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Strange Slime buildup on roots

I poured some weak h202 and physan solution onto the begginings of the stems where it meets rockwool because I noticed the algae was mostly attacking towards the top. Well either my girls think they are overwatered or it looks like their dieing. The two that I poured the solution onto are wilting and they look like an overwatered plant, at least I hope it's nothing serious. First time with hydro here, I don't think you're supposed to water them from the top at all.


Also, I cut a lightproof curtain and threw that over the top of the res to help keep lightout and I also put in a second airpump. The new pump vibrates much less and think there might have been something wrong with my old one. With both pumps in there it's circulating the water much more and feel the roots will love this if they recover.

OG Kush (SFV cut I think) is my only plant that keeps marching on... 5th day of flowering and it's starting to look fuzzy. Impressed with the vigor, I just need to get rid of this algae!!!
 
try cleaning your roots with clear-x shit worked real well for me. just gotta give em a bath in it for a couple hours. make sure the waters warm tho
 

Greenmerlin

New member
Thank you richyrich. I had this problem since I started six months ago, been too two different web sites, no luck been fighting this problem the whole time. i am heading out to get the physan 20.
 

onegreenday

Active member
Veteran
Serenade

Serenade

You can, but the real and only knock out is what you have coming--Physan20.

I searched this thread for Serenade and no hits came up.

Serenade is OMRI biological fungicide
containing Bt (Bacillus subtillis) and is about $20.
per quart.

It's usually sprayed on leaf to control fungus but
I suspect it would work in reservoirs in a pinch........
 

gardenbug

Member
Well that was a long read, took a few days.
I got the slime in my bubble cloner. I believe it was either caused by roots accelerator or superthrive. I'm doing tests to try and figure out which it was.
Physan 20 took care of the slime. I lost 2 out of 10 from the physan, some of them just didn't like it. I also left a few in the physan for several days and they seem to be fine.

So if I give the beneficials a place to live such as lava rock, do I need to add EWC tea all the time? Is something like great white a better way to go?
 

t33to

Member
Well that was a long read, took a few days.
I got the slime in my bubble cloner. I believe it was either caused by roots accelerator or superthrive. I'm doing tests to try and figure out which it was.
Physan 20 took care of the slime. I lost 2 out of 10 from the physan, some of them just didn't like it. I also left a few in the physan for several days and they seem to be fine.

So if I give the beneficials a place to live such as lava rock, do I need to add EWC tea all the time? Is something like great white a better way to go?

Superthrive you say...? Did you ever find out which was the culprit? I used both superthrive and piranha in this particular grow and I got root rot way way way before I ever thought possible. The superthrive and the pirahna is kind of old... I wonder if that's what caused it.
 

strangetanks

New member
Hi everyone, first time posting on here.

I'm switching to hydro after growing in soil, so I guess I would be considered a newbie.

Currently I'm running a RDWC system. I use aquaponics for veg and move them to a hyrdo system for flower. When I moved my first batch over to the hydro system things went crazy. Within 48 hours the water was super cloudy and all my roots turned a dark brown and all the finer root hairs fell off.

Coming from more of an aquarium backround, the cloudy nute solution was a sure sign of a bacterial bloom. Growing aquaponically, its basically impossible for me to even consider any kind of sterile environment.

So what I did was dump the solution and ran almost straight water for about a week. My thinking was that I have a bloom of weird stuff growing, the easiest way to kill it is to starve it out. Nice white roots are growing like crazy out of the damaged ones now and I've been slowly adding more nute solution.

I think I can sort of pinpoint what a lot of problems are for folks with this issue. Some people have the problem all of a sudden after growing for a long time. Some folks have it right away. It could be a weirdo algae, or a bacteria or fungus or who knows. For those who got it suddenly after years of success I would say that you somehow picked up a bad bug that was never present before.

