Desperate for a dead res technique !!!

doneit said:

socialist, RO does not filter bacteria or fungi, and yes, hth is calcium chloride.

overbudjet, we have not used it, we have used other fungicides like alliette with no luck.

Thanks guys

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doneit said:

I have been experimenting with the dead rez Idea for a couple of months now.

Our local water source is contaminated with some sort of bacteria/fungi that over takes the plants very quickly.

To date we have tried everything on the planet, from actinovate, alliette, bleach, pool shock and the lists goes on forever.
Our local growers have been plagued by this for over 2 yrs and has wiped out many grows and retired a few!

Bleach did not work.

I had some success with the hth pool shock but the calcium base literally does as much damage as the disease by day 30 flower.

I had minimal success with DM zone, it would keep the disease at bay for a few weeks but not eradicate it completely, by 3 weeks flower the disease would over take and thats that.

Our problem is every time you top up the res or feed the plants you keep introducing the disease.

I am currently trying Physan, it has only been a few days. It will be hard to evaluate its potential because the plants i am trying the physan on were in a loosing battle with the pool shock treatment. hopefully i will get some results in a few days, new growth, root development etc..

I have searched endlessly for 2yrs. I have found MANY threads and forums with hints of winning this battle, but NOTHING that has prevailed--- YET!

I also recently researched hydro-fungicide, but i believe that to be a sham like many others. they offer no insight on what it actually is. I believe if the advertising were true they would be the hottest selling product in our industry.

If anyone has any sound advice or strategy that pertains to this EVER growing problem in our communities i would LOVE to hear them in detail PLEASE!!!

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doneit said:

I have been experimenting with the dead rez Idea for a couple of months now.

Our local water source is contaminated with some sort of bacteria/fungi that over takes the plants very quickly.

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doneit said:

Shred, We use a simple top feed system, feed every 6hrs.
I personally did not use teas, but one of my old heads did in fact brew some, i cannot remember exactly what they were, i know a lot of people use them here on ic. they had no effect on the disease, in fact made it worse.
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TheArchitect, we use a merlin RO system with UV before it, the UV was designed for a whole house operation.
My pumps are 1650gph sump pumps, the tables drain into a gutter system then to the res, has a great water fall effect.

Can you tell me more about building a bio filter? is this something you have experioence with?

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Midnight said:

DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes



When a clear snot forms on roots in a DWC, and the normal course of treatment for root disease doesn't work, you probably have something called brown slime algae, which actually isn't algae at all, but a cyanobacteria. It loves oxygen and doesn't need light to grow. It doesn't care if your res is chilled or not. Safe levels of H202 slows it a bit but doesn't cure it. It can show up for DWC growers for no apparent reason even after years of successful grows. Once it shows up it's often a nightmare to get rid of. It WILL eventually spread to other DWC tubs, although it almost never gains a foothold on older well developed healthy plants/roots.

Several root conditions will cause a slimy build up; doesn't mean you have the brown slime. Common root disease is almost always caused by improper res conditions, and they improve greatly when those conditions are corrected. This isn't true of the slime. When to suspect brown slime algae is when you are doing everything right and still can't get rid of it. People who get this try the normal stuff... More bubbles in the water, cool res temps, and h202 treatments. The slime may appear to be gone at first, but comes back strong in as little as 12-36 hours. It starts out subtle like a clear coating of mucus on the roots with no odor. Plants often still appear healthy for a while, but all root production stops. In a very short time it will cover the entire root base and become thicker and sometimes turns yellow. Eventually it strangles the roots which causes pythium to set in, and at that point turns brown and finally has an odor.

The treatment is to clean up and sterilize the root base, and then populate the water with beneficial microbes. Simply running a continuous sterilizing agent such as SM-90, Zone, ect will almost certainly end with the slime as the winner. Some people have had luck running bleach or physan 20 continuously in the water, but most do not want there plants soaking in these particular chemicals. Making a microbe tea is cheap and easy, and IMO the proper way to fight this slime in a perpetual DWC garden.

Clean up the root base as well as possible. Best thing to do, if you can, is hold the plant over the sink and use the sprayer to vigorously rinse the roots, trying to get all the dead roots and gunk to slough off. It's OK to spray 3% h2o2 solution directly onto the roots at this point. It's also okay to give the dying roots a slight tug to see if they come off. Now let the roots soak in a strong h202 solution, or a mixture of whatever sterilizing agent you have. Physan 20 works great. This is a good time to sterilize any equipment and give the res a good scrub. After a few hours, no more than 12, of soaking in the solution rinse the roots really really well again, prepare a fresh res, and inoculate the res with beneficial microbes. Wait another 12 hours before adding nutes.

Once the slime is gone be sure to practice proper res maintenance, which includes keeping any type of organic material out of the res. Trying to sterilize the res is often a losing battle. In fact, since most hydro products fail to kill this stuff, when you sterilize the water you are removing all competing microbes except this one. There are people who use RO filters and then run their water through a UV sterilizer and still end up with the slime. The answer always seems to be beneficial microbes.

Below is my previous introduction to preparing and applying a microbe tea.


In DWC the roots sit in water constantly putting them at huge risk for disease. Some people have great luck using nothing at all. Others find sterilizing products keep their roots white, but a few of us have found that even with proper res maintenance and doing everything right, we still get a slimy build up on the roots. This is when a microbe tea can really make a difference by robbing the slime of housing, food, and actually attacking it.

