The solution and everything you need to know about the dreaded hydro herpe correctly named brown slime algae (a misnomer because it's actually a cyanobacteria) is here and within this thread.
From 2007 thru 2009, the unknown snot slime was first correctly named and documented here, its source was first discovered and documented here, and the solution to defeating it was first discovered and documented here. If you think you are going crazy because you are slimed right now, imagine 5 LONG years of an unknown slime from hell wreaking havoc upon you. That's exactly what I went thru and I never gave up. At the time I had no website or forums to find the answers, nor anything on the slime. The only thread anywhere was this one started one month before I found it because they were all asking what this snot slime was themselves. I discovered what this slime from hell was and I discovered how to slay it.
I documented my quest, so no other person shall have to suffer the untold misery it can cause. I would wish this on no person. I was gone from here a good long while and I have seen how the discoveries here have gone wide and far because it works wonders. I should have known hydro/garden manufacturers and retailers would take advantage of this thread. I have seen them selling teas of the same recipe and crazy expensive contraptions to brew tea. All you need is a $3 dollar five gallon bucket and my original tea recipe or one of the others you will find within. My hydro tea recipe has also been plagiarized and is going around incorrectly by the name heisenberg tea by a person taking the credit for it at another website.
Don't get fooled by the manufacturers and retailers. Little do they know I have been a busy bee while I've been gone for the past few years. I didn't stop just because I had finally beat the slime. Among many things, I have awesome customized tea recipes strictly for hydro systems and my own gizmos that do much more than just brew tea. When the time is appropriate and I have protected my discoveries this time, I will present them.
The original slime club thread is epic, so do read through the entire thread when you can if you want to know all the details and other ways to deal with this dreaded problem, and other problems too. You will have no further questions once you read it all. This will be one of, if not the best thread about growing mmj you will have ever read.
An immense amount of credit is due to all the other icmag members that contributed their blood, sweat, tears, and time, so let's give credit where credit is due. <<< space reserved to list icmag members due credit by screen name >>> As for me, you can thank me by posting your success stories and before and after pictures. Those type of posts are truly satisfying. There are a lot of pictures and success stories contained within this thread. The results with an EZ Cloner are nothing short of amazing. You will learn a lot and that's a promise.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following pictures are of your enemy the brown slime algae (aka: hydro herpe, snot slime, hydro nasty, slimy cyano, slime from hell, root mucous).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You must get your yourself a bottle of Physan20. To sterilize and clean your system and equipment use Physan20 at 3mL per 25gallons. Unscented regular bleach is fine if you do not have Physan20, but do get it asap.When you have a crop that is on life support and you think it might be salvageable, you can run Physan20 (not bleach) through a hydro system with plants in it. Run it through the system for no more than 6 hours and dump it, then flush with clean water, and then make a new rez. That is how you sterilize your system from the slime and everything else.
The next step is to make a compost/ewc tea according to my recipe. You can use the tea in hydro systems, rockwool, soil, coco, etc.. All plant types and all types of growing media benefit tremendously. Besides keeping away the slime, we are replicating mother nature by attempting to provide all the beneficial microbes that are found naturally in soil.
Okay, now on to the RichyRich Hydro Tea Recipe and Instructions:
