Strange Slime buildup on roots

[angel4us]

hi avant gardner , its either pythium root rot from high temps or blue green algae - hydro herpes ....if herpes then building/growroom is contaminated forever and from now on u must use dutch masters zone in any future hydro projects period!!!!!if pythium root rot buy /make chiller. peace

also watch hygrozyme - will also cause dwc systems to go crazy i ve seen threads -do some research on that stuff

 

[ItsGrowTime]

avant-gardener, just pick up a bottle of Physan 20 and call it a day. It's cheap and so effective. A couple ml/gallon will kill any nasties. I now use it as a preventative in my reservoirs weekly. A big splash keeps her clean.

 

[avant gardener]

avant-gardener, just pick up a bottle of Physan 20 and call it a day. It's cheap and so effective. A couple ml/gallon will kill any nasties. I now use it as a preventative in my reservoirs weekly. A big splash keeps her clean.

thanks for the pointer!

as i indicated, am already using physan @ 1/10 ml per gal. there is no label info for hydro applications, and from my (hardly exhaustive) research on various forums, 1 ml per 10 gallons is the highest concentration i have seen anyone recommend for throwing it in the rez. you're telling me you use 2 ml/1gallon of feed? a teasppon in a gallon makes a handwash that smells like hospital disinfectant, so i just want to be PERFECTLY FUGGIN' SURE before i feed this to my girls. ya dig?

cheers my brutha!

 

[Ckali559]

i've got 6 plants vegging in 5 gallon buckets (dwc) and i noticed a little brown slime on my roots. i just bought h2o2 and have used it twice in these last 4 days; it doesn't seem to be working. im hearing a lot about psycan20 but the guy at the grow store told me to aviod it... what to do??? any help is appreciated...

 

[t33to]

i've got 6 plants vegging in 5 gallon buckets (dwc) and i noticed a little brown slime on my roots. i just bought h2o2 and have used it twice in these last 4 days; it doesn't seem to be working. im hearing a lot about psycan20 but the guy at the grow store told me to aviod it... what to do??? any help is appreciated...

h202 will probably not kill brown slime as brown slime is actually a kind of algae I think. Physan20 I believe is an algaecide so it would probably work. I have physan20 but I do not use it anymore because a very kind person on Icmag introduced me to the world of sterile hydroponics and I've never looked back.

All I do is put 1ppm of bleach into my water. It kills all good and bacteria but the concentration is so low the plants don't mind at all. What you end up getting is a root zone that can tolerate way higher temps because you don't worry about pathogens and such which can allow you to stress less or not at all when your rez temps get really warm.

I did a Flood and Drain cycle using 1ppm of bleach last run and my water temps were sometimes in the high 20c! Nothing but white sterile roots. Just ensure there is lots of oxygen (basically infiniti in flood and drain) and you don't worry about anything really. Easiest crop I've ever done next to Aquaponics but that's a whole different chat.

So to summarize, I'm suggesting you dump all of your water out of your system, replace with fresh water (w/e your source is), ph it, nutrify it etc and then put in 1ppm (1ml/10gallon) to your rez. So if you got 10 gallon system, you just put in 1ml, please keep in mind I'm talking about volume of water in your system not the total size of the buckets and containers.

Good luck! Report back with your story.

 

[Ckali559]

it's still there.

i've never heard that... Bleach, like ordinary clorox style bleach? i wouldn't doubt with a small amount it'd be okay... just gotta confirm we are talking about the SAME bleach...

 

[t33to]

it's still there.

i've never heard that... Bleach, like ordinary clorox style bleach? i wouldn't doubt with a small amount it'd be okay... just gotta confirm we are talking about the SAME bleach...

Dude, excellent question

I have never tried anything but the no-name bleach, but the person who originally suggested this to me, really stressed the point to NOT to use anything but BASIC bleach. No scented shit or anti-bacterial or anything. Just straight up Bleach.

That's a good question which shows you are really putting some focus into this. I hope it works out well! I'm pretty confident it will.

 

[Ckali559]

Dude, excellent question

I have never tried anything but the no-name bleach, but the person who originally suggested this to me, really stressed the point to NOT to use anything but BASIC bleach. No scented shit or anti-bacterial or anything. Just straight up Bleach.

