Never ending battle with root slime?

So here it is. I was having issues with root slim so i started using aquaguard to treat the issue. However i noticed that after every flush it comes back temporarily before the bennies take over once again. This takes a few days though and i would guess this is hurting my growth.
On my next res change i attempted to boil everything to kill the bad stuff in the hopes it wouldnt have the chance to come back before the bennies took over but same thing happened roots turned orange then back to white a few days later.
This last res change i mixed my nutes and bennies a few days in advance with new stones and buckets. I let the buckets sit there for 2 days. I figured maybe this would allow the bennies take over the res and when i added my plants to the res that the bad stuff wouldn't grow back. This didnt work either. Eventually the bennies work there magic but again i would rather not let it get out of control like it is. I dont know if i used enough bennies, was the res too cool and the bennies didnt grow those two days, Or was it my ph because i didnt adjust it those today.

Hygrozyme.

Hows that different then hydroguard

skorch said:

Hows that different then hydroguard

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About $5 more expensive lol. IDk brother. most slime problems come from light leaks, and/or res temp problems. First I would make sure your res is at least 65-68ish, and make SURE you have zero light leaks, then worry..

I was under the impression that res temp wasnt near as crucial with bennies.

skorch said:

I was under the impression that res temp wasnt near as crucial with bennies.

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No, it isn't necessarily. But, in DWC if your res temps are above 72-75F, you should seriously consider an ebb and flow setup. Much more forgiving with the higher temps. The lower your res temps, the more dissolved oxygen is available for uptake.

If you are using tap water it should be free of chlorine and chloramine. If you still have problems try different bennies... and don't use organic nutes/additives.

If you fix the problem with bennies and the problem returns after the flush then you have grow parameters that need to be fixed. Either you're using too much ferts, temps are too high, PH is off, etc.

Get a temp reading and post it here.
Describe your nutrient mix and whether you PH adjust and how you oxygenate.

The bennies do fix the issue. When i do a flush with new water, nutes, and bennies the alge comes back temporarily. Im assuming that the bennies take a few days to take over the fresh res.

Res probably spiked up to 78° but its sense cooled off in the house and is sitting around 70

Nutes fox farm
Cal-mag
10ml aquashield
Ppm 350

Single 4 in round airstone

As a cheap experiment throw a water bottle in there each morning and see what the effect is of keeping temps down through the trouble period. Ideally you don't want to exceed 70. If it works you will know and can keep doing that or find another solution. If it doesn't work you know it's not the temps.

Also check your stone and make sure it's putting out plenty of air. If there's any doubt about your O2 content, double up on the airstones while keeping temps down. Pythium doesn't thrive in well oxygenated water. If you have an interest in working with the current temps, you can try adding a 2nd stone first and see how that affects the system.

Those would be my main two suggestions. I've never used aquashield so can't talk directly about it, but wouldn't use it myself because it's not primarily a live product, it's high priced chicken shit. I purchase dry powders that list species of both bacteria and fungi. I put a knife tip of that in pre-rez with a large drop of honey (per 24 gallons) to activate it and brew for two days before doing the changeout.

But if things clear up and then go bad again, a product isn't the ultimate solution. You need to look hard at the grow parameters and figure out what to adjust.

Edit: Although I haven't used aquashield, back when I started and was having the exact same problem I tried using Hygrozyme and it did fuck all to fix things.

Raise that to between 600-900ppm.

http://rollitup.org/t/root-slime-comes-from-the-roots.843938/

skorch said:

Nutes fox farm
Cal-mag
10ml aquashield
Ppm 350

Single 4 in round airstone

Click to expand...

i went thru this exact same problem and I fixed it simply by cleaning my bucket, lines and stones with h2o2 or similar, I used liquid oxygen at first but it didn't do much so I used 3ml of household bleach in 10 litres of water and the plant came back to produce 9oz of top shelf meds. for the 1st week after you sterilise everything, give only fresh water and Orca. I was amazed the solution to my problem was so easy after I had struggled for weeks with slime. I have 2 x large (soda can size) airstones in each 20L bucket being run on a 60L per hour hailea pond pump, quite powerful and could run 6 buckets from it. too much oxygen is not an issue and as stated above, the more the better. I also found voodoo juice to be great in a dwc system. its all about the bacillus bacteria or whatever its called, I just know it works. check my dwc thread to see results and proof..... from slime to finish lol. good luck man. when you get it sorted, you will be amazed by the rapid growth compared to soil/coco.
edit: keep your ppm around 600 right thru veg and no more than 900/1000 right thru flower. DONT USE ORGANIC NUTES, SYNTHETIC ONLY FOR DWC!

the problem is fox farms is partially organic. also, if you are using tap water the chlorine or chloramine will kill/weaken your bennies. that's why chlorine is in the water... to kill bacteria.

aquashield works great, but not with organics and not with chlorine. it also has a 1 year shelf life... I have used expired aquashield and got slimed.

The Rot is probably in your res??? I recently got the slime, and Im just starting over with all new equipment. It's not worth it to start a new grow in the same buckets and the plants just get sick and die all of a sudden when you think things are finally going good again

I am running bleach 1ltr thro a 150ltr system, i will do several flushes and then a blast of phsan20 and flush again.

i am not in a situation where my system can be replaced, make sure you get your bennies spot on for next grow and you will be fine.

Heres an update. Last night i flushed my system at this time my roots were bright white. New water, new nutes and max dose of bennies that the bottle recommend. I also threw in a frozen water bottle. In the morning the roots looked good (i didnt replace the water bottle). 12 hours later i get home check the roots and they have turned orange. The plant other wise looks good and the res doesnt smell bad. I know in two days or so they will be white once again.
Tonight i flushed my other plant and threw in a water bottle as well. I think with this res ill keep switch out the water bottles and see what happens.

Rahz what product are you using?

Sorry, hadn't checked the thread recently. I use Plant Success and ZHO powder. I would be open to trying other products, they're just what was available so I picked them up. As far as comparing products and recommending one brand over another I don't have any useful advice except that it's a good idea to have trichoderma in the mix.

A lot of people seem to like Great White, so if you like sharks...

Honestly, it would be hard to make direct comparisons in a grow environment. A test could be set up with various brands, using small amounts to inoculate 3% sugar solutions... but I'm guessing similar growth rates would be observed.

And, I feel I kinda fell in for the hype as far as the benefits beyond guarding the solution from rot. In the future I may try a trichoderma only product.

get a water chiller.
anyone who says hygrozyme needs to check out stress-zyme..available everywhere(wal mart ect),and cheap..best part is its not associated with growing herb,so itll stay cheap. worked great for me,i add a little every res change and give it a booster after 3 days...

The only time I had a slime problem was when I tried to use an organic root booster. I cleaned everything and now only use non-organic nutes.