Please Help Relentless Root Slime

BrownGuy420

Active Member
Hello everybody I used to grow in DWC and did very well at it, but have since moved over to other hydroponics and soil grows. I am now wanting to go back to the DWC method due to how simple it was and how fast everything grows. I started a clone in a DWC bucket and it seemed to do okay and within about two weeks I had the most intense brown slime I have ever seen. I started going through the basics like spray off the slime and use a h2o2 solution to kill the rest of the pathogens and then add a benny tea to keep killing the slime. I performed these tasks and it seemed to do well but within a few more days the slime was back, I would apply 2 cups every 2 days or so to my 5gal res and without prevail the slime would come back. I thought it was the room conditions causing this so I moved everything into my nicer room which is climate controlled and perfect enviroment. I have since given up on that plant and destroyed it. I then soaked everything with a bleach solution and started new with 2 buckets to increase my odds at getting a healthy plant, I also went to ro water which I used in the past. Now my water temps are perfect, no light in the res area, pleanty of bubbles, perfect temps and what do you know... .the wicked brown slime is coming back...wtf! I have steralized my res every 7 days since I put in these new plants and just did a nute change yesterday and the roots were as white as could be, set my girl in her newly cleaned and steralized bucket and today I come home from work and all my roots are turning brown....

Not sure what to do here guys, I know I can make tea but that shit it a waste of time in my book cause it didn't really work the last time...maybe it wasn't a strong batch I made, but none the less I don't have the time,space or want to have to be whipping up teas all the damn time. I was looking into killer tea by Humboldt county's own and was wondering if this is an alternative to having to brew the tea up yourself? I added some sensizyme to the res also to just add benny's in there to eat up some of that slime for now. What am I doing wrong here guys? I'm running out of options and my patience is gone...if I can't find a simple solution to this I may just say the hell with DWC and go back to soil cause I don't want to come home everyday to a catastrophy. DWC is my passion or was anyways and I really want to make this work and shut my damn friend up that always talks shit on hydro every time I start running it.....Please help guys!!!
 

ramen86

Well-Known Member
It means you are letting light get in somehow someway. When I first started using DWC, me and my buds actually went out and got an UnderCurrent from the Current Culture website. I kept doing the same thing you did, as far with the tea, and the sterilization and everything and it kept coming back. It wasn't up until I realized that it was something so simple as to covering up our PVC piping in all black blags to prevent light from getting in, and putting something over our hydroton, that the slime has NEVER come back since (it's been 2 years now). All I can say, is that Great White works wonders, as a fix to slime, but as long as you're not preventing it, it will keep coming back, and buying that much GW can be very costly over time. Find out where your system is vulnerable (whether it be white buckets, open net pots, light getting to the water, etc.), and fix it, slime will never appear again.
 

BrownGuy420

Active Member
Thanks bud I wasn't really thinking about the light coming in through the rocks of the net pot, I'll try that and see how it goes
 

Praxis

Active Member
Read the top sticky in this sub forum from "Heisenberg". All your answers you seek are within. GL
 

pSi007

Active Member
Most important:
1. Reduce your temperatures or use a water chiller set @ 68f-70f...
2. Prevent light leaks into res..
3. Put a circulating fountain pump in your res, moving water is harder to algae.

Optional:
4. Change and replace your water every 4-7 days, sterilize your res. You can "store" the res water and pump it full of h2o2 and let it set away from your plants until the h2o2 kills the algea, then re-use. Be careful the large amount of h2o2 does not kill your plants when you re-use, give it time to evaporate, (about 1 week).
 

Malevolence

New Member
Sterilize bucket and roots with bleach or h2o2 water... get all slime off roots, pull off dead roots. Change res and add 25-30ml (for a 5 gallon bucket) Aquashield every 2 or 3 days... do not use h2o2 or you will kill the bennies. Make sure you use dechlorinated water or you could kill the bennies and it won't work. continue to use aquashield with dwc for prevention and stop using h2o2. I have been slimed many times and never lost a plant yet. I have dicked with the tea a few times and was not impressed.
 

computergroove

Active Member
Heisenberg tea will cure your problems if you don't have a DO issue/ light leak/ organic nuits. I have had what you describe and this stuff kills it better than anything.
 

ShineOn

Well-Known Member
Go DNF Hydro Sparkle. I had bad slime and root rot and this cured it. After about ten days i had new roots growing and no more slime after 24 - 48 hours of first application. My res temps run high from 72 to 77 and with Hydro Sparkle no issues. I use it once a week now and i am 5 weeks into flowering with nice large white root balls. I am with you, the tea method is a pain in the ass.

Hydro Sparkle is amazing stuff and i had the slime really bad and could not get rid of it. I spent hours searching the net looking for an alternative to the tea. I tried h202, dutch master Zone, Bleach and none of it worked except hydro sparkle. It trurly is a silver bullet and way, way easier then the tea method.

Physan20 would be the best thing to steralize your gear with.
http://www.physan.com/

And for Hydro Sparkle

http://www.businessvision.net/edge/Main.asp?D=%7B0D15BE6A%2D5FA8%2D4D2D%2DA867%2D041F118CF55F%7D&PageType=Product&SKU=DNF240
 

Frosty125

Member
The tea works and i dont think u have a light leak but u might i dont know. But wat i do know is heisenberg says In the first sticky to absolutely stay away from AN products when fighting slime. I think the sensizym fucked u an multiplied the slime. I wouldnt use bleach, just sayin, h2o2 is enough then just the tea an nothing organic and cover everything up 2.just to be safe
 

TWS

Well-Known Member
Don't forget with the tea to have dechlored water when making it and add only the tea to the Rez for 24 hrs and then add the nutes.
 
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