Beneficial Res & aquashield with pond zyme?

AlphaPhase

Well-Known Member
Hey RUI, I have a couple questions to see if I am understanding what I've learned correctly.

I've never run a beneficial res before, only sterile res ,but I'm about to pull the trigger and do a bennie res soon.

I've tried to learn as much as I can but if anyone uses these products, AQUASHIELD AND POND ZYME in their res, can you tell me if I'm on track with this..

I'll be doing some dwc buckets along with a ebb n grow bucket system. Now if I understand everything correctly, the aquashield IS the beneficial bacteria, which keeps the bad stuff in check? And the pond zyme is an enzyme which breaks down dead material such as roots?

Now I know that people in organic soil feed their bennies with things like Sweet and Molasses, correct? (I have very limited knowledge of organic gardening).

So, if I do a bennie res, will i have to add something to feed the bennies? Or between using the aquashield and the pond zyme, is that taken care of already?

Any help would be awesome, I think I'm starting to understand the principles of this but I'm not sure. If someone could tell me that I'm heading in the right direction or way off base, that would be great. I will be using synthetic nutes, not organic, but the reason I would like to use a bennie res is because I see so many nice root systems with people using this method and I'd also like to avoid any root zone problems.
 
Dont feed them in your rez, it'll mess things up bad.

Just re add every few days. Or better yet brew an AACT and you'll have snow white roots!
 
Instead of feeding bennies we keep everything sterile and just replace them every few days. pond-zyme is also bacteria and it can be used by itself... but more diversity is better. I used aquashield + pond-zyme for like 2 years and it works well... only thing I found is with my tap water I had to use tap water conditioner or the bennies wouldn't work well and the roots would get slimed.

If you want to make the tea, try great white, aquashield, gh ancient forest humus, and a little black strapped molasses. Bubble it in a bucket of r/o for 2 days and then dose your res with the tea every 3 - 5 days.

FYI, I have heard aquashield has been discontinued and replaced with hydroguard (or just renamed).
 
OK, so feeding bennies in a hydroponic res = bad. By replace them every few days, do you mean the whole res? Or just add back more of the hydroguard and pond zyme every few days and I can do a complete res change every 2-3 weeks?
Good info about using the tap water conditioner, my tap water is 7ph and only 140ppm, but it smells very chlorinated.
Would I add back both the aquashield and pond zyme at the same time?
The teas sound really good and I'll have to look into that.
You're right @Hydroburn it is now hydroguard. Do you by any chance remember the amounts used for the hydroguard and pond zyme? I've only found 3ml per gallon of the hydroguard and 1 scoop per 50 gallon res. Does this sound right?
 
yea that sounds about right.. just dose the res every few days with both products. Molasses and most organics will promote slime blooms. I use API tap water conditioner from the pet store... if you can't get it, the active ingredient to look for is sodium thiosulfate, and don't get one that "promotes fish slime coating" obviously.
 
id use the 2ml hydroguard and im sure its half scoop per 50gallons. and half that amount for top ups, thats what superstoner does.
 
Thanks viper, superstoner is who I got the idea from but he hasn't been on in a Lil while so I couldn't ask him. Thanks for clearing that up for me. One last question, I think I remember superstoner saying add back every 4-6 days, does that mean add back both hydroguard and pond zyme?

And one last question, would it be OK to go 3 weeks before changing out the res? I know a lot of people change out every 2 weeks, but if the res is fine can I go a little longer? In my individual buckets I can change once a week, but my ebb n grow system has a 30 gallon res so it's usually pretty stable for a while. Reason I ask is because I know nothing about bennies and if I add back the pond zyme and hydroguard every 4-6 days I'm assuming it's to replace the bennies that die off? Are dead bennies bad in a res? Would it cause a problem if there's a build up of them from just adding new bennies back over the course of time before a res change? Thanks
 
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