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bobblehead overtakes

Mister_D

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Veteran
Bobble - I found what is probably the same clearish brown slime plugging one of my inline filters. Only thing that has gone through my res so far is GH 6/9 and drip clean. I know it's not the GH so that only leaves the drip clean, or some unexplained X factor. Plenty of people running drip clean through the blumats though, has me wondering if we got a bad batch?
 

bobblehead

Active member
Veteran
"brown gunk" does not sound good. is it in your rez too? is it solids from nutes or "live" gunk?

silica runs just fine through a blumat bobble ......... i have no clue what is wrong but i would scratch that off the list.

The sides of the rez are clear... literally... lol and clean too. I can't tell you for sure what's in there cause it's huge and with nutes added I can't see through the mix. I'm thinking some H2O2 or some bleach or physan 20 would kill any bacteria or fungus that's growing and break apart before most of it hits the coco...

Bobble - I found what is probably the same clearish brown slime plugging one of my inline filters. Only thing that has gone through my res so far is GH 6/9 and drip clean. I know it's not the GH so that only leaves the drip clean, or some unexplained X factor. Plenty of people running drip clean through the blumats though, has me wondering if we got a bad batch?

No way no how is it drip clean... That's just P and K. It would have to be the micro, or something growing in my rez... But how can anything grow without light? Which leads me back to micro/cal mag falling out of suspension.

You need more head.

Man that's what I was telling my ex while we were still together... She didn't listen and that bitch had to go! lol....


I can't do that. The only thing I could do would be to cut the bottoms off the pipes the barbs are stuck into, and add barbed T's like what's on the tops, so that I can run the 1/2" tubing on the bottoms of the pipes as well as the top. Fuck this is complicated. Then if that doesn't work, I have to use less shelves.

I was thinking about you and how you mentioned that the more tubing I have the more pressure I'm going to need... but I didn't think 1/2" tubing was going to clog! I'm also going to drill a hole through the wall and shorten up the supply line. I can easily half it. Switch to more rigid tubing...
 

redbudduckfoot

Active member
Veteran
hey bobble, you didn't by accident purchase organic cal-mag? i accidentally picked up some of that by General Organics and there was no way it was going into my Blumat Rez System. Like I said above, i only top feed once a week in my chem fert grow. On the organic side of the flip, i top feed with Big Bloom organic blend from FoxFarm. Once a week after stretch until the second to last week before harvest.

RBDF
 

Mister_D

Active member
Veteran
Bobble - I have a hard time believeing it's the micro or bloom, no cal/mag in my res, because myself and MAAAAAAAAANY others use/d it in large tanks with zero issue for many years. Drip clean is new to me, but again many others using it without issue so........
 
Man that's what I was telling my ex while we were still together... She didn't listen and that bitch had to go! lol....


I can't do that. The only thing I could do would be to cut the bottoms off the pipes the barbs are stuck into, and add barbed T's like what's on the tops, so that I can run the 1/2" tubing on the bottoms of the pipes as well as the top. Fuck this is complicated. Then if that doesn't work, I have to use less shelves.

I was thinking about you and how you mentioned that the more tubing I have the more pressure I'm going to need... but I didn't think 1/2" tubing was going to clog! I'm also going to drill a hole through the wall and shorten up the supply line. I can easily half it. Switch to more rigid tubing...

Yep, they've always got to go. head is a must.

Everytime I think about your setup I keep thinking you feed barrel should be on the roof. Has anyone tried putting a water pressure gauge in their Blumat setups? You might try that. 1/4" NPT gauge. Place one at the feed barrel outlet and a couple more strategically around your feed line. And then you could know for sure.

Every dip, fitting, tubing diameter change, everything causes pressure to reduce. The bigger the diameter of your main feed line the better. The area inside the tubing increases greater with each 1/4" increase in diameter. Anything you can make PVC should be. Also as little of that 3mm shit as possible. Fuck that stuff is small.

Another thing you could do would be to feed your loop at multiple points. Break one huge system into multiples.

Or you could use a pump and attempt to provide proper pressure to your system. I kinda like this idea.

I do think you can make them work in a large system such as yours. It just wont' be easy. The scientist at Blumat were not considering Bobblepods in their design.

Best of luck.
 
Bobble - I have a hard time believeing it's the micro or bloom, no cal/mag in my res, because myself and MAAAAAAAAANY others use/d it in large tanks with zero issue for many years. Drip clean is new to me, but again many others using it without issue so........

GH Micro can get snotty in the jug, I've experienced it. In the rez in solution I've never had any slime issues. In wool I used a 40 gallon rez and Cal/Mag and would not change rez during flowering. Just addbacks.
 
G

greenmatter

you said something about beneficials bobble, are you running those through the blumats?

i'm not sure how they culture beneficial microbes, but i would think some kind of agar or nutrients mix has to be involved.:dunno: maybe that is how the "gunk" was born
 

bobblehead

Active member
Veteran
hey bobble, you didn't by accident purchase organic cal-mag? i accidentally picked up some of that by General Organics and there was no way it was going into my Blumat Rez System. Like I said above, i only top feed once a week in my chem fert grow. On the organic side of the flip, i top feed with Big Bloom organic blend from FoxFarm. Once a week after stretch until the second to last week before harvest.

