White foam in res and ph rising

Mr.Miguardi

Member
Hi!
I am a newbie grower from Italy and i am growing some hemp seed (no thc in italy for now :() in rockwool and i am running a RDWC Growrilla system 4 bucket + 1 Res for a total of 75L using Atami B'Cuzz nutrient following the official chart from atami website.
The 4 bucket have an air stone in bubbling very well.
my plant are 14 days old and appear good, growing regulary and just started to make the 3rd set of leaves, the root from the pots touched the water today, first time running this system running from 7 days.
2 Days ago i started to see a white foam on the border of the bucket and ph start to rise, next day the foam increased a white dense foam, water is turning cloudy and Ph keep rising... sign of algae or some bacteria i suppose.
Res tank are placed outside the grow box and water temp still 17-18°C, air temp inside the box still 21°C and outside around 14-16°C all the bucket are White outside and Black inside.
Yesterday i noticed that some light may be spreading trought the last hole of the post that are not well covered with expaded clay so i covered it with some mylar and put 40ml of Atazyme in the solution to help decomposition of dead things.
Today the foam still here, Ph keep rising, removed the foam that appear white, resistant with some brown things similar to ear wax (just to give you an idea).
No sign on the plant (they have no root in the water) but Ph, foam and ph rise are bothering me, 3 day ago i have raised a little bit the water level to touch the bottom of the pots and maybe that was my error.
Foam reappeared in a few hours, I just put in the solution 150ml of H2O2 that immediately start to frizzy, and in a few hours i will check the status, i can't smell the water since i have some nose problem and i can't smell anything.
Can be some algae or bacteria growed with the little light leak from the pots? the foam seems to be higher in the 4 plant bucket and much lesser in the res tank (that have no Light over it).
I've bought some Voodoo Juice (Hydroguard are out of stock in my country right now) in case but i have not put in the solution since i think i may have to change water if the situation get worse, i think i will decreasethe water level to about 1inch under the pots bottom next time.
Any suggestion? Am i doing the right thing?
Thanks in advance!
 

Mr.Miguardi

Member
does B'Cuzz have any organic ingredients?
i don't think, Atami have the ATA NRG line for the organic product, i am using B'cuzz hydro specific for Hydroponics.
Actually i am using
B'Cuzz Hydro A and B
Roots Stimulator
Silic Boost
ATA Cal Mag
ATA Clean
Ascorbic Acid for Ph -

Ph keep rising from 5.8 to 6.8/7 andppm and EC are stable.
 

CatHedral

Well-Known Member
i don't think, Atami have the ATA NRG line for the organic product, i am using B'cuzz hydro specific for Hydroponics.
Actually i am using
B'Cuzz Hydro A and B
Roots Stimulator
Silic Boost
ATA Cal Mag
ATA Clean
Ascorbic Acid for Ph -

Ph keep rising from 5.8 to 6.8/7 andppm and EC are stable.
Ascorbic acid is a bacterial nutrient. Select something inorganic, like nitric or phosphoric acid.
 

Mr.Miguardi

Member
Thanks to all for the fastest reaponse! very appreciated!

@rkymtnman
i'm gonna take a pics of Roots Stimulator label and post it tomorrow (grow box is not located in my house), from the web site it says:
"B’cuzz Root Stimulator consists of fatty, amino and humic acids and plant extracts."

@CatHedral
that is a good information, i will use it only as declhorinator in small quantity from now and i will buy a PH down ASAP.
 

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
Thanks to all for the fastest reaponse! very appreciated!

@rkymtnman
i'm gonna take a pics of Roots Stimulator label and post it tomorrow (grow box is not located in my house), from the web site it says:
"B’cuzz Root Stimulator consists of fatty, amino and humic acids and plant extracts."

@CatHedral
that is a good information, i will use it only as declhorinator in small quantity from now and i will buy a PH down ASAP.
i'm curious about the A and B nutes too. a pic of that label would be good too just to make sure there is nothing weird in it.
 

Mr.Miguardi

Member
@rkymtnman sorry i dont' have pic of the bottle but here's the composition
Hydro A +B (from the label of A bottle)
5.99% N, 6.01%K2O, 4.63% CaO, 1.61% MgO, 0.053% Fe 0.001% Mn

Roots Stimulator and is made of "Algae extract, Umato (i don't what is) and amino acid (is it the right translation for "amminoacidi"?)

I think that was the problem...

