DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes

drgonzo65 said:

hydrolyzed......I don't care how much air you have in the rez......The problem is in each bucket. You need a 4" - 6" disk type air stone in the bottom of each bucket on its own 20 watt air pump. This shit were up against love's stagnant water or air. I know a 4 " disk air stone on its own pump seems completely overkill but that's what I did and after 3 1/2 years of battling this thing ...I finally had a batch without the slime and it looks like I'm actually going to be able to get a harvest.

The water in the bottom of the buckets need to constantly recirculate back to the rez. Water left standing in the bottom of each bucket better be bubbling huge amounts of air. Water left in the drain lines had better be moving with a quickness to stay oxygenated. Failure to do any of these rules will result in slime.

Forget what you used to do ....forget what you used to get away with. We are battling some kind of new Alien Superbug. I have never seen anything like it. This thing wants pythium to take over because the pythium is producing something that this superbug likes to eat and this alien superbug likes to suck out all the oxygen out of the water so the pythium can flourish. The only thing that wins is massive amounts of air and tea.

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Again, thanks for the advice and don't take this as me arguing with you.

I have, in each tote (my plants sit in the totes, two plants to each), 96 inches of airstone with about 3x the recommended air... I also have a 20 GPM external mag drive pump which recirculates the 100 gallons per system every 5 minutes. Both of those, IMO, are already a lot more than the average RDWC setup.

I really don't think it's my setup. I am focusing now on the actual bacteria and where it's coming from. As I said above it appears even endospores can't pass an RO filter, and with the amont of UV light I have they would not survive that even if they did. I am focusing on areas where residual spores could be hiding. At this point I'm speculating that the type of bacteria is just an extremely fast colonizer and can recolonize a system from only a few spores germinating. I am going to set up a whole new system with absolutely nothing that my old water has touched, and only use water fresh from the sterilizer, along with my old dose of aquashield, and brand new seedlings from sealed packs of seeds I just got......with no random spores to germinate anymore I am thinking I won't see the slime. It is possible everyone fighting this slime, at least the version I have, might just have to replace every piece of equipment in order to be totally slime free. I'm going to give a fresh system a try along with all my now coco plants to test the theory that the spores are just so ravenous that even just a few hanging out in the little 3/4" elbows are enough to reslime the entire system.

I feel this is a likely theory also because my Veg system as I said above has never had a slime problem and use the same water, nutrients, meters etc as the other systems. A attached some pics of the veg system right before I transplanted them into coco to show the health of the plants and the root system...the Tea definitely works...just didn't work in my flower systems.

Good luck to all battling the slime.

Are sure you can ever clean every piece of your grow room and equipment of every last spore? I mean, look at operating rooms in hospitals. Every instrument is heat sterilized. Every surface is made flat so it can be easily cleaned with strong cleaning agents, everyone comes in with clean clothes and skin washed with antibacterial soap, and still sometimes infections do happen.

I think there is stuff floating around in the air constantly that could trigger slime. Especially if you have pets or a litter box. Unless you have a completely sealed and decontaminated room like a nasa space equipment engineering lab there will be stuff in the air that settles on your plants and equipment. We are covered in living shit. The local ecosystem where you live in probably plays a part in it too. Also I think if using tap water in the res, it should be dechlorinated.

PHEW! that's been some read and I only got to page 90

http://www.thenutrientcompany.com/product/tnc-mycorrhydro/

http://www.thenutrientcompany.com/product/tnc-molasses/

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261306285654

It is notoriously difficult to get most of the OP's ingredients here in UK so these are what I've come up with for my slime fighting tea. Would these work? Missing something? I am at my wits end with this f*kn slime. 6 weeks into veg and almost at giving up point.....

One thing I didn't see or didn't pick up on if I did, bleary stoned eyes, was when to put a clone/seedling into dwc. I put mine straight into 20L oxypot when it had rooted quite extensively (2 weeks) thinking that was a mistake now though as the slime doesn't or can't get a foothold on mature plants and root systems. It took 4 days for my roots to get out of the net pot... cough cough... this is my first try at any sort of hydro and maybe last if this sliminess continues.
ps. Air temp down to 10c at lights off may also be contributing to the problem...

