using bleach

cannabineer said:

This is "educated conjecture", but enough hypochlorite to kill the bugs and not singe the roots will leave dead but essentially intact bugs. As they lyse and get chewed up by residual enzyme action, they'll smell a bit. It's a sort of olfactory ghost and not a reason to worry imo. cn

Click to expand...

joe macclennan said:

Thanks bear. Hadn't thought about it this way. I am absolutely sure you are correct.

You said earlier that you use regular Clorox due to it being easier dispersed. Makes total sense. It's is a bit of a pain to ensure that the granules of the pool shock are entirely dissolved for me since my mix jug is black instead of opaque.

At what dilution rate do you use the clorox, and in what type of systems?

For maintenance or to quell active infections.

Click to expand...

cannabineer said:

I haven't used it yet myself, but a friend dosed it at 1 ml per gallon for shock and about 1 ml per 3-5 gallons that for prevention.

I mixed large batches of veg nute for my last grow and stored them for months, then used them for drain-to-waste soilless. What I added was "Physan 20", a benzalkonium prep, at the rate of 5 ml into 100 liters (for 1 ppm final). It kept my nutrient clean, and it didn't decompose (as bleach would over such a time period at lowered pH) or interact with my micros. cn

Click to expand...

joe macclennan said:

You make a good point on cost vs. payoff. However you are leaving out the fact that I would have to actively vent my chiller room which would add a bit more to my bill for the fans consumption. plus I have two rez. for flower. One for the first two tables of sog the second for the last two. I run slightly higher nutes in the last 4 weeks. I also have a seperate rez for my ebb and gro. for my flowering mums. So we are talking about closer to $150-200+ dollars a mo. more in electric costs total. It is not the cost so much that I am concerned with it is the extra energy consumption or total kwh used. I really don't want to draw any more attention than I already am.

Click to expand...

flyingsteve said:

I tried bleach and h2o2, etc and found that I like using UV sterilization better. You aren't having to play with chemicals... I use an aquarium canister filter with a polishing filter pad and 9w UV and the water stays nice and clean and any bits of root or plant debris gets filtered out so bacteria has nothing to feed on.

Click to expand...

flyingsteve said:

Would be ideal to use geothermal cooling... bury some stainless or titanium tubing and that way you could have virtually unlimited number of circuits for different grow ops. I did this for a friend of mine. Under his house is a crawl space and we dug down about 12" in the dirt and laid out some tubing. If you don't have a crawl space to help regulate seasonal temps then you'd have to dig down several feet depending on your seasons. But if your BTU demands are low then it would be a pretty small hole, anyway. In my outdoor F&D setup I buried the 18g plastic tote reservoirs to the rims to help with cooling.

Click to expand...

flyingsteve said:

The slime - brown algae or whatever - is back in my system. I thought the water was starting to smell a bit "fishy" and when I popped the canister filter open I found a bit of it being trapped in the bottom, luckily. If it wasn't for the filter system that shit would be every where in my hydro and in the roots. I changed filter pads out and cleaned inside of filter canister with pine-sol (ammonium) and added a liberal amount of SM-90 and 29% h2o2 to the entire system. I'm starting to think that this pathogen is either in my tap water or coming from a contaminated nutrient bottle. If this keeps up I am going to pick up some Pool Shock.

Click to expand...

cannabineer said:

Some of those cyanobacteria are practically nuke-proof. You might think about fighting fire with fire. Heisenberg has a fascinating stickied thread about making a "tea" of mixed beneficial microbes and playing Celebrity Deathmatch between the bennies and the slime. cn

Click to expand...

flyingsteve said:

I've made tea before per his recommendations with Great White Myco... Typically only use it for soil, though. Are you thinking that I should go with bennies over Pool Shock? I'm honestly surprised that the UV lamp isn't blasting it away. It was nothing nearly like I've had it before, pre-UV and filter... I was thinking that I should go with biological filtration, it's a type of medium that you put in the canister filter that bacteria will live in... In an aquarium this provides a place for beneficial bacteria to filter out fish waste. I'd have to turn the uv lamp off then, obviously... Guess I'll wait a few more days and see if the cyanobacteria returns in force... If so, then I'll brew a tea and try that route.

Click to expand...

joe macclennan said:

Things are Finally starting to turn around. looking a-lot better overall. Very few fungus gnats. No sign of the root aphids, and the girls are starting to get new growth. No sign of the slime. good to go. Now I'm thinking about all those dead roots and gnat bodies and shit. Probably gonna go back to the h202 to help break them down. I also got a rez changed again. I decided to follow homebrewers lead and try some of the dynagro veg 7-9-5 for flower for about 25% of my room. We'll see.

The bleach did the trick for sure against the slime. One oz. solution/gallon is a bit much tho. Deffinitely fried some roots at these levels. I figure it to be a trade off. At the rate that slime was going I would have had to shut down. so I prob. salvaged just over half my tables. Not too bad considering.

I ordered some gnatrol for the few gnats left and some more sticky traps. I seriously don't want these fuckers to come back. I like what I have read about the gnatrol. It seems like it would be a good option for me in veg. I don't use h202 or bleach in veg. Don't need it, thankfully. I also added a dehumidifer and two fans to my veg. room today.

Am I correct in assuming that since The gnatrol is biological, bleach or peroxide can't be used? I've got some azaguard coming to use in flower I know it can be used with h202 so If I have to continue running the peroxide in flower I can use that.

Another question I had will the h202 react with the protekt I am running? I thought I read somewhere it would.

I've never used sm-90 before, what is it exactly?

Click to expand...

• Quick-Acting Formula
  
  Leslie’s Fresh ‘N Clear is the fastest dissolving non-chlorinated shock on the market! It quickly clears up your pool, leaving you with more time to enjoy the sparkling water.
• Effective Alternative to Chlorinated Shock
  
  Cleans your pool, eliminates organic contaminants, and prevents algae without killing microorganisms or adding high levels of chlorine.
• Multi-Purpose
  
  Powerful waste eliminator, algae preventer, and water purifier. Fresh ‘N Clear also frees up available chlorine to destroy bacteria. Works great in both chlorinated and brominated pools.
  
  Leslie’s Fresh ‘N Clear chlorine-free shock allows you to safely, quickly, and effectively shock your pool without adding chlorine. Upon being added to your pool, Fresh ‘N Clear goes to work immediately, eliminating 99.9% of organic compounds. These include bacteria, nitrogen compounds, swimmer waste, and natural waste. It does this by freeing up the available chlorine in your pool, allowing the chlorine to destroy the contaminants in the water. By breaking up the combined available chlorine, Fresh ‘N Clear also eliminates those annoying chlorine odors.
  
  Along with keeping your pool clean and algae-free, Leslie’s Fresh ‘N Clear offers many other great advantages. Because it does not contain chlorine or calcium, Fresh ‘N Clear keeps your pH and water hardness levels perfectly balanced, saving you money on new chemicals. No chlorine also means no long waiting periods after shocking your pool, swimmers can get back in the pool in as little as 15 minutes.