In a little eco-system like my aquaponics set up, you rely on a system of self balancing. I have all sorts of ugly junk growing everywhere in there. Green goop and brown sludge and I don't intend on ever cleaning a thing. But the plants love it, and everything looks super healthy. The downside is you have to be patient, changes come slowly. I can't adjust PH or nutes very quickly or the entire system goes haywire.

I think thats whats happening with people's systems on here. Usually you have a beneficial bacteria that compete with detrimental ones. It takes time for populations of bacteria to build, and when you add or remove anything you need to allow time for adjustments to take place.

Thats why inoculating with the compost tea seems to work so well. Your introducing a large population of beneficial bacteria into the system. The problem is, you have to keep doing it to keep the populations up, in other words you've become part of the system and thats a lot of work.

This week, I'll be setting up a biofilter in my flowering room to try and get a handle on things as I add more nutes. Biofilters are super easy, just provide lots of surface area, some water flow, and some air. It takes about a month for them to become fully populated with bacteria however.

I'm also going to experiment with a kind of gravel called flourite which people that grow lots of aquarium plants use. Its basically a fossilized clay that releases iron and minerals into the water over time.

Hope the insight helps.
 

gardenbug

Member
Superthrive you say...? Did you ever find out which was the culprit? I used both superthrive and piranha in this particular grow and I got root rot way way way before I ever thought possible. The superthrive and the pirahna is kind of old... I wonder if that's what caused it.

I took several samples and left them out for a week or so. I put a few bits of old leaf into each sample for some organic matter.

Tap water, all clear
Tap + nutes, all clear
Tap + roots excel, all clear

So I added superthrive to all of them, will see if it does anything in a few days.
 

Durbanplaya

New member
A bit of a long comment coming...

Ok so not entirely sure it was the brown slime that I had problems with but here's a rundown. Had only 1 my flowering ladies (4 weeks in) suddenly wilt and stopped taking up water, got some frothy shit in the DWC bucket at the same time so I changed to straight PH'd water. It died in 3 days.

Thought it was just a rare occurance and moved on. Next time the same thing happend to just 1 of the plants and again it never survived. Not long after this I changed my setup and moved to larger buckets. Since then I have just been plagued with root problems but this time during veg.

At this point I started reading this thread while trying my own thing with the lyquid oxygen which didn't help anything, in fact I think it accelerated it. Also cant get Physan 20 in the UK.

Then got an ozonizer which is supposed to work faster than UV. This has seemed to work but only when I have cut away most of the slimy roots (I'm guessing these were dead already). The reason I say seemed is because 1 went straight into flower on 5.5ph and no nutes, recovered immediately. 2 others stayed in veg and got slimed again, however, same treatment and putting them into flower with the other 1 worked.

Ozonizer and UV can both cause deficiencies which I'm curing/preventing with Advanced Nutrients Revive. Finally got some EWC tea made because it appears that some of my recovered plants still have dead roots intwined with the new, it would be impossible to removed without causing serios damage so hopefully the tea will help.

I got my ozonizer pretty cheap compared to standard price. If you can't get the physan like myself and your budget can afford it, I would recommend trying the ozonizer or UV then EWC tea.

Hope that helps and thanks to everyone for all the info.

Peace
 

richyrich

Out of the slime, finally.
Veteran
Here is a recommendation:

This unit should be put into every rez to house your beneficial army colony. Seed with EWC Tea. Do not clean this unit out, just take out when changing the rez and then put back. The idea is to use this like a fish aquarium filter. A better idea would be to leave about 1/4 of your old nutes in the rez when changing out and adding back new the rest. Just like a fish aquarium, you are only suppose to change a little water at a time. This way you never lose your army, therefore, the slime will never have an opportunity to take a foothold. I found this unit at Lowes in the pond section for $32. They also have bigger units like I have posted previously. You have to supply your own pump. I am going to add lava rocks in conjunction with the bio balls that were included with the unit.
I am going to do an aero run and will see how this turns out. I expect success.

