HELP! My buckets are foaming

IN33DW33D

Active Member

What's the cause of my buckets are like foaming? Is that bad? I heard it was bad.

I have 15 plants about 4 weeks old in 5 gallon buckets filled about 4 gallons of water and using the humbolt 3 part nutrients + the silica blast and nectar.

please respond
 

faller200

Well-Known Member
Don't really know what to tell you I have never used Humbolt nutes. I sometimes get some foam from Subculture M
 

yaunch77

Member
I have foam most of the time and my plants are doing really well so I'm not sure foam, in and of itself, is a bad thing.
 

faller200

Well-Known Member
I'v e had some plants with root rot pretty bad and they still made it to harvest and had some nice buds just not as many as I would have had with a healthy plant.
 

kilo810

Active Member
depends on if your additves caused the foam. if not then its bad. sterilize roots and system and start new buckets.
 

mak

Active Member
i dont have hydro,but my 5gal bucket of nute water has a small amount of foam at the top sometimes..not a lot but its still foam
 

jakefresh

Member
I got foam slightly around the top layer of the water, get some hydrogen peroxide(H202) 3% from your local drug store, take 10ml per gallon of water and fill up your bucket to where you would without you plant in it. Take your plant and get a big container or another bucket and fill it up with the same ratio of h202/water and soak your plants roots in it for a few minutes. Rinse and wash out the bucket and try again with just plain water. Im not familiar with humboldt's nutrients but if they are organic you will have problems like this all grow. I got aqua shield and have been loving it at 10-15ml/gallon of water and my plants roots exploded! Then they turned male so i killed them. Hope this helps you out man!
 

IN33DW33D

Active Member
I got foam slightly around the top layer of the water, get some hydrogen peroxide(H202) 3% from your local drug store, take 10ml per gallon of water and fill up your bucket to where you would without you plant in it. Take your plant and get a big container or another bucket and fill it up with the same ratio of h202/water and soak your plants roots in it for a few minutes. Rinse and wash out the bucket and try again with just plain water. Im not familiar with humboldt's nutrients but if they are organic you will have problems like this all grow. I got aqua shield and have been loving it at 10-15ml/gallon of water and my plants roots exploded! Then they turned male so i killed them. Hope this helps you out man!

Can you explain this again with the h2o2? I can use the 3% peroxide from a store rather than the good 30% stuff?

Could I add aquashield with my humbolt nutrients?
 

jakefresh

Member
You can use the good stuff too but h202 kills living organisms... As in all bacteria good and bad. I use the 3% because I found a site that used that and it was easily accessible. You should be able to use aqua shield with you nutes. After you clean your system and roots fill your system with ph'd water only and some h202 at 5-15 ml/ gallon for a day or 2 and if all goes well and no more foam then we had the same problem. The bad news is it never really goes away but with beneficial bacteria like aqua shield and good res temps i could deal with it and my plant's roots where just huge since I used it. What are your res temps usually?
 

IN33DW33D

Active Member
You can use the good stuff too but h202 kills living organisms... As in all bacteria good and bad. I use the 3% because I found a site that used that and it was easily accessible. You should be able to use aqua shield with you nutes. After you clean your system and roots fill your system with ph'd water only and some h202 at 5-15 ml/ gallon for a day or 2 and if all goes well and no more foam then we had the same problem. The bad news is it never really goes away but with beneficial bacteria like aqua shield and good res temps i could deal with it and my plant's roots where just huge since I used it. What are your res temps usually?

Well since I've had the slime, I cleaned out my buckets twice with a few different kinds of stuff. I switched nutrients and set it all at 800ppm and let them veg until around the 1st and I'm putting them into bud. When I put them into bud, I am going to wash out the buckets and add some of that h202 like you said.

I want to use that aquashield, I heard it was the shit but I just wasn't sure if it was going to cause any problems with the 3 part humbolt I'm already using.

My res temps are usually 65-70. I have the intake on my air pumps going into a room with cold air so my temps will never be high. I did this after I found out that my manifold was getting warm and that may have been a problem.
 

jakefresh

Member
I mainly use the h202 to clean for res changes but you will see if you start very low or use no nutes the foam will almost not even be there. Then you get back up to normal an it comes back because the bacteria just like your plants love the nutrients! I love the aqua shield I was in between a few products and ended up getting a gallon of aqua shield and I can tell you it makes your roots huge. The expand horizontally it's just crazy but it should keep the foam in check. Just keep doing what you are doing, keep the res temps low and they should be okay.
 

jakefresh

Member
Oh and just a helpful hint if you are running 24/0 lighting switch to 18/6 for a week before flowering and they should show sex in 5-7 days. And also, since h202 kills bacteria it will conflict and kill the aqua shield if used together
 

IN33DW33D

Active Member
How do you control where your air pumps pull air from? That's a great idea!

There's an intake on the bottom of the pump so I ran a hose from that and drilled a hole in my wall and shoved the other end of the hose into the attic. It's winter so it's cold in there. Will do something different in the spring.

So I can use aqua shield with my humbolt 3-part mix? And I am going to start putting h202 in my res to sit in for a few minutes while I switch buckets ETC
 
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