*****Root rot? BROWN SLIME? HELPPP!****

Hey guys I must say, I must have been handed a really bad hand of cards, one bad thing after another...

First time DWC user, and I made some pretty nooby mistakes... One I filled my water all the way up into the cups. My rockwool probably contaminated my water for the most part. I had some insane amount of brown smiley gunk in the 20gal res. My roots were fully covered, the walls had it all over and my air stones had it fully covered...I rinsed the res and got rid of 85% of the gunk. I lightly mised the root and allowed the gunk to come off my roots.

I didn't apply any nutrients, I just put some some h202 in and added 10 teaspoons of Actinovate (suppose to be ideal for Root Rot which I think I have)

Says to make 1 Teaspoon per 2gals, since I have 20 gal res I mixed 10 teaspoons in a 1gal jug of water and mixed it into the res.

What else can I do? I had crazy stem rot on one of my plants that I found last week, been trying to resolve that as I move forward...Been very hard doing DWC but I'm sure it will get easier once I can get the rest of this under control....

My question is; What the heck is this brown slime? What do I do to get it to stop coming back?

I'm at a loss right now but I'm willing to take any advice I can get, thanks guys.


Also I have 4 airstones in the res too; I just added 2 more air stones yesterday


.

Any advice on what could have caused the rot and what I can do to not have the problem again is much needed; it says over watering is a cause but how do I avoid over watering when my roots sit in constant water 24/7 :S

They are gonna ask for the temp of the rez.

water temp: 76.4

PPM of my nuetrients have been 1000-1030

PH: 5.4 - 5.8 ( Current 5.8 )

Cab temp 78.8 but my temps flex from 76.4-82.5 which I am told is fine...


I been looking into Water Temps and they mention that my water should be 64 - 68 degrees but thats not possible for me to obtain by any means.

too warm. pathogenic terror.

What am I suppose to do to keep the water cooler? I straggled to keep my temp of the cab below 80 and now my water temp is to high (Something I have no control over) What can someone suggest that I do? Buying a water chiller is obscene to have to invest in, espically when trying to grow in a supercloset cabinet.

pathogens are not friendly. they ravage over 76 degrees and I'm betting your medium surface temps are close to 80f which is pathogen prone. you need 71> water temps using rockwool etc type systems. ideal water temp is 68 degrees. as temps increase, oxygen in water decreases and pathogen count increases. plants like cool roots. because they're used to soil etc.

put up an AC and run CO2 enriched air. Run the room at 70f and prob solved.

Would I have a better bet if I went to Ebb and Flow or will I have the same issue?

water chiller, fuck man , mabe stick them into soil ? after cutting most of the nasty parts off,

kinddiesel said:

water chiller, fuck man , mabe stick them into soil ? after cutting most of the nasty parts off,

Click to expand...

I'll call my hydro shop tmrw to see if they have a water chiller...not thrilled to have to add a chiller, but we'll see how it goes. Might just have to add peroxide to the water daily for now...

Frozen water bottles work wonders.

Is the low water temps pointed more towards DWC users appose to Ebb an Flow with my temps being 82 -- will this be a issue?

^Slanty said:

Frozen water bottles work wonders.

Click to expand...

I was thinking that, would it be fine to use for 10 hours? I work 10hour days so I want to make sure it'll work fine...Should I add 1 or 2 bottles? Bare in mind I have a 20gal res do you think it would chill better with 1 or 2 bottles? Will it keep my temp stable for 10 hours?

I wonder if I could pick up a ice probe... Think it would chill my 20 gal res?

http://www.marinedepot.com/chillers_coolworks_iceprobe-ap.html

Just pulled the trigger and bought a 1/10 hp chiller... How do you technically hook them up? I don't need the chiller in the same area as my plants will I?

check out hiesenburgs thread if you want to try to fight the rot. it works but imo its not worth the effort to fight. putting the plants into soil/coco (personaly i like coco) would solve the prob alot faster, as would cuting clones and starting over. hydro is kinda a rough way to learn to grow tho. hth
oh hiesenburgs thread is in the dwc sub forum i thnk.

I believe I couldn't the root rot early on And don't have a massive issue. Ill drop some water bottles in my water until my chiller shows up.

1itsme said:

check out hiesenburgs thread if you want to try to fight the rot. it works but imo its not worth the effort to fight. putting the plants into soil/coco (personaly i like coco) would solve the prob alot faster, as would cuting clones and starting over. hydro is kinda a rough way to learn to grow tho. hth
oh hiesenburgs thread is in the dwc sub forum i thnk.

Click to expand...

Didn't heisenberg get banned from multiple growing sites for giving out bad info?

Anyways, you CAN save plants that are affected by root rot. And it IS worth it to try to recover your plants. I went through this issue in my last grow.

I would recommend that you clean your entire system with bleach, put frozen water bottles in your res for now, and add beneficial bacteria to your nutrients every 4 days.

[HR][/HR]Also, you asked if you would run into this issue with ebb & flow - YES.

Root Rot is due to high water temps, low oxygen levels, and pathogens/bad bacteria in your reservoir. When there is an issue with the water supply, things will go bad.

Root Rot can successfully be treated and prevented with beneficial bacteria and enzymes. I use Aqua Shield as my beneficial bacteria, along with SensiZym as my enzyme. There are also other products used to fight Root Rot including Bleach, Peroxide, Hygrozyme and mycorrhizae.

You need to take preventive measures from DAY 1 with any hydro system, by using Enzymes, Beneficial Bacteria, and keeping your res temps below 70°.

RedzoneFL said:

Just pulled the trigger and bought a 1/10 hp chiller... How do you technically hook them up? I don't need the chiller in the same area as my plants will I?

Click to expand...

You need to also purchase a stainless steel food grade wort coil. You dont want to run nutrients through your chiller. It can cause failure. Basically the wort coil will sit in your reservoir. Hook your chiller up to it. The water from the chiller will run through the coils and cool the reservoir.