 

gardenbug

Member
Wanted to update that my clones I used physan20 became slime free, but they all died off about a week or 2 later. Looks like the roots died and they never put out new ones. Maybe I gave them too much physan.
 

gardenbug

Member
Am I better off with ewc or something like great white? Seems like ewc would introduce other organic/dirty/slimey things into the water? Never made it before though.
 

ItsGrowTime

gets some
Veteran
Small clones just aren't established enough to have the ability to grow a new root system after infection. It wasn't the Physan that killed them, it was the slime. Those roots were already dead when you added the Physan.

Im a fan of AquaShield for inoculation against the slime. The tea works fine but like you say there's a chance for contamination. I wouldnt use Great White only since it needs an activation period while AquaShield is live culture. That activation period is long enough for slime to get a foothold first (and it acts fast!). Ive been using Great White in my garden but have decided to combine it with AquaShield for a fast acting and diverse microherd.
 

Durbanplaya

New member
Here is a recommendation:

This unit should be put into every rez to house your beneficial army colony. Seed with EWC Tea. Do not clean this unit out, just take out when changing the rez and then put back. The idea is to use this like a fish aquarium filter. A better idea would be to leave about 1/4 of your old nutes in the rez when changing out and adding back new the rest. Just like a fish aquarium, you are only suppose to change a little water at a time. This way you never lose your army, therefore, the slime will never have an opportunity to take a foothold. I found this unit at Lowes in the pond section for $32. They also have bigger units like I have posted previously. You have to supply your own pump. I am going to add lava rocks in conjunction with the bio balls that were included with the unit.
I am going to do an aero run and will see how this turns out. I expect success.



Richy what size are those units? Was going to visit my local aquirium shop for some ideas but not sure if something like this will fit in my 5gal buckets...
 

Durbanplaya

New member
Am I better off with ewc or something like great white? Seems like ewc would introduce other organic/dirty/slimey things into the water? Never made it before though.

I had the same thoughts with the ewc tea about what might be added. Finally made some and you can hardly notice it in a dwc system. Can notice whiter roots though :jump:
 

richyrich

Out of the slime, finally.
Veteran
Richy what size are those units? Was going to visit my local aquirium shop for some ideas but not sure if something like this will fit in my 5gal buckets...

They are about 10 inches in length. They will not fit in a single 5 G bucket.
 

richyrich

Out of the slime, finally.
Veteran
There are no problems with EWC if taken care of properly. It it stinks bad then toss it. As I have posted several times way back in this thread, if you want to make a super EWC Tea then I like to add Great White and AquaShield. Great White has the best mix of benes. This is the combination I use: EWC Tea made from fresh earth worm castings, Great White Powder, AquaShield and Advanced Nutes CarboLoad as the food and activator for the Tea. Aerate for 24 hours. I store mine in the fridge for up to 7-10 days. Always give it the sniff test before using.
 

MediMary

Member
Quick question for you rich.. at what strength do you add the physan 20?







j.k


I just finished reading 64 pages :dance013::dance013:
(wont let me read the last 2 for some reason??:wallbash:, guess ill have to wait until tomorrow to read that last few.
To everyone who contributed info.:wave::wave::wave: Ur awesome, thanks snowdog, thanks grow,
mucho thanks to rich for getting this thread sticked, and everything, that everyone has contributed. :thank you:



I do have a couple questions for Rich though, Earlier in the thread in different spots u were talking about adding Great White, Power Cloner solution, and Aquashield.

I am curious do you add these products to the EWC tea While it is brewing OR After you have added it the reservoir?

When brewing your ewc tea? do you ph the water Before you add the castings Or After you add it to the resevoir? I currently use vinegar as a ph down, do you think it will effect the EWC tea in any way..i.e. prevent beneifs from developing?

also did you ever get a chance to try that bokashi juice, and if you did how did it compare to the regular ewc?

thanks again everyone:thank you:,
 

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