DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes

[Heisenberg]

So what are your thoughts on this?

Perhaps tap water (even good areas, i live in Lake Tahoe)(that all have issues with controling cyanobacteria) one would assume if its true that if it can colonize in water alone, it is very very present straight out of the tap. When we change our res water (the benny water that has been starving the slime infested water and reducing those numbers), the new water possibly takes away that balance because there is more slime available to multiply, and the tea cant take hold yet?

Well there was a report by richierich, the father of slime killing and pioneer of tea. As I remember, He said he shut down his grow for three months and ran high amounts of ozone in his room. This should have completely sterilized the room. When he set back up, he ran his water through an RO filter into a barrel which he treated with h202 and a UV light. He used DM zone in his res at twice the highest dose, and still got slimed. It seems this stuff is in the air, especially during late summer weeks.

As for the res change, I am thinking along the same lines as you. When a beneficial colony has not yet become dominate, when the balance is still at it's tipping point, changing the res throws it all into chaos. The slime can just immediately stat growing again, while the bennies need a bit to recover. If the slime gets an edge it wins. I think this is only an issue in situations where there is little or no root mass in the water. Changing the res on my older plants has never caused any problems.

 

[Green melody]

MOTHER F'R.... I grab one plant to transplant... get it in the sun for a sec... white growth in more than a few places... looks like its coming back... grab another one... same thing... some nothing.. but most, looks like its recovering... after i bought 50 pots and 400 in coco mix bs... LOL WTF

 

[pimp juice]

I wouldn't be concerned just yet, but If your odor persists or gets worse then something is wrong. The tea shouldn't go bad just from mixing it with warm water, but the bennies do place a huge demand on DO. Your chiller will retard the microbes, so you may want to add a bit more tea each time.

I am finding my latest round of slime takes mega doeses to get under control, but then again I am not sterilizing at all.

You can cover your tea in the fridge but do not seal it. None of the microbes in the tea will go airborne, but if you spill some then of course clean it up and throw away anything contaminated. You are however exposed to these microbes anytime you go outside and mess with dirt, so your body is used to them. Be sure to clearly label the tea though to avoid accidents. One time I grabbed a jug of actual green tea and had treated three buckets before I realized it. Plants didn't seem to mind at all.

I was hoping to keep the container airtight (screw on poland spring bottle) to prevent any odor from getting into the fridge. Do you think the water would oxygenate from only surface contact enough to feed the microbes?

 

[2easy]

Well there was a report by richierich, the father of slime killing and pioneer of tea. As I remember, He said he shut down his grow for three months and ran high amounts of ozone in his room. This should have completely sterilized the room. When he set back up, he ran his water through an RO filter into a barrel which he treated with h202 and a UV light. He used DM zone in his res at twice the highest dose, and still got slimed. It seems this stuff is in the air, especially during late summer weeks.

As for the res change, I am thinking along the same lines as you. When a beneficial colony has not yet become dominate, when the balance is still at it's tipping point, changing the res throws it all into chaos. The slime can just immediately stat growing again, while the bennies need a bit to recover. If the slime gets an edge it wins. I think this is only an issue in situations where there is little or no root mass in the water. Changing the res on my older plants has never caused any problems.

im not sure about how true this is heisenberg but a friend of mine who as been in the game a while says the slime will get into pores in plastic and once its in there its impossible to get rid of. you can fight it with bennies or build a whole new system

 

[Heisenberg]

MOTHER F'R.... I grab one plant to transplant... get it in the sun for a sec... white growth in more than a few places... looks like its coming back... grab another one... same thing... some nothing.. but most, looks like its recovering... after i bought 50 pots and 400 in coco mix bs... LOL WTF

Heh, so the slime continues to fuck up your day even when it's dying. Keep us updated.

 

[Heisenberg]

I was hoping to keep the container airtight (screw on poland spring bottle) to prevent any odor from getting into the fridge. Do you think the water would oxygenate from only surface contact enough to feed the microbes?

The bennies need to breath even when they are chilled, but you might get away with just opening the container from time to time. At room tempt the bennies will use all the air in a half-full container in under an hour. The tea gives off very little odor when it's cold. You could try improvising a lid which contained a hole covered by a carbon filter, the kind they sell for cat boxes.

