Strange Slime buildup on roots

[MrWeekend]

Has anyone seen or tried Hydro-Fungicide? http://www.sandaproducts.com.au/sanda_products_006.htm

Can be ran all the time unlike Physan & is made for plants.....trying to get my hands on some to see if it works.


SHARL......you got to be patient......be careful with to much physan......good luck hope they pull through for ya.

 

[sharl]

kstampy, before yesterday water in rezs was climbing to 80. i know, i know. i thought maybe after readin all this stuff i could to the blast then bene thing and it wouldnt matter what temps were. yesterday though, after reslime, i combined the two brains to feed of one rez and hooked up the chiller.

mrweekend, thanks. yeah i want to be patient, but they definitely got slimed again so i figured i had to blast em again. im not sure why they arent going to just get slimed again. im scared to try the bene thing again for fear of the slime. tonight im going to just feed and drain to waste i guess. its really the freaking water that sits in the bottom of the buckets that worries me the most. gets so freaking hot......

ahhhh! thanks for your help guys.

 

[ItsGrowTime]

Slime algae isn't affected by water temperature, unlike pythium is. The spores are in your tap water so its always ready to reinfect. After you've cleaned everything again, put your plants in tap water only! Add beneficials immediately and NOTHING ELSE. Some retail beneficial products have sugars and shit in them. BAD! Plain benes only...I suggest a custom tea or Aquashield. The plants don't have any living root mass to grow on anyway so adding nutes to the water won't matter to the plant. Your goal is getting the plants to use their lower leaves to create new roots, which you then inoculate with beneficials BEFORE you add any nutes.

You're just approaching the issue the wrong way.

 

[GrumpyGrower]

Hey guys, I figure after several months of reading this thread over and over, I should sign up and say thanks. After looking elsewhere and always getting told I had root rot, this thread saved my sanity (so far).

The slime showed up for me last winter. I found this thread and read about half of it. My mistake was that I stopped reading after RR said physans plus zone was the way to go, of course this was outdated.

I ordered some zone and used it, and for some reason the slime went away quickly and completley. I was okay for several months until I got a bottle of roots excelurator. I had been told that roots excel was hormonal, not microbial, so I didn't think it would hurt to use it with Zone.

The result of using those two together was my roots turned brown and fell off. This didn't look like disease, it looked like chemical death. I gave them a good rinse. I noticed no smell and had such confidence in zone that I just upped the dose to the 'curative' level and forgot about it. Couple days later the roots were covered in slime, and wasn't long before it found its way into my other dwc tubs. And of course, my bubble cloner that had been working so awesome for several months, stopped producing anything at all.

I upped the dose of zone to 10ml per gallon and added bottles of h2o2. For whatever reason, even tho Zone killed the slime the first time at just 1ml per gal, it wasn't even slowing it down this time.

In the meantime I came back to this thread, read it all and re-read it, and then skimmed time and time again. I got some EWC and some aquashield.

After spending so much money on sterilizing products, I am amazed at how cheap and easy it was to get the slime under control. I was really doubtful it would work. Not that I don't have faith in you guys, but when you try 6 or 7 things and the slime just laughs at you, you don't really expect number 8 to work either.

It's now been a week and there is no sign of the slime. In fact my res seems pristine clean and smells great. It's ironic that adding microbes to the water solves my microbe problem.

The mothers are so stressed from the slime and physans treatments they aren't showing new roots yet. Some of the old roots are there, and although they aren't slime covered, they aren't growing. I assume they are in shock and will eventually put out new roots. I am convinced that once the new roots shoot out and touch the water, I will again see the slime start, only because I am so used to this curse, and I am scared about my clones.

I switched to cloning in rockwool so that slime wouldn't be a factor. Now my clones are popping roots in 5-10 days as they should. The roots come out of the cubes about and inch or so and then just sit there. Days go by and they don't grow. I have tried leaving them in the dome with and without the lid on, and I have tried moving them to the DWC so that they get little splashes from the bubbles. The roots just sit there and become ever so slightly discolored and a tiny tiny bit shrivled looking. I am feeding them with DM APS and a half strength application of roots excel (taking it easy on the roots excel cos it seems as if it triggered the slime this last round) and a bit of EWC tea.

After reading and reading about cloning, I don't think there is anything wrong with my method. These roots are acting like they have slime. My mothers would grow great roots until they touched the water in the res and touched the slime. Even if just the tip of the root had slime, the entire root would just stop. That's pretty much how the clones are acting, even though I don't see any slime at this point, and they are never submerged in the water. The roots grow great for 24-36 hours after they pop, then they stall and the clones get yellow and droopy.

