Serpicody
Member
We have been battling slime/Pythium since the second week of setting up our RDWC.
We're at about 80 gallons of water over 16 buckets and a rez.
Regardless of water quality, water temp, water flow, aeration, or nutrients: the slime always came back.
We were so frustrated we changed all our lines bleached the hell out of the whole system, and then started adding the tea. By itself, the tea staved off the infection longer than we were able to produce before(maybe 3 or 4 days).
We noticed that before there was ever much actual slime development the water would get cloudy and start to smell. This is indicative of a bacteria inbalance/bloom.
This is where i should mention that for 5 or so years I managed/maintained high end aquariums. In my experience, any closed system of water goes through a cycle of different types of bacteria growth before reaching an equilibrium/balance. Despite my experience, I won't pretend to understand exactly how it all works scientifically, but I can explain it in sort of layman's terms:
I just got so fed up with this cloudy water > slime > pissed off roots > stunted plants situation that I decided to start thinking about our DWC system as an aquarium. This led me to realize the one major thing that my super freakin' expensive and potentially awesome system was missing was BIOLOGICAL FILTRATION. Every fish tank, whether it be an expensive salt water system or a first-timer's freshwater guppie tank, performs better with biological filtration. This is accomplished in a number of different forms.
The methods vary:
Anyways, the reason I am writing this is because I took it upon myself to build a bio-filter of my own using lava rocks and 5 gallon buckets(these materials because it's what I had sitting around
) I feel like I can say, with confidence, that this has made a MAJOR DIFFERENCE. After a 100% water change, we would normally see slime in about 48 hours. After changing all of the water(for the one millionth time) I added my bio-filter, and did no more than a 25% change every day for 2 days. (I probably would not have changed any water during this period, but there were plants already in the system) After about 48 hours, the smell went away and the water stayed clear. By the third day, pearly white roots began to sprout out from my pots.(OH HAPPY DAYS!) It has been almost a week now, and no water changes, no nasty smell, and no slime.
It should also be mentioned that in conjunction with this last water change(when I added my bio-filter) we did another large dose of the Heisenberg Tea. We had limited success with it before, but saw no reason to stop using it. I like to believe some of the bacteria cultured in that tea lives on in my filter, and thus will help play a role that is more preventative than anything else.
It seems to me, without something like this in your system, you basically have a bucket of water going in a circle. Something like that is prone to being unbalanced by it's very nature. Take swimming pools for example: how many times a year do you think pools that receive rain water need to be "shocked", basically meaning you are just killing the rampant bacteria (actually, ALL bacteria) off.
Here is a description and some pics of what we did:
Basically, it's a 3 gallon bucket sitting inside a 5 gallon bucket. The 5 gallon is filled about half way with (RINSED OUT)lava rocks. The 3 gallon has around 75 holes drilled into the bottom of it, and it sits inside the the 5 gallon on top of the stones. Both buckets are positioned next to my rez atop another 5 gallon bucket so the rocks (and the bottom of the rock filled bucket) all sit above my water level. A line from my rez is hooked up to a separate pump that pushes the water into my 3 gallon bucket. The water then trickles through all of my holes and over all of my stones. The bottom of this particular 5 gallon bucket already had 2 holes w/ 1" bulk heads in them, so I put 1" hose on each of these that drains back to my rez. This is more complicated than it could have been, but, like I mentioned, I just used what I already had lying around. It was either this or light the whole damn thing on fire.
You can see the bio-filter in the center back next-to and above the rez. Please ignore the sorry state of the larger plant.... She has been through and hell and back. It's a miracle she's still alive at all.
This is a close-up of the contraption.
This is a close up of the inside of the 3 gallon strainer bucket. There is an additional bulk head put in the center-bottom of the bucket. This is in place to both allow air-flow between the two buckets and to function as an overflow in-case the holes clog up.
This is what it looks like when you lift the 3 gallon out of the 5 gallon while it is turned on.(Making a mess!) You can see the lava rocks inside if you look closely.
So...... Does anyone have any input on this? Am I crazy? Are we just all of a sudden getting lucky? Can anyone with a bit more of a scientific background back me up, shoot me down, or provide any kind of additional info?
We're at about 80 gallons of water over 16 buckets and a rez.
Regardless of water quality, water temp, water flow, aeration, or nutrients: the slime always came back.
We were so frustrated we changed all our lines bleached the hell out of the whole system, and then started adding the tea. By itself, the tea staved off the infection longer than we were able to produce before(maybe 3 or 4 days).
