please help asap (before its too late)

I cleaned my res yesterday and roots were white. Now today it looks like I have root rot.


I have 6 plants in a diy aero set up.


Using gh 3 part nutes and diamond nector.


I do have pond-zyme and dutchmaster zone and 3 percent h202 not being used yet.


Should I run the zone or the pond-zyme or can I run both? Can I also use 3% h202 with them or will it kill the good stuff too? Which should I use, or what combo?


I was thinking about just giving them a root bath and soaking them in (half cup of h202 per gallon) if so for how long?


Then adding zone to the cleaned out res.


I will go to the hydro store on monday (closed sat and sunday) but what can I do in the meantime? And do I even need to go if I use what I have.


Roots don't stink or feel slimy yet. Could it be another type of algae?


I cool the 20 gallon res with frozen gallon jugs an it fluctuates between 68 and 72 degrees. Thanks in advance, im nervous and need help asap.

What's the ph?

Well, for one thing the roots are too wet. Typical of this method, which results in soggy spaghetti string roots

If you are going to stay the course, you need to use a deep cycle timer and feed ~ 15 seconds/ 15 minutes

What is temp inside the root chamber?

Heat from lights can create a nasty root environment

Move lights up and/or layer top with heavy aluminum foil

A bubble system is MUCH better than this, not needing a timer

Cut your roots back by half

See my thread for pics

PetFlora said:

Well, for one thing the roots are too wet. Typical of this method, which results in soggy spaghetti string roots

If you are going to stay the course, you need to use a deep cycle timer and feed ~ 15 seconds/ 15 minutes

What is temp inside the root chamber?
Heat from lights can create a nasty root environment

Move lights up and/or layer top with heavy aluminum foil

A bubble system is MUCH better than this, not needing a timer

Cut your roots back by half

See my thread for pics

Click to expand...

Just curious, how can it be too wet, yet a dwc bucket be better while being fully submerged?
Last night I added a 60 gal air pump with 2 stones to my 18gal res which is separate from my root chamber. Will this help?

Im using a vented aircooled 1000 watt mh, and ac. My temps stay at a steady 77 degrees. The res and root container are 100% sealed and wrapped with reflective tape. My res temps are good now at 72 degrees.

I set up a temporary bubble bucket and soaked them in an aerating 3% h202 solution (quarter cup per gallon while thoroughly cleaning res. Im now runing dm zone and the h2o2 bath made them look a lot better. Today everything looks good except 2 plants are drooping really bad, probably from h2o2.

PetFlora said:

Well, for one thing the roots are too wet. Typical of this method, which results in soggy spaghetti string roots

If you are going to stay the course, you need to use a deep cycle timer and feed ~ 15 seconds/ 15 minutes

What is temp inside the root chamber?
Heat from lights can create a nasty root environment

Move lights up and/or layer top with heavy aluminum foil

A bubble system is MUCH better than this, not needing a timer

Cut your roots back by half

See my thread for pics

Click to expand...

Also, I think my problem wasnt really root rot. I was using pondzyme to eat the algae, my problem started when I added DM Zone which now I found out sterilizes the res. I only ran a low dose of it but I think it killed the pond zime and left lots of dead organic matter in the res which was brown. It then looked like it just got intangled in the little hairs on the roots.

I do not think that zone will kill a zyme. The roots still have a fishbone look and that is a god thing. Is there any slime?

I do not know about aero but in hydro the only thing that helped my slime problem is the tea

https://www.rollitup.org/t/dwc-root-slime-cure-aka-how-to-breed-beneficial-microbes.361430/page-179#post-10700877

Commander Strax said:

I do not think that zone will kill a zyme. The roots still have a fishbone look and that is a god thing. Is there any slime?

I do not know about aero but in hydro the only thing that helped my slime problem is the tea

https://www.rollitup.org/t/dwc-root-slime-cure-aka-how-to-breed-beneficial-microbes.361430/page-179#post-10700877

Click to expand...

