Strange Slime buildup on roots

[SoCoMMJ]

how much molasses did you use? just enough to feed the BB? or did u over do it to the point that it is now feeding the slime instead of the BB?

Well RR's instructions were kind of vague, that's why I was asking. He said "a tad" I think I put a bit over a tablespoon in 3 gallons of brew. It seems like that might be too much. Bubbles make the air line sticky.

Maybe I'll mix up a new one with 1 teaspoon of MoleAsses.

BTW, last night we scrubbed the reservoir, pump, sprayers, and everything. Then sprayed the crap off the roots with a pump sprayer using tap water. Reassembled with ro water and a small dose of Botainicare pro gro. and 2 cups of the tea mix. Tonight... slime is back. New white roots, but slime is present.

Tomorrow night i think we will re clean the res, pump physan through it all, then dip the roots, and netpots in 1 tsp Physan to 4 gallons of water like it says on the label. then just run bubbled water with 2 cups tea in 15 gal res..

Feel free to comment on the plan.. Let me know if we have hope. Tonight we chopped and tossed into the dumpster 12 6' PowerPlants that we nuked with a Physan overdose. That hurt just a bit.
[5 tsp in 15 gal run aero for 1 hour was enough to kill em] fk fk fk

 

[chytil151]

yeah you must clean EVERYTHING in physan to clean an sterilize, It might be a good idea to even get new pumps if they were submerged in the crap depending how much free time and money you have of course. But yeah w/ the tablespoon of molasses to 3 gal. yeah that was way too much to use for even using molasses at all. and i think the ratio that richey told me was 15mL per 3 gallon mix of tea but like I was stating before amongst alot of others here get some (myco) fungus wich is BB and add that too your tea it will help alot more in the fight then taking a chance in over feeding the slime w/ the sugars.

 

[richyrich]

I should of mentioned I usually let my tea go 48 hours which most likely allows for the benes to use all 15mL of the sugars. Good idea to consider less. Maybe 5-10mL or brew an extra 24 hours. Good idea to strain your teas with cheese cloth over a funnel, too.

 

[SoCoMMJ]

Checked the roots inside the flower unit last night after 1 day on tap water.... no slime, just good fat white tasty roots pumping out.

Added 2 cups of the EWC to 15 gal reservoir after checking in on the root mass.

If things look good tonight, I'll add some Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Grow nutes and see what happens.

I think I'm going to add one part of my recipe at a time to see if anything pops up the slime....

Pure Blend Pro Gro/Bloom
then Cal / Mag
then the Liquid Karma.

I had been running sweet in the past, but I think because of the high Carbohydrates I will leave it out of the recipe.

So far, so good...

 

[robertmarley]

I set my friend up with a home depot UV sterilizer and then left the islands and he said his plants are bumping huge pearly white roots not one issue anywhere what so ever.. if i were to ever take a stab at hydro again i would definitely take this route

 

[ItsGrowTime]

Well RR's instructions were kind of vague, that's why I was asking. He said "a tad" I think I put a bit over a tablespoon in 3 gallons of brew. It seems like that might be too much. Bubbles make the air line sticky.

Maybe I'll mix up a new one with 1 teaspoon of MoleAsses.

BTW, last night we scrubbed the reservoir, pump, sprayers, and everything. Then sprayed the crap off the roots with a pump sprayer using tap water. Reassembled with ro water and a small dose of Botainicare pro gro. and 2 cups of the tea mix. Tonight... slime is back. New white roots, but slime is present.

Tomorrow night i think we will re clean the res, pump physan through it all, then dip the roots, and netpots in 1 tsp Physan to 4 gallons of water like it says on the label. then just run bubbled water with 2 cups tea in 15 gal res..

Feel free to comment on the plan.. Let me know if we have hope. Tonight we chopped and tossed into the dumpster 12 6' PowerPlants that we nuked with a Physan overdose. That hurt just a bit.
[5 tsp in 15 gal run aero for 1 hour was enough to kill em] fk fk fk

You really should remove most (if not all) heavily slimed roots completely from the plant even after Physan treatment and root cleaning under tap water. The reason is that the decaying root matter is another organic fuel source for the slime waiting in the freshly poured water. You'll just activate the slime all over again. When I clean my slimed roots I am NOT gentle with them. They go under my bathtub faucet and are cleaned by hand. Roots are still strong so lightly damaged or undamaged roots won't come off. You said you used a spray bottle. That's kinda weak treatment. Get all up in the roots to clean all of that shit out and remove dead root matter. As long as the plant is treated quickly enough to keep from dying (meaning not all roots are completely dead) it WILL grow new roots.

