Strange Slime buildup on roots

[richyrich]

Ive been battling this algae for 1 month now. Its killed most of my plants. Ive cleaned with Physan 20, used H2o2, plantasillin...Pretty much everything. Ive changed my dwc water every 3 days...I feel like Ive tried everything. I cant get this shit to go away!!!!! WTF!!! Im so frusterated with this goddamn algae. Ive been growing for 6 years and never had this problem before. The only thing I can think is that I got some bad rockwool, or my hydroton is infected with this shit. Gonna try using new rockwool and new hydroton next grow to see if that helps. My root temp was 68 degrees, my ph was 5.8, my ppm was right on the money and I still get this shit. Anyone know of any other product? This shit is uncurable. If someone comes up with a cure for this algae I will call them my new god.

I feel for you. Sounds like what I went through for so long. It just came out of no where after so many successful grows. It will not go away. That is why I named it the Hydro Herpe. It's quite possibly the the worst thing you could get in hydroponics. I tried everything I could possibly think of. I'm still looking for god, lol. Other than that it may be time to go to dirt.

I started off detailing all of my tribulations regarding this algae long ago. There was no information on it and it seemed as if I was the only one who had this problem back then. On top of that nobody even knew what it was. It amazes me today to see how many fellow growers have this.

 

[NFTNate]

Richy ive read this whole thread probably 3 times and I'm amazed at the lengths you went to fix this with no cure. Are the people of ICMAG going to give up on this issue? I know when I was joined with OG they would never let a grower down! We need mass brain power! READ THIS THREAD PEOPLE! I dont want to go back to soil. We need a scientist to help us out here. I know there has to be someone that knows the proper CURE for this shit. I will post pics of my encounter with this alien algae to help.

 

[ItsGrowTime]

Richy ive read this whole thread probably 3 times and I'm amazed at the lengths you went to fix this with no cure. Are the people of ICMAG going to give up on this issue? I know when I was joined with OG they would never let a grower down! We need mass brain power! READ THIS THREAD PEOPLE! I dont want to go back to soil. We need a scientist to help us out here. I know there has to be someone that knows the proper CURE for this shit. I will post pics of my encounter with this alien algae to help.

I dont want to be the negative nelly but I don't think there's a "cure" for this issue. Once it appears, the damage is pretty much already done when talking about plants and super sensitive roots. Ive seen what it can do to clones in just a day or two. Tenacious stuff! Im inclined to believe it's something that's introduced into the environment so the only real way to "cure" it is to never introduce it in the first place. Then certain things will activate it further and make the problem worse (like Hygrozyme). An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure IOW. With our use of air pumps a free floating algae spore could be introduced into the water easily. Dont remove air pump filters. Standing water introduction is same idea. Dirty hands, dirty water, etc. The list goes on. I witnessed that Physan 20 will indeed kill *most* of it but it doesn't wipe it out like it never appeared, and like I said, once it's introduced the damage is basically already done. So my thoughts on the cure? Other than having a completely sealed sterile hydro environment (not feasible obviously), is maximum cleanliness. Even that is out of the reach of most since filtering incoming room air isn't feasible either. My plan to prevent this is to stick with RO water for cloning (since Ive only had this happen in my cloner with tap, never in my hydro systems with tap...go figure), lightproofing, with a dash of Physan to start then a dash of Hydroguard later as preventatives. I also think there are different variants of this algae hence why we all report different infections with very few things in common. Could even be geographic? Many people get their water from lakes so algae in the water may not be a surprise either.

Anyway, my plan is to prevent this shit before it hits because once it hits you're toast. My .02.

 

[richyrich]

I'm afraid there is no cure. Prevention is a must always but once you get it, what to do? Physan20 to to erradicate what is present and then Dutch Master Zone to keep it at bay once it comes right back. All my trials led me to this solution. And to tell the truth I was still not happy with that but it was the best I could do.