That's a good question which shows you are really putting some focus into this. I hope it works out well! I'm pretty confident it will.

so i used the bleech, and im happy to say, worked like grand daddy! took about 4 days to clear up, but this works!!!

 

[t33to]

so i used the bleech, and im happy to say, worked like grand daddy! took about 4 days to clear up, but this works!!!

Fucking rights dude! I'm super stoked you gave it a shot and it worked out for ya! Now you be sure to spread the word!

Sterile Hydro = FTW.

Ps. Be sure to flush your plants in the final week(s) with still just 'plain' water though

 

[ogenko]

wow
i think this thread may have saved the rest of my hair ive been pulling out
my most recent grow was booming for a couple weeks then bam
things got sickly the roots got the brown slimey/mushy thing going on
tried running dead res with bleach to no avail
i picked up some physan at armstrong for 10 bucks
my res was fresh and i thought it was pretty clean
but a lot of ugly muck came up in the physan foam

so hopefully all the enemies will be dead for the next run

has anyone had this as a symptom of the slime?
i get the black slime on top of my rockwool cubes

is this the same as the brown slime or something altogether different?

thanks for the great thread......++)

 

[ogenko]

I have physan20 but I do not use it anymore because a very kind person on Icmag introduced me to the world of sterile hydroponics and I've never looked back.

All I do is put 1ppm of bleach into my water. It kills all good and bacteria but the concentration is so low the plants don't mind at all. What you end up getting is a root zone that can tolerate way higher temps because you don't worry about pathogens and such which can allow you to stress less or not at all when your rez temps get really warm.

i tried the dead res with bleach too after i got slimed (from krunchbubbles thread)
it wouldn't get rid of the slime in my case
now am trying the physan route
im hoping i can kill the enemy and then switch to the
bleach for maintaining a clean dead res
peeeeeeeeeaaaaaaacee

 

[Bazarocka]

If Your Cultivating

If Your Cultivating

In a H2O environment, and your not using this:

http://www.gchydro.com/CANNA+Cannazym.html

YOU SHOULD. Probably about the greatest thing out their "next to my Erb"lololol.

No really.....It's Like "Putting Insurance on your crop"

I buy it in BULK, 5 and 10 Liters. You cant have enough of this "stuff".


But thats just my opinion of course.

 

[ItsGrowTime]

Buy a cheap aquarium UV sterilizer and sterilize all of your water before it comes in contact with your roots. This will prevent the slime. Simple.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Though I'm not in the same location anymore.... the groundwater water in North Edwards California is contaminated.

Couldn't use a single drop of tap-water when doing the final wash on hydro equipment. Dipping a pH meter that was rinsed in tap-water into your res would slime it in just a few days.

Soooo glad I don't live there anymore.

Stay Safe!

 

[THEDOO]

this was a fantastic read and I learned so much thankyou all for sharing and especially rr for the extensive research. I had 2 questions for richyrich
1 is do you let your pump run full time in your ez cloner or do you have it on a timer
2 question is i was thinking of using lava rocks at the bottom of my res as a place for the bbs to colonize do you think that is ok?

 

[Ultra Current]

I’ve seen the slime many times throughout the years and have tried many things to eradicate it and now I found the secret. The Slime is known as Brown Slime Algae but don’t be fooled by the name because it is not an algae. People have thought for many years that it was an algae but electron microscapy has shown that it is actually a Cyanobacteria. Anyone who has had to deal with this slime knows how nasty this stuff is and it multiplies like crazy within 24 hours. The Slime comes from your drinking water and can be very hard to get rid of. Some people can get rid of it with a good Bleach or Physan20 but I’ve had the slime for years in 3 of my EZCloners and no matter how much Bleach or Physan 20 that I use, it just keeps on coming back stronger. Every time I get the slime I have to resort to going to the grow shop and buying a new easy cloner which is why I currently have 5 ezcloners. I believe that if you have the slime and you tried to clean it with Bleach or Physan 20 and it didn’t work, it is because the specific slime that you have has built up a resistance to chlorine. There are organic approaches in keeping the slime at bay but it is still there waiting for the opportunity to take hold of your plants.