HELP.... just forked out for flora nova grow an bloom, and pretty much all the other bull that goes with hydro, meters n pens, h2o2, pots n pumps n stones n goodness knows what else totalling 100s of £££ after already buying nearly every AN product out there, I know, my bad but I only wanted the best for my girls and they professed to be just that......OOPS!! not running ANY advanced products in DWC btw.

also, would this be required also?

http://www.thenutrientcompany.com/product/tnc-bactorrs13/


I also have Orca and Superthrive.... add these too???? I am clutching at anything not only straws!!!!

Just finished reading all 321 it's pages it's taken me weeks.i moved from soil to hydro 2 years ago, straight to dwc no problems for bout a year then bang slime. I tried everything over the last year to stop this slime and nothing worked. I even replaced every bucket, metres, all pipe work, even borrowed a new chiller off a mate who hadn't used it yet and it still came on full throttle. I tried tea 3 weeks ago and saw instance improvement, in week 1 res stayed clear roots picked right up. Week 2 I ran into problems again but this was my own fault as I'm pretty sure I doubled dosed mollasse by mistake. The slime took off again and my roots looked like shit the worse they've ever been and that was just 36 hours after doing a res change. Again removed plants cleaned everything and put a fresh batch of tea in, water has stayed clear and roots have improved again but not as quick as last time, but they r def on the mend and plants are flying along.Being in uk sourcing most of the original ingredients has been difficult but I'v found similar products that seen 2 b working, but I am still fine tuning my mix though. I was getting pretty fed up of every guy I spoke 2 in a shop telling me 2 use this product n that product and it not working or making my problem worse. One thing I have become aware of is that most people know sod all bout dwc and just treat it like every other hydro system, heance all the bad advice. Thanks 2 Heisenberg 4 starting this thread and all the others who contributed there's loads of info in these 300+ pages I'm finally enjoying growing again

WelshMagic, frst of all, you mention H2O2. You know it is not to be used together with benneficials?

Second, you say "pretty much all the other bull that goes with hydro". I think your problem is that you are pouring tons of crap in your bucket that is feeding slime. Instead of finding new stuff to put in, try doing the oposite and keep it simple. First wash your roots best you can. Now start with some RO water and let it bubble for a day. Perhaps add some H2O2 (I used 110 mL per 15L). Next day put some fresh RO water in a bucket, and add just a mild dose of some pure inorganic nutrients (no organic bullshit, pure chemicals is what you need). Leave it at maybe 0,5 mS. Add some microbe tea or add a good microbal product like orca. See what that does for you in a week. I think you will like the results.

Spanky84 said:

WelshMagic, frst of all, you mention H2O2. You know it is not to be used together with benneficials?

Second, you say "pretty much all the other bull that goes with hydro". I think your problem is that you are pouring tons of crap in your bucket that is feeding slime. Instead of finding new stuff to put in, try doing the oposite and keep it simple. First wash your roots best you can. Now start with some RO water and let it bubble for a day. Perhaps add some H2O2 (I used 110 mL per 15L). Next day put some fresh RO water in a bucket, and add just a mild dose of some pure inorganic nutrients (no organic bullshit, pure chemicals is what you need). Leave it at maybe 0,5 mS. Add some microbe tea or add a good microbal product like orca. See what that does for you in a week. I think you will like the results.

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hey dude, at first sighting of the slime you are spot on, I tried everything I had, inc. liquid oxygen (17.5% h2o2) yep I did know that bleaching the bacteria would kill them but I thought it was bacteria that was causing the slime. I use tap water ph 7.3 and ppm in 50s (out of the tap) but leave 24hrs to dechlorinate with 2 X 150mm x 50mm cylinder airstones, each stone has its own pump. I stopped using the orca and superthrive as soon as I started using the h202 and only fed her 450ppm flora nova grow with 20ml of h202 for the 14litres in the res. I have 2 buckets so when I do a bucket change it is literally that, a whole new clean sterilised bucket but I been doing this twice a week and still its thriving. Have let her sit in just the water and h202 for a day but the water level was an inch or 2 above the bottom of the net pot tho not near the base of the stem which incidentally is in rockwool cube in 6 in net pot filled with hydroton pebbles. I also use household bleach when I sterilise my buckets, bad idea? also something that maybe of relevance, im vegging using a 600w hps not flourescents as I see most DWC vegging plants. not my 1st choice but my only one, my 2 tube little t5 propagation light just isn't enough for vegging

