using bleach

flyingsteve said:

I think in my case it was a combination of bacteria and favorable temps/conditions allowing the bacteria to breed. I've since added a DIY chiller and a filtration and UV sterilization system. I don't like to f*ck around, if you can't tell lol. Would prefer to spend more time growing, logging, and learning than adding H2O2 and other preventative treatments. That's all money/time I don't want to spend and good filtration and a chiller cures all that nonsense. My ultimate goal in a few years is to start a hydroponically grown produce business, and if you aren't running filtration with a large operation like that you're just asking for trouble.

Click to expand...

To each their own. I have three chillers I am not using right now. I bought them for the nft systems. I personally don't want to run another 500 watts of chiller + pump for a f&d system. I never had to before.

El Tiberon said:

I think the once every 3 days is overkill.

Click to expand...

I tend to agree. I haven't added any in almost a week now and my last dose was only 25oz/50gallons. Rez is still clear no slime but now a slightly fishy smell so I am going to add 12oz/50gallons tonite.

1itsme said:

I've used bleach b4 when i wqas doing hydro it seemed to work as a preventitive, no luck as a cure tho. never thought of using cal-hypo tho. thats some realy strong stuff, we used to use it when i used to clean pools. cool idea if it doesnt kill the plant, it should kill everything else.

Click to expand...

It seems to work wonders. I also cut way back on my watering though. This has helped as much as anything.imo

thats pretty cool, we used to use it when i used to clean pools, as a last resort for algae problems. a few cups of it will oxidize all the algae in a fairly big pool in a couple hours. its pretty reactive, it can combust with alot of stuff (like pepsi). i would be realy carefull with it, we used to buy just enough for 1 pool so we wouldnt have to drive @ with it all day. idk if the one they sell retail is less concentrated tho.

That slight fishy smell might be dead bad guys. cn

cannabineer said:

That slight fishy smell might be dead bad guys. cn

Click to expand...

maybe, i would thnk cal-hypo would pretty much turn them to dust tho.

El Tiberon said:

This is something I have been considering. I have been noticing wilt coming on during the hottest part of the day and a fast recovery shortly afterwards when the shade finally hits. I am assuming this is hardening the plants off but I don't want to take a chance at killing them once the 90 degree days begin to wear us out here. They are accepting of the 8 minute off easily from what I have seen, even in full sun but as I mentioned there is some wilt that happens. Most plants even in soil will show wilt in very hot sun around here and they have not died as yet. I will try a couple days of a faster time during the day and see what the results are. If push came to shove I can simply unplug the timer and run the system as DWC with a 800 gph flow through the rails. This pump puts out the water certainly.

Click to expand...

A long pause in full sun will tend to heat the water thats coating the roots, so they can suffer even if they`re kept wet. More frequent misting in the hottest part of the day will help to keep the roots cooler. The thing to avoid like the plague is allowing the roots to get too dry even for a short time.

I see you`re running peppers and toms. I never had any luck with them in the same setup even when the peppers were downstream of the toms so they got lower nute levels. These days i run the toms in aero and the peppers in F&D so they can go their seperate ways nutewise.
The peppers do great full term on the same feed as the toms use upto their 4th true leaf. At that point, the toms need more N, Ca and K prior to the 1st flowers appearing. When i tried gearing the nutes to the peppers, the toms were very prone to blossom end rot (BER) so its worth keeping an eye on them.

Atomizer said:

A long pause in full sun will tend to heat the water thats coating the roots, so they can suffer even if they`re kept wet. More frequent misting in the hottest part of the day will help to keep the roots cooler. The thing to avoid like the plague is allowing the roots to get too dry even for a short time.

I see you`re running peppers and toms. I never had any luck with them in the same setup even when the peppers were downstream of the toms so they got lower nute levels. These days i run the toms in aero and the peppers in F&D so they can go their seperate ways nutewise.
The peppers do great full term on the same feed as the toms use upto their 4th true leaf. At that point, the toms need more N, Ca and K prior to the 1st flowers appearing. When i tried gearing the nutes to the peppers, the toms were very prone to blossom end rot (BER) so its worth keeping an eye on them.