Jus wondering if any of this sounds familiar, and also again wanted to let you know that the research you guys have done on this topic helps people every day.

 

[GrumpyGrower]

Nevermind, the problem is indeed that the slime is back. Just pulled out the airstone and it's covered in it, although no sign of it anywhere else. Switching to coco although I guess ill have to mix my nutes each time I water, as it seems that just touching infected water is stunting my roots, even if they aren't sitting in it. So no water sitting around and definitely can't do any sort of recirculating. Guess I need to start looking into a feed to waste set up. I intend to keep fighting the slime, perhaps fine tune the EWC tea, but in the meantime I need yield.

Should any EWC work? Mine says 'odor free' on the bag so I was concerned it might have been sterilized.

 

[ItsGrowTime]

Dude, everyone that really wants to get rid of the slime needs to buy a UV sterilizer and run all of your plant water through it first. IT KILLS THE SPORES! I got mine from Petsmart for $60. It cleans up to 100gal with ease. Bigger and smaller is available.

Here's what I did exactly and after battling the slime for years it has now completely disappeared. I installed an RO system in my kitchen and dug out an aquarium UV system that I bought a while back. The RO dumps into a 40gal rubbermaid tub (or 20gal, depending on my needs at the moment). Sitting in the tub is the small UV sterilizer unit that runs constantly while there's water in the tub from the RO unit. I let that water run through the UV for a day or so then pump that water into milk jugs and stack the jugs for later. Always 100% clean water! When the jugs run low I refill the tub and start over, always using the UV. Bottom line is the UV kills any spores that slip through the RO unit. I still inoculate with beneficials to be on the safe side, along with a chiller at 68. UV is the key to ensure no slime from your water and it's a very small cost considering what we're losing in potential product, time and money wasted on "solutions" that only cause more problems (like Roots Excel....shit is another sugar trigger for the slime and should be avoided).

UV!

 

[GrumpyGrower]

Okay thanks IGT. I guess I thought a few spores getting through would still be overcome by the bennies. Obviously I need to rethink that. I also didn''t realize they offered units so cheap. I've ordered a UV unit and will try again.

 

[ItsGrowTime]

Okay thanks IGT. I guess I thought a few spores getting through would still be overcome by the bennies. Obviously I need to rethink that. I also didn''t realize they offered units so cheap. I've ordered a UV unit and will try again.

Good luck! Im sure it will fix your problem for good. Just remember to never addback any water that didn't run through the UV first.

 

[kstampy]

Grow time how long does the water need to sit with the UV do you think? For example, would it be enough to run it for 2 hours while i filled a 5 gallon bucket and be done with it when its full? I am beginning to think this will be my only way, my RO filter isn't even getting rid of it.

 

[ItsGrowTime]

Grow time how long does the water need to sit with the UV do you think? For example, would it be enough to run it for 2 hours while i filled a 5 gallon bucket and be done with it when its full? I am beginning to think this will be my only way, my RO filter isn't even getting rid of it.

I honestly don't know the flow rates and whatnot for my UV system. There are different models that work differently so it probably changes from model to model anyway. The longer the better! For only 5gal I would think even the smallest UV would clean it quickly in a couple hours but I could be wrong.

My RO specifically says it will not filter out all micro-organisms.

 

[darthvapor]

Im gonna give this another go with the ez-cloner. Ive added 5ml per gallon of watermax from bobs brew. Ive also added roots exelurator. One second thought I should have skipped the roots exel until I actually got roots because the slime feeds on the roots exel, but hopefully the watermax works. I am using regular tap water.





will update more in a few days

 

[GrumpyGrower]

One second thought I should have skipped the roots exel until I actually got roots because the slime feeds on the roots exel

I have to agree. It's very tempting for me to use the roots excel because it was so expensive and others have such good results with it. I have twice started with a cleaned res and inoculated with bennies, and no slime for a few days. When I see new root growth start I add the roots excel and the slime comes back quickly. Could just be the timing I guess.

 

[kstampy]

I lowered my water temps to mid 70-75 all day instead of 75-85 (lack of $ and equipment forcing me to keep it higher for now, freezing some large bags of water going to experiment with that). I have some roots a few days later but they are still pretty slow forming and only on the better clones. I'm going to look in to the UV, that seems to be a good solution that has logical means to an end which I will trust over magic sauces any day. Has anyone had this problem and tried only using aquashield to fight it? I think I have some of that laying around. I still think this is so ridiculous I went so long (at least 100 clones with 95+% success) without this problem and now I can't get a single batch to root. WTF?! lol.

