R-DWC: Need advice on keeping roots out of the plumbing.

So, This is my first grow using a Recirculating DWC setup, and my plants roots keep trying to grow into the return line. I found a nice sized puddle around my plants bucket, and when I inspected the bucket, the roots were a good 6 inches into the pipe causing the flow of water to slow to a trickle, and overflow.

Can anyone recommend a solution for this?

First thing that pops into my head is buy a mesh screen for it, but wouldn't that get plugged up as well?

get a mesh bag an zip tie it around the pump

$40 for the whole thing at Lowes.
my pump has a guard that sticks out an inch to keep the roots from the intake.

I had a similar issue before and tried using a root blocking material and it worked ok, but after 5/6
weeks there was a buildup on the mesh which smelled pretty bad and was seemingly "gunking"
things up in my system.

Now I've decided to simply increase the side of tubing and not worry about where the roots go.
I went ahead and did 2" pvc just so there is NEVER an issue what so ever.

There are some really nice rubber grommets out there called uniseals which make installing
pvc into buckets/containers a breeze.