thin pasty layer on the top). This has happened to me twice already. It almost covers the airstone.

I have lost clones almost over noght.

This time I have taken apart everything bleached it and scrubed it inside and out....I couldn't believe how much of this (little half dimed sized pcs) kept coming out.

No airstones this time and I will be changing the rez every 3 days instead of every 5 days.

Has anyone else had simular problems?
Any solutions or recomendations?
Anything that might help I would love to hear.

 

[Tyga]

Loose the airstone! I just run a submersible pump... Clonex solution in the water plus homemade clear rez and recommended dosage. Theres a thread on here to make it from pool shock for DIRT cheap. Re-apply clear rez once every 3 days and once you start seeing roots I stop using Clear rez and start using Roots excel. Roots Excel makes the roots really kick off and has some sort of anti-fungal in it to keep things nice. Make sure rez temps are between 72-78 and you should be all set man..

 

[Tyga]

I was battling stem rot and whatnot for a while with it and this solved all my problems... Rez temp and a sterile environment is 99% of cloning... I'm sure I don't even need to add the clonex solution to the reservoir I just do it for good measure.

 

[ThePizzaMan]

You may have "slime" which is cyanobacteria. This means that you cannot kill them with bleach..physan 20...etc. To make a long story short....you can go to petsmart...and get erythromycin...costs about 15 bucks. You run it through your cloner for 4 days...following the instructions on the package.

Here is the thread on it if you do not want to take my word alone:

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=224658

After you treat your cloner...you need to throw away your pucks. buy new pucks...clean the cloner with boiled water...and run only boiled water in your cloner. You can also run Physan 20 or bleach through it to be safe. The problem could be your water...it has nasty bacteria that harm clones in it.

Should cost you about $50...just don't put your tap water or ro water through that machine unless you boil it first. You could always do it in large batches to make life easier...or buy distilled water. Make sure to keep your temps 72-75 degrees...anything higher and you are playing with fire. You can also run chlorine in your water...or make EWC tea...and use that while cloning.

Hope that helps

TpM

 

[CanniDo Cowboy]

Ah yes, the ol EZ Cloner.. I wrassled with my EZ Cloner 30 about 4 years back and finally shelved it. Too high maintenance for me and in my opinion, a poor design. First make certain the problem isnt related to your water quality ie: well, tap etc. Next would be water temp. That was my biggest problem. It would seem, after many trials and tribulations, I discovered the combination of the heat being generated from the Cloner internal pump, the lighting above the Cloner(flouro) and the already moderately high room temps, esp. during the summer (apprx 85ish degrees), would raise the temps of the res into the high 80's- low 90's. Call me nit picky but the black color of the Cloner was also considered as a possible source of heat. LOL So, IMO, The 30 site reservoir, being rather small, was being heated beyond acceptable limits by the very things necessary to do what it was designed for...

To confirm my suspicions, I first relocated the Cloner from a benchtop in my grow room to a slab floor in my much cooler basement, hoping the concrete floor would help keep the water cooler. Not much change. I then placed the EZ in a larger tub, filled it with water, and floated 2 to 3 frozen Pepsi bottles inside the outer tub, still using a 2ft strip flouro (minimal heat) for lighting. It dropped the Cloner reservoir temp to the high 70's - low 80's and performed much better thereafter. IMO, this in itself confirmed that the Cloner 30 reservoir was easliy and adversely effected in the most vital area of the whole design: maintaining the necessary temp while operating in an environment where higher temps are not uncommon. But changing thawed bottles for frozen ones became stupid for something that should have worked properly to begin with. I contacted the EZ Cloner folks and basically told them their EZ Cloner 30 had what I thought was a design flaw in that at the very least, the pump should have been external so as not to add to the higher water temps (probably the biggest contributer to the water overheating). The EZ Cloner folks denied the problem but suggested I try running run a water chiller (around $400.00 at the time). How nice. The folks where I purchased the Cloner said they would give me a discount on the chiller. Even nicer. LOL Please...

I would check the water temps after letting the Cloner run for several hrs. If above 78 give or take, it may be all or part of your problem. Of course, if your putting something or somethings in the Cloner other that a rooting/cloning solution, this might also be something to look at. CC

 

[St3ve]

What kind of water are you using?
What (if anything) are you adding to the water?
What is the temp of said water when its running?

The only time I got a film like that was when I tried using citric acid powder for my pH down. It added about 15-20days to getting roots.

Unlike others.. I've had nothing (cept that one run with citric acid) but 100% success with my homemade ezcloners.

 

[mdanforth]

I would also tend to think your water temps might be high.....

 

[kasmier]

Yup, too hot of water and ya get slimed

 

[Hydro-Soil]

You can fit how many 72-site (edit: whoops.. That's supposed to read "27") ice-tube cloners into the same space as a 30 site ez? At least 3, I believe... maybe more. No electricity except for whatever light you're using for cloning... I usually use ambient room lighting. LOL

The film is definitely either bacterial or fungal in nature. The Erythromyacin(sp?) will cure the bacterial infection and I believe ridomil(sp?) is recommended for the fungal varieties?