RBDF

No I didn't purchase organic cal/mag.

And you said my sense of humor sucks.:moon:

It does. ha ha...

Bobble - I have a hard time believeing it's the micro or bloom, no cal/mag in my res, because myself and MAAAAAAAAANY others use/d it in large tanks with zero issue for many years. Drip clean is new to me, but again many others using it without issue so........

I didn't say it was the bloom, so don't go putting words in my mouth. ;) The macros attach to the micros... or is it the micros attach to the macros... that sounds better... and if the micros aren't all attached to some macros, shit gets funky. It's definitely not the drip clean.

It's the pressure like vic is saying... At the point of lowest pressure I have nute solution falling out of suspension and coagulating... I just need to make the main supply line more direct and I should be able to avoid this situation. Also I think I'm going to add those barbs tee's on the bottom, and add ball valve on the bottom... So any solids will hopefully fall to the bottom, and I can open up a valve and blow them out.

Yep, they've always got to go. head is a must.

Everytime I think about your setup I keep thinking you feed barrel should be on the roof. Has anyone tried putting a water pressure gauge in their Blumat setups? You might try that. 1/4" NPT gauge. Place one at the feed barrel outlet and a couple more strategically around your feed line. And then you could know for sure.

Every dip, fitting, tubing diameter change, everything causes pressure to reduce. The bigger the diameter of your main feed line the better. The area inside the tubing increases greater with each 1/4" increase in diameter. Anything you can make PVC should be. Also as little of that 3mm shit as possible. Fuck that stuff is small.

Another thing you could do would be to feed your loop at multiple points. Break one huge system into multiples.

Or you could use a pump and attempt to provide proper pressure to your system. I kinda like this idea.

I do think you can make them work in a large system such as yours. It just wont' be easy. The scientist at Blumat were not considering Bobblepods in their design.

Best of luck.

Yeah... I think a few 55gal drums on the roof would look funny... not to mention freeze in the winter. I'm going to make some changes... add a filter and beef up and shorten the supply line, having it go directly to the top of the manifold instead of dropping down and going back up to the top. Also like I told D, Add tubing on the bottom so I can purge any solids that build up in the manifold. Then... Then maybe this shit will work. ha ha ha...

you said something about beneficials bobble, are you running those through the blumats?

i'm not sure how they culture beneficial microbes, but i would think some kind of agar or nutrients mix has to be involved.:dunno: maybe that is how the "gunk" was born

The microbe tea is hand fed. Pumps are supposed to kill the little guys.
 

Mister_D

Active member
Veteran
Sorry bro but the pressure isn't an issue in my system, and I have the same slime. That maybe a weak point in your design, but it's not the cause of the slime. Everything is constantly recirculating in my system, so I know it's not because shit is separating out. Has to be the GH, drip clean, or the flexzilla, as these are the only common factors in our system. Hmmm really has me wondering if the flexzilla is leeching/breaking down from the nutrient salts? Any thoughts on this? I'm going to pm krunch and see if he is getting similar slime buildup.
 
G

greenmatter

i've run dripclean through the blumats too, but with maxibloom as base nutes ....... no issues
 

bobblehead

Active member
Veteran
i've run dripclean through the blumats too, but with maxibloom as base nutes ....... no issues

I'm on the bottom of my 6 gal jug of Micro... It could be bad or heavy... I just got a bunch of Jack's from a friend of mine... So I'll start using Jack's and Bloom toward the end. I'm just gonna set the micro off to the side for now and see what happens.
 

gurnt

Member
mister. You use a pump? on the dump back in to the reservoir could you put a coffer filter to get some of the crap
On mine the I have a small HF. pump come on for 15mi a day that seam to keep the air at bay
 

Mister_D

Active member
Veteran
Bobble - My jug of micro is brand new. Well maybe not, but it isn't thick and no solids to speak of. I shake it well before each mixing also. I'm still leaning toward drip clean as the culprit. Going to dump that res and mix a fresh one with just GH and see what happens. Process of elimination is the only way this mystery is going to be solved...

Gurnt - My setup goes res - in line filter (what clogged) - pump - elevated res - overflow back to starting res. Not having air issues at all, just some weird clearish brown slime clogging my filter. Nothing but GH micro & bloom + drip clean has ever been in the res. Only took a few days to build up and clog the filter.
 

gurnt

Member
this time of year in the air it may be Bactria,yeast make beer by have the coffer filter at the end see which filter gets plug first that way you can see if it's your pots are in the tank are try some hydrogen peroxide
 

Mister_D

Active member
Veteran
It's only in the filter. None in any of the res's or hose, just the filter. Very strange, but I can't have that shit as my grow is remote. There's pics of the setup on the last page or two of my redemption thread in my sig if you want a better idea.
 
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