Want to solve a mystery? Come on in! (RDWC)

[RewTheJew]

hello all,

This is my first time running RDWC, and a problem has come up that i am not to sure how to solve it. My first reaction was Pythium, but after a full cleanout, i am having doubts. The roots are light brown, but not slimey. They were doing great until they started drooping hard, and now one of them is almost unrecoverable.

The only other cause i can think of would be he combo of ozone and CO2. I have both on an hourly timer and on for 10 minutes at a time. So, this may be the reason? IDK, but this is the only other thing i can contribute to the sudden losses.
Water temp could b the problem, but i feel like i have been keeping up on putting frozen bottles in the resevoir. The water feels cool to the touch, so i dont think thats the issue.

Nutrient: FloraNova bloom 1000PPM, superthrive.
Water PPM before Nutrients: 180ppm
Light: 600 X 2
Temps - mid 70's low 80's
water temp: 68 lights on, 72ish end of light cycle

Any ideas?

 

[RewTheJew]

i think i got it. someone posted an exact same problem, and it turns out it was under oxygenated. Added some more stones, and am awaiting results.

 

[RewTheJew]

nevermind, saw them today and they are doing so much worse.. this is awesome : (

 

[TrichyTrichy]

That's awful.
Hopefully, someone will chime in and help.

 

[wizberry]

in img 38, it looks like your incoming water is coming in and possibly hitting high up on your netpot. Tho fine for mature plants, it's easy to overwhelm fresh cuts with too much water. Maybe try putting a L to deflect the water downwards? I'd also cut CO2 and ozone out entirely, 10 min every hr is way too much. Try putting a dome over the wilted plant, it might recover some. Make plans for some backup clones just in case tho. GL...

 

[TurboBob]

was there a change in lighting? As in height? or floro to hps?

you definately don't want the ozone going IN the room with your plants, is it?

don't cut out your co2, depending on your room size you may just want to cut back a bit...

 

[TrichyTrichy]

How are they doing?

 

[RewTheJew]

ok, so today while cruising the net, i came across this idea... http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48798 and had most of the parts laying around. Picked up 60 ft of 1/2" clear tubing(i know dumb shoulda got black) and recreated the thing. I also added anti-freeze to the mini-tote and cranked the fridge on full blast. This should keep my rez temps down enough to avoid any further complications as well as pythium.

I will keep this updated to see how efficent/good the chiller is. BTW this was extremely cheap to do, and i was able to cool 2 rez with one mini fridge, or so thats how its planned.

 

[lordbudly]

anti freeze!??!?

 

[RewTheJew]

The tubing sits in a tub with water and anti-freeze. It has no contact with the actual resevoir water.. I like to think I know a bit about plant botny enuff to know anti freeze is not plant friendly...

Checked the temps this morning after 12 hours of lghting and it was good. I will b a true beleiver when the temps r low on a 100 degree day..

 

[Mistadobalina]

i had that happen until i got a rez chiller.. tried the whole frozen bottle method (what a joke that shit is..) But yeah it still sounds like root rot to me. remember lower res temps mean more Dissolved Oxygen. I keep my rez at 61*F. Also idk if superthrive is a good idea for DWC in my experience.

 

[Row]

Hey Rewthejew

This is a long shot but something to consider.

What level of co2 is in your room ?

Is the air pump on the floor of the room?

If so and you have high ppm's of co2 and possibly even higher on the floor due to poor air circulation, (co2 will collect on the floor) It could be possible that the air pump isnt oxygenating the water enough due to the fact that the air it is pulling in and pumping to the roots is a very high % of co2 and ozone crap, meaning theres very little o2 in the air.

Resulting in the plants drowning due to lack of o2, i would try either raising the air pump or turning the co2 and ozone off for a week or so to see if it improves it.

Its more likely to simply be pythium, the roots do look sad and a little brown/slimmy, if you are doing what i said above then that could be contributeing to the root rot though so, yeh just a thought.

Row

 

[xOOx]

ozone (o3) degrades into o2 over time. so as far as roots to get oxygen, that's your gamez, no hydro for me. you can always try to cut it to 5 min blasts every half hour.. if you smell the bleachy burnt up copy machine/laser printer smell at the end of the 1st half hour, then your ozone is wayy too high.

also, something to note, o3 reaction w/co2 in some plants cause issues with N.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/h6265q25k748t811/

i'd pick one of your two gases and eliminate it to see if they rebound. i guess try to turn off the co2. (but if odor is not an issues) the o3.....

xoox

 

[JohnnyToke]

Rew,

I cant speak for anyone else on here but I do have 9 successful
grows under my belt with my rdwc. I can tell you first hand that the Superthrive will screw you over in this system. dont use it. I tried it early on and my plants did the exact same thing. dang near killed them and I tried everything before I figured out it was the superthrive causing my issues.

your floranova is all your plants need as far as nutes. ro water works best in this system chilled to 66 - 69f. I have tried tap and had to many ph issues. your tap may be different.

try dropping the superthrive (clean system good) and see if that fixes your issues.

hope this helps.

JT

follow up: after looking at your pics more closely. your roots look good. have you checked your PH? in rdwc, you have to check it 1 - 2 times a day. I keep mine 5.7 - 6.0.