I think you got that backwards my friend.
When you run a sterile res, theres no bacteria to balance or battle. You can also run higher temps with a sterile res too. Sterile res = white healthy roots and a higher headroom for res temps.
View attachment 4041066
Every day is a battle when you run a sterile rez lol every day shit wants in those buckets. The bennies fight them for me, so instead of fighting i just feed the bennies once a week. And since theyre fighting other organisms for me, the temps can get higher without risk. I know roots are supposed to be white lol mine are bright white the day after feeding when the foam goes down.
What i meant about the clear water is that my bennies make the water dark, so when it gets clear it means it's time to feed them and/or add more. I just felt like it was more work keepin it sterile. Plus these things really pump your roots up. If you consider 3 things, its hard not to side with bennies.
1. They break down the nutes and make them more available at different ph levels.
2. They fight off other organisms for you and maintain a stronghold on your rootzones.
3. They help your roots grow bigger and faster than theyd grow without bennies.
I'm still new but after struggling with pyrethrum or whatever its called and brown roots and then switching to this tea shit, i'm sold. To each his own though. This area is pretty hard to keep anything sterile in lol plus i dont use a box so theres no sealed environment. Just a room