1. Put 4 gallons of RO water or bottled water in a 5 gallon bucket.
2. Add an air stone to the bucket with an air pump.
3. Any pump is fine.
4. If you only have tap water, bubble the tap water for 24 hours with the air stone to get rid of the chlorine.
5. The chlorine will kill the good microbes you are attempting to brew.
6. Add the following to the bucket directly or put it in a sock, nylon, mesh bag, etc. and hang it into the bucket.
7. Add 2 to 3 handfuls (or cups) of earth worm castings or Ancient Forest which is even better or go for a mix of both.
8. Add 25mL of liquid carbo load or molasses per 24 hours of planned brew time.
9. As an alternative use 1tsp of powder carbo load or brown cane sugar per 24 hours of planned brew time.
10. Add 1/2 to 1 scoop of ZHO powdered microbes.
11. Add 1/2 to 1 scoop of Great White powdered microbes.
12. Add 5mL of Root Excelurator.
13. add 30 to 100mL of Aquashield
14. Bubble your brew for 24-48 hours and no longer.
15. Separate the solids with cheese cloth, a t-shirt, etc. and put in a clean container.
16. When it is brewing you will see frothing usually by the 12th hour.
17. The frothing indicates you have active good microbes growing.
18. When the frothing diminishes that means your microbes are about done with their food (the sugar product you added).
19. That is good and is where you want to be.
20. You do not want to be adding any unused sugar remaining in your brewed tea when you add the tea to the rez.
21. That unused sugar will be a food source for the slime.
22. You must fridge your left over brewed tea.
23. You can fridge your tea for 7 to10 days.
24. Always give your tea a sniff test before you add it to your rez.
25. If your tea ever smells rank then get rid of it.
26. Your tea should smell earthy.
27. Don't worry about screwing up your tea mixture.
28. It's almost fool proof as long as you do not add too much of a sugar product.
29. For a new fresh rez you will add tea at a rate of 1 to 3 cups per 10 gallons.
30. In between rez clean outs you will add 1 cup of tea per 10 gallons every 3rd day to replenish the microherd army.
31. During a rez clean out, do not dump out your entire rez because you will keep 1 gallon per 10 gallons unless your rez is infected.
32. Make your new rez preferably with all chem ferts and not organic ferts.
33. Do not use enzyme products such as hygrozyme, sensizyme, etc. as these break down dead organic matter which are a known source of food (jet fuel) for the brown slime algae.
34. You can use the zyme products and organic ferts once you become more advanced.
35. Do not add sugar products such as carbo load directly to your rez unless you want to cause a slime explosion.
36. Remember to keep it simple (KISS: keep it simple stupid).
37. Don't over think everything or it will drive you crazy.
38. Last, enjoy explosive white furry roots and massive yields.
Click on the pictures to enlarge and see the recipe products and a frothy batch of tea brewing.
Don't worry about precision and having every product in the recipe. If you were to make a tea with just earth worm castings and molasses to get by until you can get the rest of the products, you will do okay. The main thing you are attempting to do is provide a plentiful amount of good microbes to outplace the bad microbes and especially the slime from getting a foothold and taking over your system and/or rez.
For those of you that prefer to grow in a dead rez, that is growing completely sterile, you will find how to do that within this thread. I also found success with UV lighting to combat the slime and there are additional success stories too. Going sterile as such is effective but I advocate using my tea recipe and instructions instead because nothing is better than getting close to replicating mother nature. With tea, the plants are more hardier, more resistant to stress, and the root masses get much much larger. In short the roots are amazing. A larger root mass equals a larger yield!
From 2007 thru 2009, the unknown snot slime was first correctly named and documented here, its source was first discovered and documented here, and the solution to defeating it was first discovered and documented here. If you think you are going crazy because you are slimed right now, imagine 5 LONG years of an unknown slime from hell wreaking havoc upon you. That's exactly what I went thru and I never gave up. At the time I had no website or forums to find the answers, nor anything on the slime. The only thread anywhere was this one started one month before I found it because they were all asking what this snot slime was themselves. I discovered what this slime from hell was and I discovered how to slay it.
I documented my quest, so no other person shall have to suffer the untold misery it can cause. I would wish this on no person. I was gone from here a good long while and I have seen how the discoveries here have gone wide and far because it works wonders. I should have known hydro/garden manufacturers and retailers would take advantage of this thread. I have seen them selling teas of the same recipe and crazy expensive contraptions to brew tea. All you need is a $3 dollar five gallon bucket and my original tea recipe or one of the others you will find within. My hydro tea recipe has also been plagiarized and is going around incorrectly by the name heisenberg tea by a person taking the credit for it at another website.
Don't get fooled by the manufacturers and retailers. Little do they know I have been a busy bee while I've been gone for the past few years. I didn't stop just because I had finally beat the slime. Among many things, I have awesome customized tea recipes strictly for hydro systems and my own gizmos that do much more than just brew tea. When the time is appropriate and I have protected my discoveries this time, I will present them.
The original slime club thread is epic, so do read through the entire thread when you can if you want to know all the details and other ways to deal with this dreaded problem, and other problems too. You will have no further questions once you read it all. This will be one of, if not the best thread about growing mmj you will have ever read.