I spoke of it in earlier threads but I have not tried it yet because I have semi-retired from growing. Since I moved to soil previously, more specifically organics, I learned a lot about beneficial bacteria, fungi and etc.. I have yet to try to battle the hydro herpe with beneficials in hydro the right way. I believe the way to do it would be to have your rez primed with beneficials that would not allow the slime algae a chance at getting a foot hold. You would have to seed the rez with the right beneficials, feed them properly and let it prime for 2 weeks before introducing any plants to the system. Rez change outs would be very different. I have done it in the past with success. I would probably start by just doing add backs, water and nutes. No complete change outs. You would be dumping your beneficials and then you know who's gonna come slime you. Then I would try partial change outs. Maybe dump half and add back half. That way you still have a large colony of beneficials to fend off the herp. Anyway, that is what I was thinking for my next round for when ever that may be.

 

[NFTNate]

I have yet to dry DM zone, I trust that it helps but I want this gone! Im going to treat my rez for 2 weeks with Plantacillin. This product claims to use bene's to make sure the roots have plenty of bene's to ward off any sort of algae. As for rez changes? I will have a spare rez with the benes already started for the 2 week change. Wish me luck. I will report back with good news so that us plagued with this shit can once again enjoy hydro.

 

[NFTNate]

My multiple plant dwc system (3 gallon 13"x18" rubbermaid container with 15 small net pots) was stricken with brown algae (roots turn brown and are easily pulled off). I decided to take the lid off, keeping airstones in and clean it out. I filled it with steaming hot water and a shit load of phsyan 20 (about 5 TBS per gallon) and ran the airstones. Being as I did this in a bath tub, the whole bath tub filled with bubbles due to the physan. I let the airstones run for about 20 mins, then decided to dip the roots in the tub full of bubbles and hot water. I scrubbed my rez and airstones and rinsed it all out very well. I then added 3 gallons of fresh water and 4 TBS per gallon of Hydrogen peroxide. My brown frail roots turned pearly white in 24 hours and 4 days later no sign of the algae. I will post pics of the before and after tomorrow. Hope this helps someone.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Where'd you find roots to survive all that? Krypton? Holy Cannoli! Great save.

 

[Che]

Hello everyone
I'm glad I found this thread, growing a few 5gal DWC's with GH lucas formula, h202, sm90 and tapwater. Algae has been a problem for me, and the only solution so far has been frequent water changes and lots of cleaning and H202, not my ideal solution.
I've requested some Physan 20 at my local hydro shop, here's to hoping that they can get it!

 

[richyrich]

It's been 6 weeks since I last posted so thought I'd give you all an update on what I have been doing. As I posted in the past I had gone to soil. Well since then I next finally starting playing with coco.

I have to say I am amazed with the stuff. As I read somebody else post they were koo koo for coco, so am I. The stuff is really amazing. It is nearly impossible to over water unlike soil and the growth is just as fast as hydro. I have been doing a small hand watered grow and have learned that the ppms and ph need to be treated just like hydro. The roots are so white and appear to look like hydro roots instead of soil roots. This stuff blows soil away. Its all feed to waste so you never have to worry about our friend the hydro herpe, brown slime algae. And you get hydro results. If you just cant beat the hydro herpe I highly suggest switching to coco feed to waste. You will not be sorry. The next thing I have to work on is making this auto with a drip type set up.

 

[RedReign]

I've been fighting brown algae/root rot for 3 months in DWC. I used the exact same set up at my last 2 grows spots since 2000, and it was EXTREMELY rare that I would have a problem. Moved to a new grow spot and I can't keep a plant healthy for more than a week before it takes over. It has to be something in the water.

Even with new clones/buckets/netpots/hydroton/airstones/RO water/Dutchmaster Zone/ perfect rez temps, etc., I can't shake it.

I'm switching half the room to soil and half to coco DTW.

 

[10k]

Right on Kusheater1

I notice that theres one thing most sufferers of "the slime" have in common, is the giant laundry list of additives and snake oils polluting their reservoirs.
Kitchen sink ? <--it's in there !

repeating what I said a long time ago (october 07, page ten of this thread)... for posterity

 

[jarff]

RR glad you found the fix....but knowing you ,y,ll be back to water to try to cure the brown herpes..J/K. been thinkin,on the coco myself.....thanx for the heads up on it..much appreciated..Good luck and may all your flowers be the sweetest...
Jarff

 

[ItsGrowTime]

repeating what I said a long time ago (october 07, page ten of this thread)... for posterity

That may be true but this stuff shows up in my cloner with *nothing* but distilled water. Ive stopped using my bubble cloner because of it.

