First off I do not grow hydro, but I do grow organic soil. I thought this forum was the most fitting since my question is res related. I run an RO filter into a standard black kitchen trash can with a lid. It has a float valve to shut it off, and I bubble an air stone in it for extra oxygen. I have a 300 gph pump plumbed to a regular outside faucet like on your house. I do not put anything in this. I just use it for water. Thats it. My old setup was white, and I never had any issues. Now though that I have changed it a bit my water feels a bit slimy. There is no color, or smell to it. What is this? Is it bad? What can I do to organically fix it? Thanks for your help.

[shibbysurfrider]

OK so I do organic Hydro and have run into slimy water myself. First of all, the slimy water is in the rez without nutes? As I understand you are just filling your container with R/O water and it is becoming slimy?

First off, you should clean your containers in between each use, regardless of what is going in or coming out of them. "slimy'' usually means some kind of bacteria or algae growth. Contamination can come from bad water, spores in the air, your hands, your breathing etc.

Also, is the water left standing? Standing water is a breeding ground for all kinds of nasties. An air stone helps, but if the water is left outside it's open to contamination from all kinds of sources.

When I encountered 'slime' in my organic rez, I did a water change and cleaned everything with h2o2 and started using an organic product called Hygrozyme at half strength. So far my rez has not shown any bad growth to date.

I do not have a between use time to clean res. I use the res to water my plants. So there is always some water in it. Today was a water day so it will go down to about a 1/4 full, but then later tonight it will be full again. I am just kind of perplexed because like i said my last setup was just fine for months, and now this one is getting slimey in just a few weeks. I guess I will drain it and clean it and see what that does.

[shibbysurfrider]

I think cleaning should help. I just can't imagine how anything could grow without some type of food or light. And if you're using R/O water, it should filter out all microbes... Are your membranes/filters all up to date?

I change the prefilter once a week, and the carbon filter once a month. Then I change the ro filter every six months. I wonder if there was something in it when I bought it? It is a walmart trash can. It could have had a number of things in it. Who knows. Thanks for the help though. If you have any other ideas shoot them my way.

[shibbysurfrider]

No problem. I know how aggravating it is when you don't know what the problem is ( or even if there is one in the first place! ) or how to fix it. My only guess would be cross-contamination. Is there something you dip into the bucket? Something that could come into contact with the dirt or plants? That's all I got for now.

[chongsbuddy]

cleaning a rez is a 3 minute job man,well worth the little effort,an ounce of prevention........i gaurantee that it is the main problem.all of a sudden the rez had slime?well if you didnt wash the rez for months ,eventually it is going to slime!there you go,now you know!the guy is trying to help you,and if you cant take 5 minutes to clean a rez beacause you dont have the time you should stick to outdoor growing or none at all.and if it is not the entire problem i would bet it is contributing to it!just try it!what have you got to lose.im not trying to be rude,but a guy gave you some solid advise and you said you didnt havr the time do do it...what woiuld you have time for?

Originally Posted by chongsbuddy

cleaning a rez is a 3 minute job man,well worth the little effort,an ounce of prevention........i gaurantee that it is the main problem.all of a sudden the rez had slime?well if you didnt wash the rez for months ,eventually it is going to slime!there you go,now you know!the guy is trying to help you,and if you cant take 5 minutes to clean a rez beacause you dont have the time you should stick to outdoor growing or none at all.and if it is not the entire problem i would bet it is contributing to it!just try it!what have you got to lose.im not trying to be rude,but a guy gave you some solid advise and you said you didnt havr the time do do it...what woiuld you have time for?

You are being a dick, and i never said that I don't have time. I said that I do not have time between my res being full and being empty because it is never empty. It is always full of water. So I would have to uninstall it and drain it.