By making a compost tea with a diverse selection of microbes you will have a super tonic for you res that will ward off nasty gunk and build up while at the same time keeping your roots stimulated and growing. Best of all it can be made for just pennies per batch.

Ok so we wont be starting from scratch. You have to buy a few products. But instead of using the products directly in the res, you will be breeding them in a tea. This way, you can use a fraction of the regular dose and make your products last much longer. Plus, you will end up with a freshly active tea that is more diverse than anything you can buy on the market.

Aquashield ($12) The product composition consists of: Bacillus subtilis, Paenibacillus polymxa, Bacillus circulans, and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. This gives you a base population of beneficial bacteria. (Aquashield can be replaced by any inoculation that contains bacillus bacteria.)

ZHO Powder ($10) The product composition consists of: Glomus intradices, Glomus aggregatum, Glomus etunicatum, Glomus mosseae, Trichoderma harzianum, and Trichoderma koningii. This gives you a base populartion of beneficial fungi. (ZHO can be replaced by any inoculation that contains myco fungi)

Ancient Forest EWC ($14) - Soil amendment provides a high diversity of microorganisms, including more than 35,000 species of bacteria and over 5,000 species of fungi. (AF can be replaced by any earth worm casting)

EDIT* Mycogrow soluble is the cheapest and most diverse inoculant we have found. It can replace everything here except the ancient forest.


The recipe is really simple. Start with non-chlorinated water. I make 2 gallons at a time, but you can easily adjust the additives for whatever amount you wish to make. Now put the water into a bucket and throw in a couple air stones. The more air the better. You want the water to be almost turbulent from the bubbles. Now add 15-30ml of aquashield and about 1/4-1/2 scoop of the ZHO powder. You will be breeding these into the billions so it doesn't really matter how much you start with. Now take an old sock or pantyhose and fill it with about 2 handfuls of EWC. Tie off the sock and place it in the water above an air stone, or better yet, feed an air stone down into the sock itself. If you want, you can just throw the EWC directly into the water and strain it out later with cheesecloth. Next add about a tablespoon of molasses to wake up the microbes and give them something to eat. We will only be feeding the microbes in this tea; never add food for the microbes to the res itself. It's okay if the bennies in the res starve. You will be replacing them every few days. Now let the tea bubble at room tempeture for 48 hours. It can be used after 24, but will be more active and diverse at 48. You can now store the tea in the fridge where it will stay fresh for about 10 days. Once it starts to go bad it will develop an odor. If you ever detect an odor from your tea, throw it out and make a new batch.

Initially, add about 1 cup to your res for every gallon of water, and then add 1 cup total every 3 days after. Your water might get a little cloudy but your roots will stay white and stimulated. When you use tea and practice proper res maintenance you can feel confident your roots will be healthy. By breeding the microbes this way your products should last about 5x longer. Once you have eradicated slime and simply want protection from future outbreaks, adjust the tea dosage to 1 cup per 10 gallons.

If you are interested in why the tea works, or what products you may use for substitution, continue reading the rest of the thread. It is a journey I took with others to learn a great more about the tea. If you want to see how I use this tea in a cloner, jump to here.

***In an attempt to address frequent issues which bloat the thread

You can substitute just about any product you want. Any EWC will give you a good base of microbes. Any product or combo of products which contain mycos, bacillus, and trichoderma will do the trick. Don't worry about matching my exact ingredients.


If you notice a dark sort of slime form after you treat with tea, stay the course. As long as you see new shoots growing you are on your way to recovery. The after-slime is harmless and will not grow or stall roots.

Do not use tea with h202, sm-90, Zone or any type of sterilizing product. Do not filter tea beyond 400 microns.

If you run a system with sprayers or pumps, you may want to make your tea with mycogrow hydro mix only. (as opposed to mycogrow soluble) It contains only mycos which shouldn't cause clogging. However, no one has reported clogging from using regular tea.


Take care of impropoer res conditions FIRST. Even the tea will not save you from disease if you do not have enough oxygen or proper temperatures. Res water should be no higher than 75f with bennies. Air pump should be at least 1wt per gallon. Light proof your buckets!

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TheArchitect said:

Is this dtw, or are you recirculating? What media is that, perlite?



Try capturing the water from the ro, and before doing anything let the water recirculate through another uv sterilizer, also grab some ona bleech, it's even stronger than physan. It's chlorine dioxide. And yes it's majorly different then sodium hypochlorite or other normal chlorine sources.

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See the valve before the pump? Between there(after the 1.5>2" PVC fitting) and the pump is a length of 2" PVC about 18" long" it has coarse filter pad in it. That's a simple biofilter. There are all sorts of designs online, but basically it's a place for beneficial bacteria to colonize, gives them a home base.



Depending on your answers to my initial questions, I'm leaning towards you have it in your water, but ultimately it's only surviving because the conditions allow.

Waterlogged, unoxygenated rootzone, a stagnant resivoir etc. One solution since your running hydro is to feed more often to insure the solution in the rootzone stays oxygenated since you can't overwater. You also need to keep you resivoir aerated while it's just sitting there. A pump creating a waterfall is better than an airstone.


Edit: actually it's not clear your running hydro, could you explain your system in more detail?

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