 

[richyrich]

There is nothing that will get rid of it. You can kill it but it will be back. And if you do get rid of it you will always worry about if it will come back because it most likely will. Once you get herpes you always have it and it will flare up whenever. And that is not from personal experience, lol.

RO water or tap don't matter. It seems as if one day a spore just decided to take a swim in your reservoir and multiply. Then you are done. You soon have a room full of microscopic spores. There is no way to get rid of them. I even tried an ozone generator in the room to kill spores. I concede that there is no way to kill off one of the first inhabitants of this earth. There is a reason it has survived since the beginning of time here.

Organic, sugar and enzyme products make the herpe explode on a food binge.

Physan20 kills it completely but it will come back. Water temps don't matter. H2O2, SM90, etc... help a little but are basically useless. Dutch Master Zone is the only product that keeps it at bay best but it is still not gone. It's there just waiting to take over.

The only way to run hydro once you have the hydro herpe is to ditch the recirculating reservoirs!!! You have to go feed to waste. Other options are soil and coco.

That's a recap on everything I have posted on my years of battling this. It is futile and if you are insisting on battling it I wish you the best of luck. If you read this whole thread you will find most of my journey and all trial and tribulations to this battle. I LOST in the end. Word from the wise and hopefully this thread helps a lot of people because when I started I could find nothing on this issue. Everyone said it was root rot which is far from the truth.

 

[bron2k]

hey rich! i'm glad to hear you're doing well. i never posted in your thread cuz i actually just joined due to some pythium problems. i know its not the same as your brown algea but your thread helped out as well. i'm actually going to start with new clones since pythium pretty much spreads on the cuttings that you take of the effected mom. now i'm about to sterlize my equipment and i saw you use physan20. is that what you recommend using to sterilze my equipment or h202 35%? and how much should i use? thanks bro!!

 

[richyrich]

hey rich! i'm glad to hear you're doing well. i never posted in your thread cuz i actually just joined due to some pythium problems. i know its not the same as your brown algea but your thread helped out as well. i'm actually going to start with new clones since pythium pretty much spreads on the cuttings that you take of the effected mom. now i'm about to sterlize my equipment and i saw you use physan20. is that what you recommend using to sterilze my equipment or h202 35%? and how much should i use? thanks bro!!

Use the Physan20. For use in your reservoir with plants, 1ml per 10 gallons. The stuff is super concentrated. For sterilization of equipment with no plants I would double it.

 

[bron2k]

thanks rich! do you recommend me soaking it or does it pretty much does it jobs with a quick spray down? i really don't want to deal with this pythium shit again. so trying to make sure i get it done right you know. thanks again!!
you have any new pics of your coco plants?

 

[mojojojo]

so i can run Physan20 with on plants in veg?
bout a week ago i got a ez cloner and now i got this slime stuff
on my clones i may have a problem in my veg also so im gonna play it safe and get all
new treys and res hope it dont get in my bloom rooms

 

[TalkingMonkey]

Thank you all for this thread. All the info I needed about the F'n brown slime in my dwc is right here (and this is the first thread I clicked on when I searched). So thanks again. Yoos guys really helped me out.

 

[NFTNate]

Ive battled this for about 6 months now. I have it under control. I switched to LUCAS FORMULA and add 1.5 tsp/gal of H2o2 to every watering. I make sure there is NO organic material in the water and clean my buckets every 5 days or more if needed. Its a lot of work keeping this algae at bay, but it IS possible. CLEANLINESS is key. Also, make sure to take a wiff of how your roots/buckets smell as often as possible. You will notice a 'rotten egg' smell when this algae is becoming active (atleast I do). If you get this algae at very early stages, just start over...they wont live. If you get it when the roots have a large root system it IS possible to save them and heres how. 1) clean with physan 20, that means EVERYTHING in your grow room. 2) Dip roots in physan 20 solution 3) Switch to plain water until white roots start showing only adding 1.5 tsp/gal h202. 4) Change rez every 2 days. As said before, its not something you can get RID of. You can only keep it at bay. I will show before and after pics when i get to my grow site.
Cheers