Prepping to begin first grow/DWC, but second day of adding water and nutes...

Hi all,

This is my first post to these forums. Generally I am passive, and just lurk and sponge in information. Though I come to you today with an annoying issue I am desparate to solve. This will be the second flush I've done this week. In which today is the second day since water replenishment. I started out originally by cleaning and prepping my tools. Then I filled my reservoir with pH'd water to 6.1. I should get it lower probably as I read that pH swings could be normal for my situation as I use harder tap water, which hovers around 180-200ppm. So after my equipment is sterilized to my liking and my water pH'd I add my mixture in the following order; Aquashield(I wait the directed 1 hour before adding my nutes) then I add my 3-part GH solution, starting with Micro, Veg, then Bloom. After about 10 minutes I add GH FloraBlend. My understanding of FloraBlend is it has beneficials in it which should help me combat any baddies in my water. By the next day my water is cloudy with a noticable odor. Honestly, I have done quite a bit of reading on this site, as well as others. I do not quite understand what I am doing wrong. Let me also add to my preamble that I ordered and am using a hydroton replacement, which I washed for about 30 minutes, called "Viastone Hydroponic Grow Rocks".

The rest of my setup is:
18gal reservoir - filled to 12gal(about 1/2 below netpots)
An 18w air pump rated to push 600gph.
A double XL air difuser sized at 10 inches.
Appropriate tubing from hydro store.
Temps are hovering at 19.8C in reservoir

I believe this is all the necessary information for my setup. Please ask questions as it's early and this may not be completely coherent. Now why hasn't that coffee pot finished brewing yet?!!??

Sounds like all your bennies are dying off... Only a couple reasons i know of could cause that; chlorine in the water or not enough food for them. Both the aquashield and the florablend contain bennies iirc. The first thing i would do is cut them out or feed them and see if that changes it, then you can go from there. I don't have much exp with molasses in DWC so that is something you should look into a bit if you decide to do so as i have heard there may be issues.

Hi webguy16,

I wasn't aware Aquashield could be a benny as well. I was under the impression it was a type of root care and prevention product. Which now that I think about that sounds like what I would want a benny to do. Sorry still learning. I will be researching molasses and feeding the bennys. As for chlorine in the water I was under the impression most of that should evaporate after 24 hours? I checked the reservoir right before bed which if I recall should have been about 6 hours after the last additives went in. It smelled quite good and yet no cloudy apparence. If it were chlorine would the smell/cloudiness have shown up in that time frame?

Thanks for your response. Off to Google I go! - Cheers!

I'm honestly not exactly sure how long it would take the chlorine to kill the bennies if there did happen to be any of it left after leaving your water out for 24 hours. But I added that mainly because i wasn't sure if you left your water out at all and it needed to be ruled out...
My money would be on them consuming all of their food and then fighting each other/dying off from lack of food, which is why it takes a while for the water to turn cloudy and smells (from either the no3 or no4 being released when they die, but don't quote me on that part).

I won't quote you, but I do appreciate the incite. I also want to add that I did do some research on feeding beneficials and came across this thread on the site here. I am in no way affiliated with this thread, just came across it on google! Below is what I found personally interesting and if not a problem killing my bennies with chlorine than believe this to be the possible problem! Please do not be gentle everyone and let me have it if I'm wrong. I'm hard headed and tend to learn best when not LST'd!

So anyways, after reading the below quote from the link I went back to my nutes and additives to do a quick audit of ingredients. I see that my pH down does in fact use citric acid as well as it being organic itself. I believe the first time around I found a type of white algae that lead to the original smell before my first dump and replenish of my reservoir. It was white and soapy like. Very slimey. It had an odd odor but had not developed any kind of coloring as far as I could see in sunlight. Could any of, or a combination of the two(chlorine/pH Down) be conflicting with my environment in my res, or some type of light leak I'm not aware of? Currently I have net pots/medium filled in the holes. With paper plates covering that which I consider not adequetly protected by the pots/medium.

Off to do more internet searching!