We noticed that before there was ever much actual slime development the water would get cloudy and start to smell. This is indicative of a bacteria inbalance/bloom.
This is where i should mention that for 5 or so years I managed/maintained high end aquariums. In my experience, any closed system of water goes through a cycle of different types of bacteria growth before reaching an equilibrium/balance. Despite my experience, I won't pretend to understand exactly how it all works scientifically, but I can explain it in sort of layman's terms:
- Decaying organics(fish waste, decaying plant material, dying bacteria) release ammonia into the water
- Ammonia is consumed by a certain type of bacteria that releases nitrites(These are NOT NITRATES and are highly toxic to fish.... maybe to plants too???)
- Another type of bacteria consumes nitrites and releases nitrates(consumable by plants and generally not too harmful to fish. Nitrate levels in fish aquariums are managed by partial water changes)
I just got so fed up with this cloudy water > slime > pissed off roots > stunted plants situation that I decided to start thinking about our DWC system as an aquarium. This led me to realize the one major thing that my super freakin' expensive and potentially awesome system was missing was BIOLOGICAL FILTRATION. Every fish tank, whether it be an expensive salt water system or a first-timer's freshwater guppie tank, performs better with biological filtration. This is accomplished in a number of different forms.
The methods vary:
- Underground filters(sucking the water down through the gravel at the bottom of the tank by means of a tray placed underneath it.)
- Trickle filter with bio-balls(This is what I want to talk about today) the drain from the aquarium is centered above the bio-ball chamber where the idea is to spread the water out and drip it over all of your bio-media.
Anyways, the reason I am writing this is because I took it upon myself to build a bio-filter of my own using lava rocks and 5 gallon buckets(these materials because it's what I had sitting around
) I feel like I can say, with confidence, that this has made a MAJOR DIFFERENCE. After a 100% water change, we would normally see slime in about 48 hours. After changing all of the water(for the one millionth time) I added my bio-filter, and did no more than a 25% change every day for 2 days. (I probably would not have changed any water during this period, but there were plants already in the system) After about 48 hours, the smell went away and the water stayed clear. By the third day, pearly white roots began to sprout out from my pots.(OH HAPPY DAYS!) It has been almost a week now, and no water changes, no nasty smell, and no slime.It should also be mentioned that in conjunction with this last water change(when I added my bio-filter) we did another large dose of the Heisenberg Tea. We had limited success with it before, but saw no reason to stop using it. I like to believe some of the bacteria cultured in that tea lives on in my filter, and thus will help play a role that is more preventative than anything else.
It seems to me, without something like this in your system, you basically have a bucket of water going in a circle. Something like that is prone to being unbalanced by it's very nature. Take swimming pools for example: how many times a year do you think pools that receive rain water need to be "shocked", basically meaning you are just killing the rampant bacteria (actually, ALL bacteria) off.
Here is a description and some pics of what we did:
Basically, it's a 3 gallon bucket sitting inside a 5 gallon bucket. The 5 gallon is filled about half way with (RINSED OUT)lava rocks. The 3 gallon has around 75 holes drilled into the bottom of it, and it sits inside the the 5 gallon on top of the stones. Both buckets are positioned next to my rez atop another 5 gallon bucket so the rocks (and the bottom of the rock filled bucket) all sit above my water level. A line from my rez is hooked up to a separate pump that pushes the water into my 3 gallon bucket. The water then trickles through all of my holes and over all of my stones. The bottom of this particular 5 gallon bucket already had 2 holes w/ 1" bulk heads in them, so I put 1" hose on each of these that drains back to my rez. This is more complicated than it could have been, but, like I mentioned, I just used what I already had lying around. It was either this or light the whole damn thing on fire.
You can see the bio-filter in the center back next-to and above the rez. Please ignore the sorry state of the larger plant.... She has been through and hell and back. It's a miracle she's still alive at all.
This is a close-up of the contraption.
This is a close up of the inside of the 3 gallon strainer bucket. There is an additional bulk head put in the center-bottom of the bucket. This is in place to both allow air-flow between the two buckets and to function as an overflow in-case the holes clog up.
This is what it looks like when you lift the 3 gallon out of the 5 gallon while it is turned on.(Making a mess!) You can see the lava rocks inside if you look closely.
So...... Does anyone have any input on this? Am I crazy? Are we just all of a sudden getting lucky? Can anyone with a bit more of a scientific background back me up, shoot me down, or provide any kind of additional info?
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