 

[2easy]

The bennies need to breath even when they are chilled, but you might get away with just opening the container from time to time. At room tempt the bennies will use all the air in a half-full container in under an hour. The tea gives off very little odor when it's cold. You could try improvising a lid which contained a hole covered by a carbon filter, the kind the sell for cat boxes.

well ill be. i didnt know we had to keep it open. i been storing mine in a closed bottle. i just give it a shake and open it every 2 days. havnt had any problems so far but maybe i should start leaving it open

 

[gaztron3030]

Hi all,
This is my first post and i need some advise from you intelligent gardeners.
I'm having the slime problem and all the symptoms show that i've found the right forum. My problem is I cant seem to find any products with the ingredients to make the tea in New Zealand or any company that will ship internationally. I went into the local hydro store today and they did have a product called "Bio Bug" but the girl didnt know anything about it and I cant find any online info about it. The container stated it was a hydro inoculant with benes but not what types.
I am using a DWC system which i have had much success with in the past, i have moved house however and am using tank water which has alot of crap in it and the house is damp and cold. I am sure these are the root of the problem (excuse the pun). I cleaned the bin, plant roots and everything else, changed water and nutes (i used bottled water and let it sit overnight) and within hours the snot was back. I found a small light leak and covered it and any other potential light leakage points and the slime did disappear but the plants are still stunted and droopy and yellowing. There is also a musty smell in the bin but the roots are looking white and healthy with normal growth from the roots.
I am strongly considering just transplanting them to soil as i have a few indica dominant plants in soil and they are super healthy and screaming out to flower. My thoughts are to try and finish this crop then start over as i do like the DWC system.
So i guess what im asking is do you folk think i should try this Bio Bug (any info on this would be greatly appreciated also) and keep fighting what is presently a losing battle, or should i transplant to soil, get what i can from this crop and sort the problem before starting the next?

 

[2easy]

hey mate im form aus maybe we have similar stuff to you. do you have bunnings over there?

if so they stock everything you need in the gardening section.

gogo juice
green bio (look for this in a big foil bag it will be near the soil amendments like dynamic lifter etc, this stuff contains mostly baccilus and without it my tea doesnt foam up as good)

thats all you need but if yu can get your hands on some earth worm castings even better

 

[2easy]

http://www.h2grohydroponics.com.au/index.php?page=shop.product_details&product_id=261&flypage=flypage.tpl&pop=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=108&vmcchk=1&Itemid=108

is this the bio bugs you speak of? that would be a good start.

actually i just read a few reviews sounds like pretty good stuff. if you could can find the other 2 i mentioned i would use all 3

 

[Heisenberg]

I would give the biobugs a shot, but don't add it directly to the res. It has enzymes in it, so use it to brew a tea. That way the bennies are already active when they go in, and the enzymes wont just feed the slime. Some EWC will help a lot too.

 

[Heisenberg]

Well I have successfully purged the slime from my set up. Using a lava rock for housing worked great to colonize a fresh res. I prepared a new res just as I did the last one, which almost immediately got slimed, and this time things are beautiful. 24 hours so far an no signs of slime. My small clones have recovered and have pristine white roots. Root mass has nearly doubled. My veg plants which were infected now have the after-slime but are making lots of new roots.

Interesting to note. I placed one clone in h202, did nothing to sterilize the rest besides rinsing them. The one clone I sterilized is slime free just like the others, but producing almost no roots. I think h2o2, even at 1% is too hard on roots and should be saved to sterilize air-stones and equipment.

Now I will attempt to take cuttings again and see how that goes. The clone trays are what brought the slime to me n the first place this time. We'll see if lava rocks help it out.

 

[gaztron3030]

Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated. i asked a simple question in a thread i started and got an arrogant dickhead telling me all the things im doing wrong even though i didnt go into detail on my setup. Its good to know there are experienced people here that dont think they are mother natures advisor and think they know everything about everything.

 

[gaztron3030]

http://www.h2grohydroponics.com.au/index.php?page=shop.product_details&product_id=261&flypage=flypage.tpl&pop=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=108&vmcchk=1&Itemid=108

is this the bio bugs you speak of? that would be a good start.

actually i just read a few reviews sounds like pretty good stuff. if you could can find the other 2 i mentioned i would use all 3

Yep thats the stuff, weird ive been googleing for days and couldnt find that page lol.
Yea we have bunnings but none near me, i'll check their site or give them a ring and see what they can do.
Mitre 10 has a Mycorrhizae product i was looking at, cant remember the name but would that help too or does the bio bug have mycos in it?