"

• Warning re using citric acid as pH down and/or for further chelation
  
  Citric acid supports organic life. This means that where beneficial bacteria and fungi are used it aids in micro-proliferation (I.e. acts as food for beneficial bacteria and fungi and thus promotes microflora in solution). However, Citric acid is also one of algae’s favorite things to use as a food source. It not only drops the pH into a range that they enjoy it also is an organic acid, providing a food source of Carbon (C), Hydrogen (H) and Oxygen (O) for the organisms to feed on. Organic acids are a perfect food source to set off a fantastic bloom either by themselves or as a hidden addition in your fertilizer formula. However, it should be used in combination with beneficial bacteria and fungi and the tank/reservoir should be made light proof (algae requires light to grow)."​
  
  
  
  

I might be slightly confused on your description a bit. Is it "...white and soapy like. Very slimey" as in stringy/connected, or more cloudy? Either way, it's definitely important to make sure you don't have any light leaks anyway (you can put a couple pieces of duct/foil tape on your paper plate to make it lightproof). If all your equipment was cleaned and running well (air pumps on etc...) and you don't even have a plant in there yet i doubt it's white algae. It could be something to do with having both a fungicide (Aquashield) and introducing fungi cultures (FloraBlend). I'm not sure if people have probably used that combo before without issue. Unless someone a lot more knowledgeable chimes in, i would probably run it without the florablend (or aquashield) and see if it happens again. If it does, do it again but with RO water. Basically taking out variables one by one to see which one caused it.

When filling a res it is always this:
Water, main nutes, additives, ph. always. and as for waiting an hour or more, bullshit, my recipe has up to 7 different things going in and they go in at the same time with never a problem. I drain, rinse, fill, add nutes, and adjust ph in 50gal res in under 15mins. Plus, you want ph lower, around 5.6-5.8 in veg, and 5.8-6.0 in mid to late flower.

webguy16 said:

I might be slightly confused on your description a bit. Is it "...white and soapy like. Very slimey" as in stringy/connected, or more cloudy? Either way, it's definitely important to make sure you don't have any light leaks anyway (you can put a couple pieces of duct/foil tape on your paper plate to make it lightproof). If all your equipment was cleaned and running well (air pumps on etc...) and you don't even have a plant in there yet i doubt it's white algae. It could be something to do with having both a fungicide (Aquashield) and introducing fungi cultures (FloraBlend). I'm not sure if people have probably used that combo before without issue. Unless someone a lot more knowledgeable chimes in, i would probably run it without the florablend (or aquashield) and see if it happens again. If it does, do it again but with RO water. Basically taking out variables one by one to see which one caused it.

Click to expand...

The water itself was dark and cloudy. The white slimey substance was floating on top of the water and grouping up against the sides of the container. As well as the bottoms of the net pots. It was slimey in texture but soapy(bubbles/texture) in appearence. Hope that helps with what I saw. Next time I promise to take a picture. =)

superstoner1 said:

When filling a res it is always this:
Water, main nutes, additives, ph. always. and as for waiting an hour or more, bullshit, my recipe has up to 7 different things going in and they go in at the same time with never a problem. I drain, rinse, fill, add nutes, and adjust ph in 50gal res in under 15mins. Plus, you want ph lower, around 5.6-5.8 in veg, and 5.8-6.0 in mid to late flower.

Click to expand...

Waiting the hour or not being bullshit, the Aquashield states wait 1-2 hours on the bottle. I'm just going by directions at the moment as I've never done any of this before. I've grown organic herbs on window sill before. This concludes my experience gardening. As I stated I am a noob. =) I am learning though thanks to you guys.

I will try and get my pH lower on the next water exchange. I read that you should change pH too quickly. But after re-reading a few of those articles again since my previous posts I see that is only a concern with plants/roots inside the container. I misunderstood pH'ing and assumed it affected beneficials as well. Thanks for the input! Especially about your recipe. Waiting for that hour was a real pain and I was quite anxious just to get on with it!! =)

Cheers!

Hi fellas,

Quick update as this is my pH/ppm checking time of the day. It appears the odor has dissipated since this morning. The only steps I have taken since encountering the smell this morning was add a little more Aquashield and some ice cubes. The cubes helped bring my pH up a bit since it was hovering around 5.3, as well as kept my temps at a nice cool 21.3 degrees. I appreciate all the advice as I was able to use that to help focus my researching and learned QUITE A BIT since before I started this thread.

Cheers all!

All aquashield is, is liquified chicken poop. I have used it for years along with a full botanicare line. If you really want to keep the res happy add pondzyme with barley or great white. Beneficials are the way to go with making happy plants.

Thanks superstoner1. Judging from my previously noted nutrient/additive stack, would I need to stop using any of the products before implementing Great White or Pondzyme into the mix? I've read good things about Great White so I may end up going with that product when I get the chance. I will research the other a bit more thoroughly though before my purchase is made.

Cheers.

Adding a beneficial would only help, and no problems with adding it. Great white is good but when you throw cost in the pondzyme is by far the best. I used gw for a couple of years until I found pondzyme, 1/4 the cost and uses much less.