Have you checked that your res is light proof? How are your temps? Plants should love that 600 watter, but that is a lot of light and heat.
Sterilization should not matter as long as you wash the sterilizing agent off with a lot of water.

Second thing I'd check is the rockwool. I personally really dislike rockwool as it usually gets much more moist then the surounding medium and can house all kinds of nasty things.

As for the rest, floranova is marketed for hydro, but is also marketed as being part organic. I don't know if its just a coincidence caused by lots of people using it, but I have read a lot of "help, I have slime" posts that mention using floranova. I know it's an added cost, but if I were you, I'd try going with some other purely inorganic nute line. And again, no superthrive, no bud candy, no root accelerator, no nothing. Just pure nutes and some microbes.

DrOfWelshMagic said:

just forked out for flora nova grow an bloom,

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FloraNova is partially organic.

h2o2

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kills/sterilizes bennies

Superthrive....

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known slime trigger


can you get Aquashield?

Spanky84 said:

Have you checked that your res is light proof? How are your temps? Plants should love that 600 watter, but that is a lot of light and heat.
Sterilization should not matter as long as you wash the sterilizing agent off with a lot of water.

Second thing I'd check is the rockwool. I personally really dislike rockwool as it usually gets much more moist then the surounding medium and can house all kinds of nasty things.

As for the rest, floranova is marketed for hydro, but is also marketed as being part organic. I don't know if its just a coincidence caused by lots of people using it, but I have read a lot of "help, I have slime" posts that mention using floranova. I know it's an added cost, but if I were you, I'd try going with some other purely inorganic nute line. And again, no superthrive, no bud candy, no root accelerator, no nothing. Just pure nutes and some microbes.

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ive got her soaking in h202 bath for a few more hrs and then only adding cal-mag, potsil and a drop of Orca.

Hydroburn said:

FloraNova is partially organic.


kills/sterilizes bennies


known slime trigger


can you get Aquashield?

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no mate I wish I could... cant get any Botanicare products over here and it was hard enough finding the floranova.... grrr


thanks for your help its really appreciated.

Hi welshmagic u can get aqua shield off eBay,but a liter cost nearly 30quid because of the postage. I did get a friend to order me some it just arrive the other week. I used organic ewc and great white that both came from eBay. I also used hydrotops bactivator instead of the aquashield and it did seem to work. As I now have both I use them together just smaller amounts of each.

You can run the regular GH Flora series that has no organics or try dyna-gro. Not sure what else... even miracle gro has blue powder nutes I used when I first started.

I'm using advanced hydroponics nutes, but I think they market to EU primarely.

As for the aquashield, I think he should be perfectly OK, even better off, with his Orca. It contains both fungi and bacteria, while aquashield contains just bacteria as far as I know.

heres what ill be working with

Is any other difference between the great white and the orca besides one being powder and the other one liquid

Same stuff I think.

I think orca is more hydro orientated and great white for soil/soiless/coco coir etc.
this I what im up against..

just put her into clean and sterile bucket with 12litres of dechlorinated tap water, 1.5ml of Orca 1ml of Potsil and 15ml of cal-mag > ppm 200 and added ph down (diluted solution) > ph of 5.7. Hopefully see plenty of white shooting thru the brown...

should I cut off the brown roots altogether??? wont be much left afterwards mind....

did you wash as much of the gunk off as you could before putting in bucket? i find a pre wash in h202 helps kill the bad shit..

I would hold em over the bath and rinse em off using the shower head. Giving them a GENTLE rub and tug any dead roots and most the the slime will come off just dont be to ruff, Then I would sterilize. That's what I did