Here's a couple of pictures of some cuts that have "The Slime":


The slime looks like clear, brown or yellow snot. In this post, I will explain how to get rid of the slime forever. The first approach that I would suggest that you do is to quadruple the dosage of bleach or physan20 and run your cloner or equipment for 24 hours with the bleach or physan 20 after soaking the lid or equipment in the bathtub for 6 hours with bleach. If you continue to get the slime after that, then you will know that the slime that you have has become resistant to chlorine and you will have to take the more extreme measure.

The extreme measure that you may need to take is an antibiotic and the antibiotic that I’m talking about is Erythromycin. If you must take this extreme measure, do not treat this lightly. You do not want this slime building up a resistance to Erythromycin and becoming a Super Slime. You will also want to wear gloves, goggles, a mask and long sleeves so that you don’t inhale or get any erythromycin on you. You can buy Erythromycin at a store that sells exotic fish. You will need to give at least 4 treatments over 4 days and you will want to finish all 4 treatments so that the slime isn’t able to build up a resistance. If you are trying to clean out your cloner, it is important to take out the sprayers and clean out the inside of the manifold. I was surprised to see that inside one of my manifolds, there was slime everywhere. Take the manifold to the bathtub and fill it up with hot water and just keep shaking out the dreaded slime. You should know when it is all gone because when you fill the manifold up with water and turn it upside down, you will see water coming out of every hole where the sprayers were. If you still see a clog then that will be a sign that you still have slime in there. If the slime is stuck inside one of the sprayer holes, you can use a toothpick to stick in there to release the slime back into the manifold and then continue filling it up with hot water and shake the rest of it out. After you are done with washing everything out, you will want to unclog any sprayer and screw them back into the manifold and fill up the Cloner or equipment up with just water and add your first treatment of Erythromycin. You will continue to add your Erythromycin every 24 hours for at least the next 3 days but to be safe I would continue treatments for a total of 6 days. Make sure when you are treating your cloner or equipment that your pumps are turned on so it will clean the inside of the pump and manifold.

When you are done with your treatments, make sure that you throw out your neoprene collars and buy new ones to avoid possible contamination and also because the collars can hold the Erythromycin. You should also throw out any filters, tubing and air stones and replace them with new ones. Next you will want to dump out all of the water / Erythromycin solution and thoroughly wash out your cloner or equipment with water including the pump and manifold. Make sure to run your pump when you are cleaning it with water. Now you will be bacteria free and The Slime will be gone forever. From this point on, you should also consider boiling your water for 20 minutes on the stove and letting it come back to room temperature and only add back that water to the cloner to avoid getting another case of the slime.

 

[richyrich]

Been a year since I posted. I'm still slime free. Good to hear all of you are beating the hydro herps!

 

[Martano666]

I use Floranova (one part version of Lucas formula Flora 3 part) so it's all chemicals. The slime can't use chemicals alone to propagate. But it sure can use any organic matter it finds.

Any organic matter in your water is a food source for the slime and like anything else, if you cut off the food it can't live. Those with constant and bad slime issues should consider nothing but RO water and chem ferts (Lucas formula GH Flora series) and see how that works. An organic-matter-free reservoir should be a slime-free reservoir.

It should be pointed out that GH Flora 3 part series and FloraNova 1 part is NOT THE SAME THING.

-GH FloraNova contains organic additives so it DOES contain some food for the slime.
-GH Flora 3 part does NOT contain organic additives.

It seems to be a common miconception that people think GH FloraNova has strictly chemicals. -WRONG-

check their website. http://generalhydroponics.com/site/index.php/products/nutrients/nova_series/

I encountered the slime for the first time WHILE I was using GH FloraNova series. Not that you can't get away with it. At the time I had not yet discovered EWC tea and now I am confident that you could probably get away with using organics entirely if you have properly innoculated your root base, and reservoir and actually developed a full colony of thriving bennies, prior to beginning organics. Good luck.

 

[ItsGrowTime]

^^^^^
The only organic material in Floranova is humic acid.

 

[Martano666]

^^^^^
The only organic material in Floranova is humic acid.

Oh, ok. I guess humic acid is not a concern for possible slime food? I'm no expert. Still learning.