Click to expand...

This is only a test of the capability of the system itself more than anything. My next strain hunt is Colombia and I will have to grow in an apartment and in Aero to avoid humping soil up 20 flights of stairs. Stay patient young jedi. There is a method to the madness of El Tib. I must learn this system and I must learn the reaction different plants will have in it to expect potential problems. The next cannabis grow I do will be Aero under LED. I must learn the mechanics of this before I leave. El Tib does not make mistakes. This is why he is still alive today after so many years of growing in Mexico.

Atomizer said:

The peppers do great full term on the same feed as the toms use upto their 4th true leaf. At that point, the toms need more N, Ca and K prior to the 1st flowers appearing. When i tried gearing the nutes to the peppers, the toms were very prone to blossom end rot (BER) so its worth keeping an eye on them.

Click to expand...

Need that calcium for the BER.

cannabineer said:

That slight fishy smell might be dead bad guys. cn

Click to expand...

Elaborate please?

My res. is as clear as I've seen it in over a month. No foaming No slime. I did just put lids on em tho cuz my rh was going through the roof with all of these open drums of water. The lids aren't air tight they still allow some air exchange for my bubblers but they catch a ton of condensation and put it back in the rez instead of my air which I then have to dehumidfy.

I don't like the fishy smell either. I added 12oz/45gallons of the diluted pool shock a little bit ago.

My plants look like they have a bit of a zinc def. I attributed this to getting over the root rot and getting a pretty stiff treatment of sns203/evergreen last week due to some root aphids and fungus gnats which at this point are well under control.

Atomizer said:

I see you`re running peppers and toms. I never had any luck with them in the same setup even when the peppers were downstream of the toms so they got lower nute levels. These days i run the toms in aero and the peppers in F&D so they can go their seperate ways nutewise.

Click to expand...

Nute levels are the same regardless of site location. The res pumps out a prescribed mix through many jets. No such thing as lower nute levels to certain site location in the system. If one gets low nutes, all get low nutes and vice versa.

Aye, sorry i forgot to mention the peppers were downstream in NFT Running both in aero resulted in BER with the toms trying to keep the peppers happy and burning the hell out of the peppers trying to keep the toms happy.
If you can keep the root temps under control you`ll soon have a jungle on your hands.

joe macclennan said:

never ever mix bleach and h202 ! bad bad

It causes a chemical reaction and those bubbles you saw....

Click to expand...

No way, really!?


If it's starting to smell like fish again, I'd turn on one of those three chillers you have lying around anyway and make sure there is proper aeration and circulation - which with a fish smell probably isn't the case.

that guy apparently didn't know about the reaction caused by mixing them. If you had taken the time to read his post you might have noticed.

and no the chillers won't be getting turned on anytime soon
My electric bill is high enough already. Besides who in their right mind would run a chiller for a f&d system?

There is more than one way to skin a cat

joe macclennan said:

that guy apparently didn't know about the reaction caused by mixing them. If you had taken the time to read his post you might have noticed.

Click to expand...

There's a reason I didn't take the time to read 'his' posts... speaking about 'noticing'

I'm pretty sure, fairly certain, 'that guy', as well as anyone else for that matter, expects a chemical reaction from mixing h2o2 with bleach. I'm also pretty sure 'that guy' didn't seriously recommend it as a repeatable practice, but was just something 'he' wanted to "try" to see what chemical reaction it would give. Having some sprayers soaking in h202 in a whiskey glass in one hand, bottle of bleach in the other hand... will it fizzle or will it bang? Come on, it's like saying smoking (or McDonalds) is bad for you.

joe macclennan said:

Besides who in their right mind would run a chiller for a f&d system?

Click to expand...

Someone with a rez smelling like a fish pond? I'm not using a chiller myself because I don't want to spend that much watt on it, but if you are getting a bad smell despite your new found love for bleach, and got 3 lying around, I would at least consider using it till you found another effective way to skin your cat. Good luck finding it.