Before I start screwing with ice in my cloner rez... how low can our temps safely go in these things? I know 68*ish is ideal once you have roots but I wonder if 55-60*F for example would be too cold with my water 15m on 15m off.

 

[richyrich]

NovoLogics Ultraviolet treatment also photo=oxidizes and destroys combined chlorine and chlorine byproducts such as chloramines and other toxic organic pollutants including bad odors.

Installation: Simply install on your feed water inlet - before any nutrient injection systems. Remember this is a UV broad spectrum sterilizer - not a simple plastic UV clarifier which only gets rid of green water. Novologics all Stainless Steel UV Sterilizer clears green water and completely destroys all bacteria, fungi and other disease causing organisms and actually purifies the water to human drinking water levels.

One of the biggest problems in hydroponic plant production is the bacteria and fungi in the feed water which quickly multiply and can even destroy a crop within a matter of hours or days. Now you can have the assurance that the treated water is free of disease causing organisms.

That right there in bold sets this unit apart. Looks like a really good one to get.

Yes, very important. Make sure you are getting a sterilizing unit.

^^^^ What I posted a year ago. Make sure you get a sterilizing UV unit.

 

[richyrich]

This is what everyone must have in their slime toolbox.



The ancient forest is better than earth worm castings. Way more bene microbes in it.

The ZHO by botanicare is loaded with trichoderma. Trichoderma is a parasitic bene microbe. You want it to attack the slime. The other bene microbes colonize the roots preventing the slime from making a home.

If you want to use root excelurator, try adding it during the tea brewing process. The sugars will be utilized by the bene microbes to multiply.

 

[onegreenday]

great tips. thanks.

 

[SumDumGuy]

Hi RichyRich,
I've been following your post carefully while I clone in the EZClone for the first time. If I may ask a question in relation to the slime. When does it normally get you? I'm not using any benes and I'm using city water. So far on day 3 and I do not see slime but I've been replacing the water every 12 hours due to massive heat in the high 80's. You think I'm past the slime stage if I haven't seen it?

 

[richyrich]

Hi RichyRich,
I've been following your post carefully while I clone in the EZClone for the first time. If I may ask a question in relation to the slime. When does it normally get you? I'm not using any benes and I'm using city water. So far on day 3 and I do not see slime but I've been replacing the water every 12 hours due to massive heat in the high 80's. You think I'm past the slime stage if I haven't seen it?

It can get you at any time.

 

[GrumpyGrower]

The ZHO by botanicare is loaded with trichoderma. Trichoderma is a parasitic bene microbe. You want it to attack the slime. The other bene microbes colonize the roots preventing the slime from making a home.

Thanks! That's what i've been wanting. So far i'm using ancient forest tea with aqua-shield, being careful to sterilize first and follow directions, and the slime still shows up. It is a bit different, i'm seeing dark green blobs in the water that never showed up before. For me it's always been clear mucus that develops into a thick yellow pudding, specially around the airstone. Hopefully the ZHO plus a UV unit makes the difference. My hope is that one day I can actually watch this slime being eaten/killed by a bennie through a microscope.


I emailed Dutch Master and asked about the shelf life of Zone, as it worked wonders for me last winter. It killed the slime quickly and completely back then. I thought perhaps it just got old and less effective. The response was that it should last indefinitely, but they recommended I upgrade from the black bottle to the gold range series as it has a broader range of action. I don't plan to do that; i've given up on the sterile route, but thought I'd throw that in.

 

[richyrich]

Thanks! That's what i've been wanting. So far i'm using ancient forest tea with aqua-shield, being careful to sterilize first and follow directions, and the slime still shows up. It is a bit different, i'm seeing dark green blobs in the water that never showed up before. For me it's always been clear mucus that develops into a thick yellow pudding, specially around the airstone. Hopefully the ZHO plus a UV unit makes the difference. My hope is that one day I can actually watch this slime being eaten/killed by a bennie through a microscope.

I found the ZHO for $2.50 per 1/4lb, plus $2.50 shipping, so there's definitely no excuse for not having it.

I emailed Dutch Master and asked about the shelf life of Zone, as it worked wonders for me last winter. It killed the slime quickly and completely back then. I thought perhaps it just got old and less effective. The response was that it should last indefinitely, but they recommended I upgrade from the black bottle to the gold range series as it has a broader range of action. I don't plan to do that; i've given up on the sterile route, but thought I'd throw that in.

UV and beneficial microbes do not mix. UV will kill them.