Root issues

[powderful]

Hey

I am in week 5 of flowering and the last week my res has been having a funky smell when i open it to add water/nutes and the ph is dropping down to mid 4s. The water temp have been too high and I am working on remedying that. My house is supplied with water from a well so whatever I have might be due to the water not being chlorinated. Roots don't really look bad at all but I have noticed some sediment (whiteish) in the res, buildup on airlines and some sediment in the buckets.

Specs:

rdwc in grow tent
2 x 600w hps
canna hydro flores A&B
Jack flash & skunk kush (sensi)

The nearest hydro store is 3 hours drive and I just got back from there and this is what I bought:

H202 12,5%
Tarantula
Cannazym
Rhizotonic


I could not find ewc in my country so no heisenberg tea

Same goes for zone (dutch masters) , sm90 etc...

So what is the best plan of attack given what I have available?

I was thinking I might take the plants out (big hassle as they are proper trees now) and submerse them in a water/h202 mix for 5-10min while I let the system run a slightly stronger water/h202 mix.

Finally I would fill the system with straight tap and add nutes + cannazym/rhizotonic.

The tarantula I bought in case sterilization does not work and I want to try bennies.

I am open to suggestions

 

[Mystic Funk]

I would do like you said and clean sterilize everything. sounds like you have a algae/fungus problem. don't over do it and stress your plants your pretty late in flower.
I would keep the nutrients low as not to feed the algae. adding some air stones to the reservoir wouldn't hurt ether. the bad smell makes me think lack of air.

hope this helps!
-mystic

 

[powderful]

Thanks for the input

I got one of these in each bucket:

http://www.onestopgrowshop.co.uk/images/detailed/3/88442-v2_Haileda_Aco_9610_-_4_Outlet_Air_Pump.jpg

The buckets have about 30L of water and the pumps are rated at 10L/Min so I hope I am covered there.

Just put some smaller aquarium pumps with stones into the res also.

I was wondering if I could just add some h202 to the res and let the water pump circulate it for a few hours and then try some cannazyme to eat up any dead roots before I go and sterilize everything. Maybe this is the least intrusive method? I am unsure how much h202 to add though as guides online vary greatly and I do not want to stress my ladies further

 

[Mystic Funk]

I don't use h2o2 much. I see a lot of people using it up to 3% or higher with no problem.


I use a small amount of bleach to kill off any algae and scum off my roots. I use 1oz of bleach to my 6gal cloner with no problems.
(I get tons of bright white roots in ten days or less) so I think at that stretch it's hurting the plants....


so with your 30l rez use 1.6 to 3.2oz of bleach. that will bring you around 1/4 to 1/2 of 1% in your rez


let that sit in your rez till the scum is gone then flush with fresh solution and you should be good to go.




peace
-mystic

 

[corky1968]

Algae only grows if there's light. So eliminate that and bye bye algae.

But like Mystic Funk says an air stone will help with the anoxic smelly water.

 

[powderful]

I have put reflective tape over everything (buckets, lines, res.. etc) so light should not be a problem.

I did a h202/water rinse of the roots and used same type of solution to rinse buckets, air lines, airstones and buckets before putting the girls back and refilling with a weak nutrient mix.

The airlines had yellow caked up gunk on them, any ideas what it could be?

Today the res has that same white foam again and a slight smell but no sediment yet.

My entire system is 120-130L with buckets and res recycling the water. Should I add about 8oz of bleach?

I have some bleach type product at home but I am unsure if I can use it, ingredients are:

water, natrium hypoklorit, kaliumsilikat and natriumhydroxid

Sure is nice to feel like I have someone to consult with as for legal reason I have no one to share my thoughts with on a daily basis.

 

[corky1968]

I personally don't like the idea of bleach on plants.

I would be scared to burn them considering what bleach can do.

I prefer diluted hydrogen peroxide since it simply oxidizes matter and breaks down to water.