Sativied said:

There's a reason I didn't take the time to read 'his' posts... speaking about 'noticing'

I'm pretty sure, fairly certain, 'that guy', as well as anyone else for that matter, expects a chemical reaction from mixing h2o2 with bleach. I'm also pretty sure 'that guy' didn't seriously recommend it as a repeatable practice, but was just something 'he' wanted to "try" to see what chemical reaction it would give. Having some sprayers soaking in h202 in a whiskey glass in one hand, bottle of bleach in the other hand... will it fizzle or will it bang? Come on, it's like saying smoking (or McDonalds) is bad for you.

Someone with a rez smelling like a fish pond? I'm not using a chiller myself because I don't want to spend that much watt on it, but if you are getting a bad smell despite your new found love for bleach, and got 3 lying around, I would at least consider using it till you found another effective way to skin your cat. Good luck finding it.

Click to expand...

again with this? ok no you are fairly wrong he was mixing this together to clean his system. So yes he was/is repeating the practice. He didn't want to "see" what happened. read the post or just keep coming back and posting nonsense and I will end up paraphrasing the entire thing for you. That is much easier.

on the chillers, considered and rejected.

On skinning cats, very sharp knife

Have a good day!

Edit: Commenting that you are "pretty sure" about what someone else is doing is asinine. Especially when you can read the post and be positive.

Let's not fight, boys. If dude man doesn't want to run a chiller that's his business and not mine or your problem. Honestly, if I was running F&D again I would do the same thing I did the first time I ran F&D - Beneficial bacteria. My outdoor F&D had zero issues with slime or algae and the water temps were often 80F+ and OUTSIDE open to infection from whatever the hell the wind blew.

joe macclennan said:

Elaborate please?

My res. is as clear as I've seen it in over a month. No foaming No slime. I did just put lids on em tho cuz my rh was going through the roof with all of these open drums of water. The lids aren't air tight they still allow some air exchange for my bubblers but they catch a ton of condensation and put it back in the rez instead of my air which I then have to dehumidfy.

I don't like the fishy smell either. I added 12oz/45gallons of the diluted pool shock a little bit ago.

My plants look like they have a bit of a zinc def. I attributed this to getting over the root rot and getting a pretty stiff treatment of sns203/evergreen last week due to some root aphids and fungus gnats which at this point are well under control.

Click to expand...

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

joe macclennan said:

again with this? ok no you are fairly wrong he was mixing this together to clean his system. So yes he was/is repeating the practice. He didn't want to "see" what happened. read the post or just keep coming back and posting nonsense and I will end up paraphrasing the entire thing for you. That is much easier.

Edit: Commenting that you are "pretty sure" about what someone else is doing is asinine. Especially when you can read the post and be positive.

Click to expand...

You're kidding me right. After all the hints? "That guy" you are talking about is in your head. He does not exist, there is only me and you. Please read back who wrote the post...., fine, I'll make it easy for you so we can both laugh at you and you can bounce your head some further I wrote that post - HEEEEE = MEEEEE.

So yeah... I can be pretty positive about what I did without reading it, I said something about how I just couldn't resist mixing them to try and see what happens and that that actually 'seemed' effective. Pretty sure I added a smiley of some sort as well. Certain 'he' said nothing about repeating the practice or mixing it to clean his system. Quite certain he already posted in the very same post that he had been using bleach from the start to clean his system and is currently relying on low temps only.

You got to admit that's hilarious right? Telling me to read the post, you making up all this nonsense, and even 'threatening' to paraphrase the entire thing - while I wrote it. Funny as hell.

flyingsteve said:

Let's not fight, boys. If dude man doesn't want to run a chiller that's his business and not mine or your problem.

Click to expand...

Strange thing to say. Not 'fighting' him, just advised to reconsider using it temporarily till a more desirable solution is in place. Refusing to keep a rez cool while advocating bleach, not my problem no. Nor is someone's drowning plants, yet I still comment on those threads as well.

joe macclennan said:

Have a good day!

Click to expand...

Back at ya man, make it great one.

Sativied said:

Strange thing to say. Not 'fighting' him, just advised to reconsider using it temporarily till a more desirable solution is in place. Refusing to keep a rez cool while advocating bleach, not my problem no. Nor is someone's drowning plants, yet I still comment on those threads as well.