Zone uses chloramine and sterilizes the res which leads me to believe it would kill bennies. There is no slime and roots look a lot better after h202 bath. My only problem now is that the leaves are drooping

DWC is a misnomer that people who don't understand it misuse

The idea is to super-oxygnate the nutes so that the air above the water line feeds the roots above the water line

Roots below tend to look like yours

The ideal is to reduce the nute level as roots mature

Looks like heat in the chamber, overwatering and/or EC too high and/or PH out of range. Any one on its own isnt a major issue unless it goes on for a while. When combined they can turn healthy white roots into some nasty looking brown ones pretty quick.
Put a temperature probe in the chamber to check the air temp in there, chances are it wont match your res temps.

Newb here so if what I am saying makes no sense be nice lol. When you guys say to wet I dont get it. I run knd of a flood and drain setup but pump runs 24/7 in most cases. I have tried many different flood cycles and always go back to running all the time. The plants seem to do better doing this yet they are totally submerged. Are you saying this is a bad thing? Always willi to give any suggestions a try. As for root issues, i had what I thought was a slime issue but after adding clr rez the roots looked great.

Think about it, there is only so much water/nutes a plant can absorb at any given time.

Too much water will eventually soak through the outer wall of the roots causing a general breakdown of root integrity

In soil, plants are watered periodically, according to their need/size. The dry period is important

Hydro has no buffer (grow medium) to help dissipate the water/nutes

The grower needs to understand the dynamics and adjust their grow methods accordingly

I love hydro. In the beginning, I had similar bad experiences,but have learned how to make it work for me

My advice is get the mother plant(s) in a stable enviroment then you'll have plenty of snips to experiment with.
I go flood and drain in a mixture lava rock and hydroton.
Don't by cheap NOMA timers. They'll fail you everytime.

I developed a highly modified F & D system (go to my thread for details). I combine Air Pots + Hydro Halo drip rings.

I used to use lava rock but it sheds too much. I switched to polished ornamental rock from the dollar store. So much cleaner

everything is esy to clean and reuse over and over

Pump runs on a deep cycle timer ~ 30sec/30 minutes during lights on

Also developed high performance rez

PetFlora said:

Think about it, there is only so much water/nutes a plant can absorb at any given time.

Too much water will eventually soak through the outer wall of the roots causing a general breakdown of root integrity

In soil, plants are watered periodically, according to their need/size. The dry period is important

Hydro has no buffer (grow medium) to help dissipate the water/nutes

The grower needs to understand the dynamics and adjust their grow methods accordingly

I love hydro. In the beginning, I had similar bad experiences,but have learned how to make it work for me

Click to expand...

my roots are sitting in water and are happy, that is DWC, I know they uptake nutes and water below the water line, that is where the nutes are

PetFlora said:

Think about it, there is only so much water/nutes a plant can absorb at any given time.

Too much water will eventually soak through the outer wall of the roots causing a general breakdown of root integrity

In soil, plants are watered periodically, according to their need/size. The dry period is important

Hydro has no buffer (grow medium) to help dissipate the water/nutes

The grower needs to understand the dynamics and adjust their grow methods accordingly

I love hydro. In the beginning, I had similar bad experiences,but have learned how to make it work for me

Click to expand...

Well I thought I was combining a few systems myself lol. But DWC seems to do well and the roots are pretty much submerged. I've seen some pretty wild DWC grows. But I've seen alot crash and burn too.

UNLESS the nutrients are HIGHLY oxygenated, the roots below will be EXTREMELY inefficient

The air above the water line will also suffer

Nutrient rich oxygenated air is the key that unlocks healthier, happier grows

Peace out

PetFlora said:

UNLESS the nutrients are HIGHLY oxygenated, the roots below will be EXTREMELY inefficient

The air above the water line will also suffer

Nutrient rich oxygenated air is the key that unlocks healthier, happier grows

Peace out

Click to expand...

Agreed! So as long as the proper amounts of DO are present any setup will work, be it DWC, NFT, etc. also there must be a limit as to how much DO can be in the water at any given time. So setup is a mute point if DO is addressed.

That may be true. I use totes and the root mass is amazing. Typically it covers the bottom completely at 4-6" deep.