EDIT: Here's some pics of my recently slimed moms from that sugar bacteria stuff.
Here's the worst of the two. I've pointed to the new root growth. You can see just how jacked up the rest of the roots look and still get new growth as long as the plant doesn't die. You MUST clean out most of the dead root material or the slime will come right back. They may look ugly but if they are cleaned properly the new roots will grow right out of it.

Here's the other one. She recovered very quick though she wasn't near as bad as the one above. Ive pointed to what the first new root growth will look like.

Bottom line, if you want to beat this stuff, you CAN! Just gotta be aggressive with treatment. That means Physan first, then a thorough cleaning of roots of dead slime and dead root bits, then reinstall into a very basic res of just chemical nutrients until the new roots can take hold. Keep the organic shit OUT of the res (yes, that means Pure Blend Pro) until the plants have recovered, the roots are strong and white. And if you insist on organics, you must add beneficial bacteria in some form first at high strength (10ml/gal is my dose of AquaShield) first!

 

[madcease]

I have noticed that even after adding psythan 20 and h2o2 that my roots are still stained with the brown colour. Not severe slim but not perly white.

There in Rockwool and 5 gal tubs so its hard to soak them. What best way to get rid of this brown?

 

[ItsGrowTime]

Grow new roots. LOL

The brown is permanent on slimed roots.

 

[robertmarley]

Run all your water through a UV sterilizer, then add your ferts and you should be good to go..

 

[opt1c]

I should of mentioned I usually let my tea go 48 hours which most likely allows for the benes to use all 15mL of the sugars. Good idea to consider less. Maybe 5-10mL or brew an extra 24 hours. Good idea to strain your teas with cheese cloth over a funnel, too.

i did a lot of research on the tea brewing process; compost tea manual 5th edition is pretty on point i've found. in there i gleaned that teas are at their best after 18-24 hours of brewing; 24 for slightly colder climates and as quick as 18 for warmer climates; the shorter brewing time allows for more microbial diversity; longer brewing times result in microbial monocultures as one strain quickly dominates the rest. these are what researchers saw under microscopes in controlled experiments. additionally, they recommend that you remove your aeration device, air stones in most cases, from the brewing vessel; turn them off; and let the tea sit for 30 minutes. after that scoop whatever is needed off the top; the sediment having settled to the bottom by this time, sorta like bubble bags. this, of course, applies to heavily aerated ewc teas; i've found that i've had the best results with my teas using this method; it just sucks because the optimal window is rather small although it's worth the extra effort if you're doing whatever it takes to beat the slime

 

[richyrich]

i did a lot of research on the tea brewing process; compost tea manual 5th edition is pretty on point i've found. in there i gleaned that teas are at their best after 18-24 hours of brewing; 24 for slightly colder climates and as quick as 18 for warmer climates; the shorter brewing time allows for more microbial diversity; longer brewing times result in microbial monocultures as one strain quickly dominates the rest. these are what researchers saw under microscopes in controlled experiments. additionally, they recommend that you remove your aeration device, air stones in most cases, from the brewing vessel; turn them off; and let the tea sit for 30 minutes. after that scoop whatever is needed off the top; the sediment having settled to the bottom by this time, sorta like bubble bags. this, of course, applies to heavily aerated ewc teas; i've found that i've had the best results with my teas using this method; it just sucks because the optimal window is rather small although it's worth the extra effort if you're doing whatever it takes to beat the slime

This is all on point from what I remember reading.

 

[richyrich]

Yes, roots will stay stained. I notice that a lot of you guys grow in DWC, so it is rather easy to clean and trim away slimed roots. Don't be scared to hack away. Good rule of thumb is that you should be okay to cut around 1/3 of the roots off.