Surely tomorrow i'll go straight to my local grow shop buying a ph down and then cleaning up and changing all the water.
I have noticed some green color on the rockwool of a plant, probably some solution i sprayed on it.
hope that doesn't harm the plant.

One of my plant after i added some H2O2 (about 6 hours ago) show the second set of leaves a little droopy, here the photo the first set of leaves are alwaysbeen like that and the new leaves and root are growin so i think is nothing bad.
IMG-20211104-WA0018.jpeg
 

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
Roots Stimulator and is made of "Algae extract, Umato (i don't what is) and amino acid (is it the right translation for "amminoacidi"?)

I think that was the problem
i agree.

once you get rid of that and clean it all up and get some fresh nutes in there you should be fine.

i'm not sure what is in the voodoo juice. might want to check the label on that one too. you "might" be better off just running a sterile reservoir with the h2o2 instead.
 

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
i missed that. the ascorbic to remove chlorine. yeah, the ppms out of the faucet might be enough to keep the nasties away
If not pool shock is cheap, readily available in most places and far less fugitive than H2O2. My guess is his tap water might work if he stops killing the chlorine and inoculating it.
 

Lenin1917

Well-Known Member
It’s the humic causing the foam. Switch to sterile res change out your water. 0.25ml regular bleach/gallon(3.785L) water
 

Lenin1917

Well-Known Member
Don’t try doing organic in dwc it’s really not worth the hassle. When I ran hydro I just did masterblend tomato and vegetable fertilizer 4-18-38, calcium nitrate and magnesium sulfate, treat the water with the bleach add your weighed out ferts in order mixing between each one set your ph and your good to go. Don’t make growing harder or more expensive than it needs to be.
 

Mr.Miguardi

Member
Ok guys just checked all my fert and other 2 of them are actually organic, seems that following Atami direction are not a good thing.
Atami Hydro booster UNI that i need to use in the last 2 week of veg is made of algae extract but it's also officially part of the Hydro series so i don't know what Atami are thinking...
Also Atami bloom stimulator has 10% veg extract.

I Think i need a replace for that fert.

If anyone reading this topic has my same problem... just don't trust Atami feeding chart, many of them as veg extract inside!

For this run i will keep Atami fert eventually some kind of replacement,
Next time will change to another brand, General Hydroponic (named Terra Acquatica in my country), Aptus, Advanced Hydroponic Dutch Formulaa, Plagron and Metrop are the brand tipically found here, i need to do some research...
 
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Mr.Miguardi

Member
Not all General Hydroponics product are avaible in my zone but i think i will replace Root stimulator with Cellmax Rootbooster
1,0% (P205), 1% (na2o), 0,001% (Zn), 0,0009% (Cu) or i should try Voodoo Juice, beneficial bacteria seems pretty famous online and some people using it for curing root rot.
then probably try cellmax hydro series in my next cultivation that doesn't seems to contain organic things (except algaemax that i don't want to use).
Hydro Booster UNI seems to be a support for environmental stress and Bloom Stimulator i don't what has inside soi need to inform myself about this two fert.


It’s the humic causing the foam. Switch to sterile res change out your water. 0.25ml regular bleach/gallon(3.785L) water
So for example if a fert contain humic acid i must not use it?
A lot of additive present organic trace inside even if made specifically for Hydroponic.
Should i go simple? base nutrient and a flowering booster or a PK booster?
 
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Mr.Miguardi

Member
Ok guys sorry for bothering you.
Changed all the water in the system, cleaned and scrubed the bucket with a low% of bleach and water, than recirculated some water+bleach for cleaning the tube, emptying all the system again and refilled with fresh water and only the non organic fert (HydroA+B, CalMag, ATA clean, silic boost and atazyme).
Now i am searching anywhere the composition of most fert brand but i have some question.
Some fert like Enzyme or vitamin still considered as organic? for example Atazyme contain Enzyme, Vitamin and potassium sorbate, is usable or enzyme and vitamin risk to degrade over time and causing problem?
Metrop Root+ also contain enzyme and cellmax Rootbooster show nothing organicon the label but the description says "organic oligoelements and vitamins"...
Basically what can iuse and what not?
I think that my last issue are caused by the Ascorbic acid in the water reacting and feeding bacteria since when i stopped using it the ph (yesterday) the ph are not skyrocketed to 7 like as usual but stopped on a modest 6.5.
 
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