As stated, it's probably going to be coming from either bad water or contaminated stuff you're adding (cloning gel, organic nutes, basically biological stuff that's not chem nutes).

Find the source and either eliminate it or take steps to cure it each time.

Stay Safe!

 

[St3ve]

Hey Hydro-Soil, I'm guessing you use the ice tray cloner method? What is your success rate with those things?

When I used to clone in Rockwool in a dome tray I'd get around 60-70%. When I switched to the ez-cloner, I load it and don't even look at it for ten days, when I come back I have 100% roots everytime. That said, I'm always about saving every little bit of electricity I can so I am curious on that method.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Hey Hydro-Soil, I'm guessing you use the ice tray cloner method? What is your success rate with those things?

100%... when the starting material is good.

I use plastic bags (of appropriate size)to hold the water under a full tray or partial. Basically a disposable and clean 'tray'. A 6-site section of one fits great in a 'snack' sized ziplock.

Super simple and I get great results. Used a lot of different methods over the years... I prefer this.

Stay Safe!

 

[St3ve]

I understand 100%, but I don't know what you're talking about when you're saying "plastic bags" and "trays". Can you link me to what you're describing pls?

 

[Hydro-Soil]

The Ice-Tube cloner is the Ice-Tube trays with holes punched in the bottom for water uptake.

Lots of people fill a shallow pan or tray with water and put the cloner into it... keeping 1-2" of water in it so the vermiculite in the Ice-Tube cloner doesn't dry out. I don't like washing stuff and I prefer clean/non-used items for cloning. A ziplock bag fits the cloners well, when you cut them into 6-site pieces. When done, I throw the bag away. Not sure what size would work for a full, uncut, Ice-Tube cloner, haven't done that yet.

Sorry, no pics to link.

Stay Safe!

 

[St3ve]

Nope, that's a plenty good description, no pics needed. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[guambomb813]

Ive been using aeroponic's to clone for years, took me about a year to figure out why I would get slime build up on some of the stems and this would either cause extremely slow rooting times or wilting death. (NOTE: The ones who got effected most was also factored by clipping choice, remember the firmer the stem of the clipping you choose, the more carbs that is stored which means overall health is better)

The problem is quite simple, you have anaerobic bacteria in your water. The most effective way I've found to eliminate this without the need to change the water temps (mine are always 75-80* because of room temp and my large submersible water pump) is to use "dutch masters gold zone".

This eliminated my problems at the source, but I will admit to increase my rooting times I do also use a home brewed tea that has earth worm castings, trichoderma, both endo and ecto mychroiza (SP?), kelp, mollasses.

you don't need clonex or hormones the plant has these hormones naturally and to root only needs to adjust the levels of hormones internally to enduce rooting. I have used plain water with "zone" added with great results.

You can either use "zone", or adding aerobic bacteria (TEA, ZHO, etc. etc.) and BE SURE YOU have decent oxygenation in the water to help keep anaerobic (BAD) bacteria in check.

GOOD LUCK

 

[E.CoastCannabis]

No airstone, theres no need for it and drop the water temp if it's running a little high.

 

[kasmier]

plain tap water , no stones , mister on 24 - 7 - 365, ya either gotta get temps down or make adjustments to compensate, frozen water bottles would prob do ya right

 

[Alone]

I have an EZ-Clone 120. I have a new air pump with 2 lines that run to 2- 12" air stones.
These are VERY IMPORTANT to prevent slime. NEVER TAKE THEM OUT!!!! USE MORE AIRSTONES IF YOU GET SLIME!!!!!
The original airline that comes with the EZ-C was useless. It clogged up all the time and this is why I got slime 1x and lost 99% of my cuts. The air stones keep the water from becoming stagnant.

I bought a stronger air pump @ Wal-Fart and got 2-12" bubble stones and never lost 1 clone since.
$400 for a chiller??? LMFAO!!! Try 2-16oz water bottles of frozen water to keep the water temps down. $400 dollars to keep water cool..... MUHAHAHA! Try .99cents.

 

[Alone]

With that said........

Take cuts.
Dip 1/4 inch of stem into Clonex Root Gel for a 30 count. (I scrape the bark off on 2 sides)
Use 1 bottle of Olivias Clone Solution, 1tsp Pro-Tekt, 3 drops SuperThrive in the Rez.
Thats it. Perfect results. Reduce amounts for smaller clone machines.
Keep temps cool with frozen water bottles if needed.
For stubborn clones that take longer to root, (past 10 days), add 1tbs of Fox Farms Grow Big to prevent yellowing.

 

[redbudduckfoot]

yep, the shock n swim works great.

1g per gallon of water.
apply to rez at the rate of 1 oz to 5 gallons of nutes/water.

i dont even clean the cloner in between runs, lol.

rbdf