HELP! ROOT ROT - first grow w/ pics

First hydro grow in recirculating DWC. One of the plants was not growing as fast as the others so I looked at roots. They have slime on them and slime floating around the tank.

Details -
60 gal rec dwc - 3 plants per 15 gal/tank
9 plants
1 month into flower
nutes organic Sugar Peak w/ cal-max ca, mg, fe product
ph 6
res temp 69 f
ec 3.0
room temp 76 f

What do you think caused it and can I fix it?

Have you tried H2o2

yikes that looks pretty bad!


How many airstones do you have in there?

As far as i know, there are only a few factors that can even cause root rot in DWC.

-res temp's too high
-not enough oxygen for the roots.


I'm guessing you don't have enough oxygen since your res temp is at 69F.

Remember that the % of oxygen that can be dissolved in water depends on how cold the res is. That looks like it's advanced pretty far already. I think if anything I would change the solution, add hydrogen peroxide, and try to gently clean off the roots by hand.

omg...i want to cry...were they in soil before.....this is why i stress aquarium filters...and if you dont like that...then any type of filter...did you go from soil to hydro or all hydro...how about light hiting or penetrating through your buckets....those fucking nasties love light, even if its dim...LIGHT PROOF, if not already done...sometimes beneficial bacteria slime and f up your roots, i heard some nutes also cause that slimy build up...chk your nutes info....BUT GET THAT SHIT STRIAGHTEND....good luck

man that does look bad if it where my grow i would try cutting off the bad roots and clean out the rez realy good an do what macster says add some h202 i think its like 10 mll a gallon but dont quote me on that. my last grow i transfer a plant from anouter system to my main system and didnt pay no mind to it and it had root rot and it quickly spread to my other plant. i lost the one plant and the other re coved some what to get a smaller yield out of it , i bet ur ph is way out of whack as well that was the first signs i had trouble could not keep my ph level where it needed to be. and make sure your getting plenty of oxygen in the water very inporten and dam sure make sure its light proof best ting i found for this is get some window wrap from home depot and warp that rez up its total light proof and make a cover for the net pots as well

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RO water, 20 ml of H2O2 per gallon...and either a pressure or pump sprayer.

Get your tray balanced or suspened, stand something underneath it and or use a countertop and a chair...long as the roots dangle freely. Place some sort of catch under them, as in a bucket.

Use the spayer to rinse the gunk off the roots, the gunk will come free and the roots will not be harmed. Keep at it till the bulk of the gunk is gone. Spray them again with plain RO.

You will hear or see fizzling bubbles, thats the H2O2's free radical blasting through that slime's weak cell walls. As long as you've that sprayer handy, you can go tend to cleaning out the reservoir...the roots will not dry out.

Place them back in a cleaned out reservoir, and I mean clean..from res to pump and everything in between. Fill it, add 10ml of H2O2 per gallon, add nothing else to the solution for at least 12 hours.
Get more available O2 in there..and perhaps invest in a bottle of Hygrozyme as its enzimatic action, under good conditions, prevents bacterial explosions.

ouch, thats nasty rot you got there.

Thx for all your help.

I have added 10 ml/gal of h2o2

I am going to take will's suggestion and spray down the roots w/ h2o2 solution but I can't do it until this weekend. I am going to have to cut the screen out to get them out of the tanks - the drawbacks of a scrog i guess.

FlamingMoe - I have one 1' air stone per 15 gal 3 plant tank with a general hydroponics dual air pump feeding air to all three tanks.

durtymyk - no soil transplants and not sure what to make of adding an aquarium filter to the system - wouldn't that take out nutes too?

will - thx for your detailed instructions.

What exactly is root rot? bacteria? fungus? Is it feeding off my roots or just starving them?

From what I gather root rot can be caused by 3 things.

1 low oxygen
2 high temps (which i think has to do w/ low oxygen)
3 light in the tank

Can it start anywhere in the system and gravitate to the roots or does it start w/ the roots. My tanks w/ the plants are light proof (i think) but my control tank lets light in. Could that be it?

I am thinking it is light problems - what are your thoughts?

Other notes - ph is staying steady at 6. I even dropped it down to 5.8. The plants aren't showing any signs of sickness other than stunted growth. Is that typical?

Can having the nutrients too high increase your chance of root rot?

Is there anything wrong w/ putting in h2o2 as a preventative measure on my next grow?

That was a lot of questions but I see I am going to have to become an expert at fighting and preventing root rot.

thx

bazooka said:

FlamingMoe - I have one 1' air stone per 15 gal 3 plant tank with a general hydroponics dual air pump feeding air to all three tanks.

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The pump is what matters, the amount of airstones is a negligible factor. If you can, find how many gal or liters this thing pumps in a given amount of time. Also how much water do you have in total?

What exactly is root rot? bacteria? fungus? Is it feeding off my roots or just starving them?

From what I gather root rot can be caused by 3 things.

1 low oxygen
2 high temps (which i think has to do w/ low oxygen)
3 light in the tank

Click to expand...

I don't think light really has anything to do with root rot, root rot comes from lack of o2. Pythium (root rot) is some type of micro-organism, according to Wikipedia it's a parasite.

Can it start anywhere in the system and gravitate to the roots or does it start w/ the roots. My tanks w/ the plants are light proof (i think) but my control tank lets light in. Could that be it?

Click to expand...

It starts with the roots. Pythium lives in the water.

I am thinking it is light problems - what are your thoughts?

Click to expand...

Again, light is not something that causes root rot. Light is bad for the res because you will get algae, not root rot.

Other notes - ph is staying steady at 6. I even dropped it down to 5.8. The plants aren't showing any signs of sickness other than stunted growth. Is that typical?

Click to expand...

Once the roots are affected enough to the point where the plant can't properly take in water and nutes, it will begin to die off. If you continue on and don't see any symptoms, it may not be root rot. You also could get lucky and prevent the rot from spreading, and new roots will grow, however odds are not on your side.

Can having the nutrients too high increase your chance of root rot?

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Not that I know of.

From what I see I'm not entirely sure this is root rot. Some nutes or chemicals will mix weird and form a gunky gum like substance. If this really is root rot, the plants look pretty unaffected, however based on the condition of the roots you may want to toss them. Once heavily infected, plants will most likely die eventually.

Hope this helps

Ewwwww. I mean Owwww! I feel your pain. I'm one month into flowering and have almost the same problem. Well not as bad and only on 4 plants. And in buckets. But i definetley feel your pain. My symptoms are only halted growth. Plants still look good but they aren't growing. You can tell the water level on the net pots. White roots above, brown below. Same as mine. I didn't have the thick slime, just slightly browned roots. But when i lifted the roots out of the water therer instantly became a tonne of floaties.
I personally think you should add more airpumps / airstones. For mny vedge I have 1 60gal dual outlet pump for each 24"x16"x8" rubbermaid. 6 6" net pots or 12 4" net pots per rubbermaid. Never Any problems running higher temps than yours. My buckets on the other hand......

H202 and bleach will take care

H202 and bleach will take care

pull out dead roots and leave only the white one´s, spray with bleach and H202 the roots and sterilize the system, keep on using H202 til the end of the crop, not hard to battle root rot when you know what to do.
Also sugars or molasses will feed pythium, I would not used them hydro

more O2... and cooler temps.... toss those, disenfect entire system and start again...
just my 2¢......