Click to expand...

That's just my point... It's not my plants or my medicine or my money. My chiller shifts 1,800btu/hr at 400w/hr. I can drop the temp on 20g of h2o by 11F/hr, so to keep the water between 67f-69f = 2f or about 10min run time per hour when lights are on... 10 * 18 = 180min = 3hrs per day @ about 11c per kW/hr... 400w x 3hrs = 1.2kW/hr or around 15c per day... x 30 days = about $5 per month. + 40w x 24hrs x 30 days to keep filtration/uv sterilization going = $3 per month... So I spend less than $10 per month to insure no pathogens, no slime, no algae, no headaches, healthy plants... Another way to think about it is $60/wk for 1/8th. It's hella cheaper to grow my own per month than buy it from some one else, even with all this extra equipment. Basically, it costs about $60/mo in electric to yield FAR more... Then if you turn around and sell to a dispensary or whomever and you're still complaining about a utility bill... lol, you're really doing something wrong bc it's profit hand over fist compared to what you spend to grow it.

My last medical grow was some auto AK47 in soil pots that I barely put any attention or time in to and probably spent maybe $30 dollars TOTAL with a 250w CMH lamp, etc and I have enough smoke for 2mo!

Oh, and I might do 1 res change per grow cycle... Probably a partial drain so I can reduce nitrogen a tad and increase phosphate.

Sativied said:

You're kidding me right. After all the hints? "That guy" you are talking about is in your head. He does not exist, there is only me and you. Please read back who wrote the post...., fine, I'll make it easy for you so we can both laugh at you and you can bounce your head some further I wrote that post - HEEEEE = MEEEEE.

.

Click to expand...

HEEHEE point taken. I didn't go back and read it. Either way you talking about mixing those two together could give others the impression this is ok. When it's really not.

Got a good laugh bout this one.

Edit: still smiling bout my dunceiness

flyingsteve said:

That's just my point... It's not my plants or my medicine or my money. My chiller shifts 1,800btu/hr at 400w/hr. I can drop the temp on 20g of h2o by 11F/hr, so to keep the water between 67f-69f = 2f or about 10min run time per hour when lights are on... 10 * 18 = 180min = 3hrs per day @ about 11c per kW/hr... 400w x 3hrs = 1.2kW/hr or around 15c per day... x 30 days = about $5 per month. + 40w x 24hrs x 30 days to keep filtration/uv sterilization going = $3 per month... So I spend less than $10 per month to insure no pathogens, no slime, no algae, no headaches, healthy plants... Another way to think about it is $60/wk for 1/8th. It's hella cheaper to grow my own per month than buy it from some one else, even with all this extra equipment. Basically, it costs about $60/mo in electric to yield FAR more... Then if you turn around and sell to a dispensary or whomever and you're still complaining about a utility bill... lol, you're really doing something wrong bc it's profit hand over fist compared to what you spend to grow it.

My last medical grow was some auto AK47 in soil pots that I barely put any attention or time in to and probably spent maybe $30 dollars TOTAL with a 250w CMH lamp, etc and I have enough smoke for 2mo!

Oh, and I might do 1 res change per grow cycle... Probably a partial drain so I can reduce nitrogen a tad and increase phosphate.

Click to expand...

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.

Besides my rez. rarely gets above 70f as it is.

Hell back in the stone age when I was a total newb. before I went to a sealed room. I was in an attic space in f&d. No a/c just ventilation. My rez. temps would get way higher than I see now. I never had any problems with slime or bullshit. Hell, this was like 10 yrs. ago before I had even heard of h202. I never would have even considered adding bleach to my rez. or running a chiller.

Bottom line in f&d chillers shouldn't be necessary.

Anywhoo. back on the topic of this thread. Running bleach.

I added 12oz/45 gallon of the bleach solution to my rez. last night to see if it helped it didn't seem to. I pulled my pumps and airstones out to inspect and there was just the slightest hint of slime starting to form so I added another 6oz.

I'm filling my premix drums now. I'ma go ahead and change them again in a few days.