I made a homemade cloner following StinkBud's plans. The only difference is that I used CPVC instead of PVC and cut 1.5" holes that I put 1.75" neoprene seals in for the clones (no net pots).
I'm on my 3rd batch of clones in this thing, and not much is happening other than the ends getting white/green mold on them.
On my first run with it I got several clones to get to the white nub stage, but then I got an outbreak of grey slime on everything and they stopped. My mix was 8gal tap water, 80ml Clonex solution & 40ml Hygrozyme running 15min on 15min off. I started out changing it twice a week, but after the slime showed up I made some adjustments and started changing it every other day. First I added 40ml 29% H2O2 to the previously mentioned mix, but the slime kept coming. Then I went to plain water for a few days which seemed to slow the slime. Then I went with water and H2O2 which seemed about the same as plain tap water.
I began rereading into AeroCloner issues and decided to get a tank heater and recycle timer.
I moved the clones that had gotten some roots/nubs to my store bought 25site cloner running 15min on 15min off with pH'd tap water and H2O2. I changed the water every 2 days until the slime stopped and have now gone to every 3 days (normal schedule). I forgot to plug the pump back in after pHing the tank one day and the clones got extremely dry (looked like caked on nute salts on the bottoms). I figured they were done for, but decided to plug it back in and see what happened. Within 2 days they all started to shoot roots out and are almost ready to be planted now.
For the second run I went with the Clonex and H2O2 for the first fill and then 2 days later changed and went with only the H2O2 in the pH'd water. I began messing with the recycle timer - first setting it to 1min on 5min off (per StinkBud), but after a couple weeks the clones started getting white & green mold on the ends. No sign of nubs. I added a tank heater to the system and set it to 76 with no changes to the ugliness. I ended up pitching all 39 from this try.
For the third (current) run I decided to tape up my clone tank (to cut down on the light getting into the tank - wrapped it in black Gorilla tape). This time I started with 25ml H2O2, 40ml Clonex solution and pH'd tap water - after 2 days I changed it and refilled without the Clonex. I started with the tank heater set to 78, and have now lowered it to 72. Being that the clones from my first run had revived after a 24hr dry spell I thought that perhaps they were getting too much water. I adjusted the timer to run 30seconds on and 10min off. Started seeing the white & green mold show up again. My thinking is that the 30sec is too short a time to give the H2O2 to keep them clean, so have adjusted the timer to 4min on and 20min off (more like the 15min on 15min off of the other timer, per se). I've been pitching 1 or 2 a day over the last 5 days now. The clones that are left look great on the tops. A couple days ago I decided to give them a fresh cut (remove the grossness), but have still lost a few since then. It still seems that they are staying too wet - many of the clones I've removed have almost looked like they were dissolving in the neoprene - wet gooey mush. These were taken Oct 16th, and now 16 days later I have 28 of the original 39 clones left and not one of them have nubs. WTF!?!?!
I'm totally at a loss - I can get clones out of my smaller machine w/o issues, but this home built deal is just giving me a case of the ass
HELP!!!!