An immense amount of credit is due to all the other icmag members that contributed their blood, sweat, tears, and time, so let's give credit where credit is due. <<< space reserved to list icmag members due credit by screen name >>> As for me, you can thank me by posting your success stories and before and after pictures. Those type of posts are truly satisfying. There are a lot of pictures and success stories contained within this thread. The results with an EZ Cloner are nothing short of amazing. You will learn a lot and that's a promise.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following pictures are of your enemy the brown slime algae (aka: hydro herpe, snot slime, hydro nasty, slimy cyano, slime from hell, root mucous).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You must get your yourself a bottle of Physan20. To sterilize and clean your system and equipment use Physan20 at 3mL per 25gallons. Unscented regular bleach is fine if you do not have Physan20, but do get it asap.When you have a crop that is on life support and you think it might be salvageable, you can run Physan20 (not bleach) through a hydro system with plants in it. Run it through the system for no more than 6 hours and dump it, then flush with clean water, and then make a new rez. That is how you sterilize your system from the slime and everything else.
The next step is to make a compost/ewc tea according to my recipe. You can use the tea in hydro systems, rockwool, soil, coco, etc.. All plant types and all types of growing media benefit tremendously. Besides keeping away the slime, we are replicating mother nature by attempting to provide all the beneficial microbes that are found naturally in soil.
Okay, now on to the RichyRich Hydro Tea Recipe and Instructions:
1. Put 4 gallons of RO water or bottled water in a 5 gallon bucket.
2. Add an air stone to the bucket with an air pump.
3. Any pump is fine.
4. If you only have tap water, bubble the tap water for 24 hours with the air stone to get rid of the chlorine.
5. The chlorine will kill the good microbes you are attempting to brew.
6. Add the following to the bucket directly or put it in a sock, nylon, mesh bag, etc. and hang it into the bucket.
7. Add 2 to 3 handfuls (or cups) of earth worm castings or Ancient Forest which is even better or go for a mix of both.
8. Add 25mL of liquid carbo load or molasses per 24 hours of planned brew time.
9. As an alternative use 1tsp of powder carbo load or brown cane sugar per 24 hours of planned brew time.
10. Add 1/2 to 1 scoop of ZHO powdered microbes.
11. Add 1/2 to 1 scoop of Great White powdered microbes.
12. Add 5mL of Root Excelurator.
13. add 30 to 100mL of Aquashield
14. Bubble your brew for 24-48 hours and no longer.
15. Separate the solids with cheese cloth, a t-shirt, etc. and put in a clean container.
16. When it is brewing you will see frothing usually by the 12th hour.
17. The frothing indicates you have active good microbes growing.
18. When the frothing diminishes that means your microbes are about done with their food (the sugar product you added).
19. That is good and is where you want to be.
20. You do not want to be adding any unused sugar remaining in your brewed tea when you add the tea to the rez.
21. That unused sugar will be a food source for the slime.
22. You must fridge your left over brewed tea.
23. You can fridge your tea for 7 to10 days.
24. Always give your tea a sniff test before you add it to your rez.
25. If your tea ever smells rank then get rid of it.
26. Your tea should smell earthy.
27. Don't worry about screwing up your tea mixture.
28. It's almost fool proof as long as you do not add too much of a sugar product.
29. For a new fresh rez you will add tea at a rate of 1 to 3 cups per 10 gallons.
30. In between rez clean outs you will add 1 cup of tea per 10 gallons every 3rd day to replenish the microherd army.
31. During a rez clean out, do not dump out your entire rez because you will keep 1 gallon per 10 gallons unless your rez is infected.
32. Make your new rez preferably with all chem ferts and not organic ferts.
33. Do not use enzyme products such as hygrozyme, sensizyme, etc. as these break down dead organic matter which are a known source of food (jet fuel) for the brown slime algae.
34. You can use the zyme products and organic ferts once you become more advanced.
35. Do not add sugar products such as carbo load directly to your rez unless you want to cause a slime explosion.
36. Remember to keep it simple (KISS: keep it simple stupid).
37. Don't over think everything or it will drive you crazy.
38. Last, enjoy explosive white furry roots and massive yields.
Click on the pictures to enlarge and see the recipe products and a frothy batch of tea brewing.
Don't worry about precision and having every product in the recipe. If you were to make a tea with just earth worm castings and molasses to get by until you can get the rest of the products, you will do okay. The main thing you are attempting to do is provide a plentiful amount of good microbes to outplace the bad microbes and especially the slime from getting a foothold and taking over your system and/or rez.
For those of you that prefer to grow in a dead rez, that is growing completely sterile, you will find how to do that within this thread. I also found success with UV lighting to combat the slime and there are additional success stories too. Going sterile as such is effective but I advocate using my tea recipe and instructions instead because nothing is better than getting close to replicating mother nature. With tea, the plants are more hardier, more resistant to stress, and the root masses get much much larger. In short the roots are amazing. A larger root mass equals a larger yield!