I've had airlines get yellow over time with my aquarium in the past.
You can get a new one for cheap any time you feel like getting rid
of it. Luckily airline doesn't cost much money.

 

[powderful]

Yeah next time I drive into town airlines are on the top of my list but I have washed up the ones I am using so they should be fine for the rest of the grow.

Only reason I am thinking about bleaching is because I washed everything with h202 but the white foam came right back.

I got some cannazym so maybe give that a go before I start adding any more stuff, any experience with enzyme products?

Going to go check ph and ppm now to see what is up in that department

 

[rykus]

White or yellow build up is the nutrient salts, bound up and dried out to your gear...

When you want to get salt out of your system you need to add cations(calcium preferably but magnesium and potassium as well) that attract and unbind or rebound the excess salt residues... So flushing with 3-500ppm cal/mg will do more than a low feed or straight water..

H2O2 will be best for removing all living pathogens... And the rebuild using what you have seems logical. I would only do bennies as worst case in hydro... Probably not even...

We use to change our res at least once a week and thoroughly clean every bit we could... Replaced all the lines if there was issues after the run. I'd be steady on the h2o2 and do more frequent changes and cleans to get through... We also used a 5 gallon with h2o2 water and a shop vac and flushed and cleaned each plant site, because the drippers didn't clean all the rock....

Good luck!

 

[powderful]

A little update:

I added a light dose of cannazym and rhizotonic with todays top up of water/nutes and the ph has stabilized.

I also converted a dehumidifier I had standing around to a diy chiller that is now submersed in the res keeping it at a cool 68f with room temp at 82.

I followed several online guides and youtube videos as every model is slightly different, there was some simple soldering involved but all in all not a nightmare. I am quite impressed by the unit and it was cheap as chips compared to a chiller

There is still some white foam in the res but I am hoping the cannazym and rhizotonic paired with the diy chiller will keep the nasties at bay till the end.

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions guys

 

[powderful]

Last update:

I left the diy chiller on high and it got the water down to 60f in a 81f room

I have now set it to low and hopefully that will keep it around 62-65f

The foam is gone from the res now and ph is swinging between 5 - 6.2

 

[powderful]

And now it seems the ph is still dropping despite the chiller keeping everything frosty

Lowest I have seen before adding plain tap was 3.7

It seems like the only reason the ph stayed high was because I flushed and filled fresh water and now the ph buffer of that water has dissipated.

I read that dead roots decaying will lower ph so I added some more cannzym and rhizo.

Can root rot/algae/bacteria survive in 60f water?

 

[powderful]

Water has stayed at a frosty 60.8F for about a week now but I still have that white foam all over my roots and the edges of my res.

It is not slimey and there is absolutely no smell in the buckets or res.
Roots are not discolored either.

I rinsed through the whole system with pure tap water to get any dead roots and debris out and the only thing in my water now is a very weak canna hydro flores a+b (ppm is at 170ish) as raising the nutes would lower the ph outside acceptable range.

Water started out around ph 7 after flush/res change and is slowly dropping (6.3 atm)

I am at a loss after reading online for so many hours, any (r)dwc experts?

 

[rykus]

Try using calcium or silica to maintain more of an even ph.

Awesome job on the diy chiller! But I would try to keep it at a steady 67-69 for best growth and health(unless it's warmer in the root zone).

It's my understanding that nitrates and anions such as nitrogen and phosphorus can dramatically lower ph, cations can help tie up some of those anions and keep the res more stable...

We use to clean the f outta everything to keep ph stable... But mixed right your base feed should stay in range... Additives can be bad for a healthy mix IMO sometimes...also the lower the ppm the more your nutrient can and will shift... More salt is usually more stable to minor variations...

IMO the combination of low ppm and old build ups are making your res less stable... Go up to 1-2 EC and correct EC with potassium silicate or oysters shell in a stocking...

Good luck and congrats on the chiller... Next level for sure!