Here is a predicament that has not been addressed yet for other types of setups besides DWC. For instance, what if you get slimed in a flood and drain setup where all the roots are in pots or buckets of hydroton. I have done this and and this is the only time I will advocate it -- enzymes (yeah the jet fuel). The roots are already slime so no worries at this point. Do a Physan nuke to your sytem and then dump. Make up a fresh rez and add your choice of enzyme product. Add Dutch Master Zone and H2O2 (every day) for a week. Dump that rez and all the old dead slimed roots should be gone by the action of the enzymes. Fill rez with water only and nuke again by adding Physan. This will kill off anything that might have gotten past the Zone and H2O2 and will give a rinse. Dump that rez. Make a fresh rez with nutes and this time add your EWC tea. Keep a careful eye over them. If your ph is usually stable, and you notice that the ph is creeping upwards to quick -- the slime is probably back. At that point, from experience, it is not worth trying to save. Start over instead of wasting time and being disappointed.

 

[madcease]

Thanks for that richy always knew you had the best solution but what i scan say is i ordered a uv sterilizer in order to battle this crap and should be here any day. Once that is here do you still need to add zone or h202 or will it kill off everything anyway. As long as i treat this problem first.
The roots that are thick and not submerged in the DWC are nice n white but ones that are submerged are like the second pic above but not so brown. Im thinking this is why the growth is so slow letalone the stem even smaller for such a long veg.

What does the EWC Tea attribute to and is it worth it?

 

[richyrich]

The brown staining will stay. Your UV is probably better than the sunleaves. Nothing will grow in the water. You should be fine in DWC. It's the systems where the roots are not constantly in water is where there can be failure. For example, roots in pots in a flood and drain system. UV can't do anything for the roots in the pots.

Disinfect with Physan. Clean away all dead root matter. Add fresh nute mix to system. Add UV sterilizer.

UV or EWC tea. One or the other in DWC, not both.

 

[madcease]

Yeh i aint got no sunleaves one just the aquarium water pump one about 12w i think. I dont get it about the clean away the dead root thing after adding pythan. Is that just chuckig in h202?

coz the roots that arnt in the dwc are nice n thick and white
ill try get some pics for yas

I dont think DWC is good at all i mean once its tuned in its fine. But im thinking KBS is the way to go especially if your after good returns

 

[madcease]

FUK ALGAE AND UV IS THE WAY TO GO

 

[madcease]

If using a UV sterilizer that should mean you should have no troubles with light hitting the rez and also rez temps being too high shouldnt be so bad correct?

 

[madcease]

Have been adding h2o2 every day now and there is still no change in the root colours.
They are not going white. Still waiting for the UV sterilizer what can one do?
Dealing with large tubs so its hard to do a soak of the roots

 

[thinman]

just wanted to mention that i got slimed during my first cloning attempt with a "daisey cloner". everything was going fine until i added some SUPERTHRIVE. couple days later and i had slime along the walls of the cloner, the pump was covered in the stuff, as was the electrical line and air hose....and the airstone was particularly slimed.

as said above, this was my first attempt with an aerocloner and just about everything was done wrong. i didn't own a ph tester at the time and my water temps got into the high 70's, even 80ish a couple times, and the daisey cloner itself is white which allows light into the res. so, honestly, it could have been several things, or several combinations of things, but the slime came on right after introducing the SUPERTHRIVE---like the next day or so.

so, i now have a ph tester, plan to adjust it down to 5.2 with advanced nutrient's ph down, and add FLORASHIELD to the res, quick dip into DIP 'N GROW, and try to keep the res temps down by doing a 1/2 hr on and 1/2 hr off pump cycle. this is after thoroughly cleaning and soaking everything, and running some chlorinated water (20%) through the pump and sprayer. then a thorough rinse and another attempt.

something interesting, even though i got slimed and never saw any roots while using the daisey, i removed the cuts from it and placed them into potting soil, no dome or anything, and they all rooted very quickly for me. i think that the time in the daisey without a dome (about 10 days) hardened them off, so to speak, and enabled them to root easily when transfered to soil.

this is a great thread and i have learned a lot from all the folks who contributed. good luck to us all. and thanks.......

 

[madcease]

UV all put in and sterilized works great is there a better way to setup or as long as its in the res its all sweet?
Should adding that SuperThrive additive be any good? Or just stick to monster bud.

Keep adding H202 whilst have the UV goin cant go wrong. Just contanplainting cutting all the bbrown roots off and starting fresh or is that worse and stressfull?