 

[armyryan89]

Hey everyone,
I am looking for a little bit of guidance. I have skimmed and read a lot of this forum and figured this is the best place to start. I am running 5 plants in an Aero/DWC setup with an air pump, humidifier on a switch, fan 1000w light. The nutrients I am running are Dutchmaster nutrients A&B with the Add.27 and the Root Zone conditioner. The problem is that the plants have just stopped growing and there seems to be a dark brown slime on the roots. I first attributed it to the seaweed additive I was using before as it turned my solution to a merky puddle. My roots seemed to have stop growing and same with the plants. I have since stopped using the seaweed and have been running the Root zone for over a week now with little to no improvements. I am wondering however if I could use all of my current nutrients with a tea like that of which Heisenburg has described. Also I have another question, as I am short on cash like most these days, is there a single product I could buy to get all the micro bacteria and fungi I need like in Heisenburgs Tea? I dont have the money for additional air pumps and stones or the space to make it in. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[bobhopetoo]

Well I have successfully purged the slime from my set up. Using a lava rock for housing worked great to colonize a fresh res. I prepared a new res just as I did the last one, which almost immediately got slimed, and this time things are beautiful. 24 hours so far an no signs of slime. My small clones have recovered and have pristine white roots. Root mass has nearly doubled. My veg plants which were infected now have the after-slime but are making lots of new roots.

Interesting to note. I placed one clone in h202, did nothing to sterilize the rest besides rinsing them. The one clone I sterilized is slime free just like the others, but producing almost no roots. I think h2o2, even at 1% is too hard on roots and should be saved to sterilize air-stones and equipment.

Now I will attempt to take cuttings again and see how that goes. The clone trays are what brought the slime to me n the first place this time. We'll see if lava rocks help it out.

I,m still battling away. My mothers are growing well in buckets but still with some evidence of afterslime. I have successfully rooted a few clones in my aero/sprinkler cloner but they seem to slow and stop between each application of tea.They show signs of rooting then stall untill I add more tea.
I'm worrking on a new design of cloner based on yours but scaled up a bit.
I have placed a heavily rooted plant in there to help house some bennies, and I plan to place some lava rocks in my tea bucket for the next batch then put them into the cloner.
would you recommend just dropping them in there; or I thought it might be better to put them in a wire basket so that the sprayers pour over them giving them more oxygen and dripping back into the bottom of the res.
I'm brewing tea with earthworm castings, great white, and canna aktrivator, am I missing anything with these ingredients? as I can't seem to get anything else in the uk. If anyone knows where I can get other products over here let me know.

 

[bobhopetoo]

found a product, AU 60 root repair, liquid additive, does anyone know the ingredients or if its any good, sounds like it does the same thing as tea, your meant to add 1ml per litre at changeover. But I guess if it multiplies in the tank theres a risk of it feeding the slime.
Has anyone ordered mycos soluble to be delivered to the uk. Europes a bit tetchy about importing live stuff. I,m trying to find out if it will get through customs.

 

[Heisenberg]

found a product, AU 60 root repair, liquid additive, does anyone know the ingredients or if its any good, sounds like it does the same thing as tea, your meant to add 1ml per litre at changeover. But I guess if it multiplies in the tank theres a risk of it feeding the slime.
Has anyone ordered mycos soluble to be delivered to the uk. Europes a bit tetchy about importing live stuff. I,m trying to find out if it will get through customs.

AU 60 root repair is a organic microbe suppressant. It can not be used in conjunction with any microbes. Sounds like an interesting product, but I can not give you any reports on it's effectiveness with slime. Slime does not attack a plant directly, so I am not sure if this can help.

The technological breakthrough came when we were able to isolate the very substance that the plants use to fight disease...To put quite simply, AU 60 ROOT REPAIR fights disease FOR the plant.

As for the mycogrow, best to email and ask them directly. http://www.fungi.com/contact.html

 

[Heisenberg]

Ok guys I am going to edit the front page to include suggestions for products users in UK and AU can use. If you are from these places, please list any products that have worked for you to make an effective tea. I have seen suggestions in the past but i'd like to know which ones worked.

 

[gaztron3030]

Can ya add NZ to that list pleeeeease (You cant have aussie and not us that just plain unfair!)