Get rid of “The Slime” aka “Brown Slime Algae” aka “Cyanobacteria”!

[Snype]

Just curious. Did you send in a sample to a lab to find this out?

Again, i am so happy to see some information on this topic. I know this has been a very common issue for people around my area for the last few years.

This was 3 or 4 years ago. It was sent to a lab. At that time I was living in Western MA and there was an infestation of Zebra Mussels that made their way into the Quabbin. For some reason, Zebra Mussels bring Cyanobacteria with them. Something to do with the Nitrogen to Phosphorus levels. Whatever strain of Cyanobacteria that I had was resistant to Chlorine.

 

[TrichCrazy5280]

This was 3 or 4 years ago. It was sent to a lab. At that time I was living in Western MA and there was an infestation of Zebra Mussels that made their way into the Quabbin. For some reason, Zebra Mussels bring Cyanobacteria with them. Something to do with the Nitrogen to Phosphorus levels. Whatever strain of Cyanobacteria that I had was resistant to Chlorine.

Sorry if this is off topic but i was wondering this. For me it tends to happen on day 3-4 after installed when the slime comes. Could it be at all possible that when you add the tap water with chlorine that after the machine runs with air pumping after a couple day the chlorine has now dissipated and the Cyanobacteria can now take hold? Its not immune to chlorine but the chlorine is then gone? Just a thought. Either way i am defiantly running this through my machines.

 

[NorPene Solutions]

Slime...YUK!

 

[TrichCrazy5280]

You said the cyanobacteria comes from our tap water. How does treating your machine get rid of it forever then? Are we assuming the bacteria builds up over time? SO after i treat my machine and clean it out it should hopefully work but do you just do another round of the antibiotics if the slime comes back? Just looking for some clarification.

I have a machine that was giving me lots of trouble. I am currently on day two of the treatment. Thanks

 

[Snype]

You said the cyanobacteria comes from our tap water. How does treating your machine get rid of it forever then? Are we assuming the bacteria builds up over time? SO after i treat my machine and clean it out it should hopefully work but do you just do another round of the antibiotics if the slime comes back? Just looking for some clarification.

I have a machine that was giving me lots of trouble. I am currently on day two of the treatment. Thanks

The Cyanobacteria builds up over time. I believe that it is very rare that strains of Cyanobacteria are resistant to chlorine. The only way to know which protocols to take is to preform various tests.

If you have to use the Erythromycin to sanitize your cloner, you can try rooting clones with your tap water and 1 PPM of Chlorine. If that doesn't work, either you didn't perform the treatments correctly or you have a strain of Cyano that may be resistant to Chlorine.

If this is the case, you can use bottled water in the cloner. As long as you grow your root healthy in the cloner, you won't have to worry about using tap water in the VEG and flowering systems because the Cyano will have a tough time latching on after the cloning stage.

 

[TrichCrazy5280]

The Cyanobacteria builds up over time. I believe that it is very rare that strains of Cyanobacteria are resistant to chlorine. The only way to know which protocols to take is to preform various tests.

If you have to use the Erythromycin to sanitize your cloner, you can try rooting clones with your tap water and 1 PPM of Chlorine. If that doesn't work, either you didn't perform the treatments correctly or you have a strain of Cyano that may be resistant to Chlorine.

If this is the case, you can use bottled water in the cloner. As long as you grow your root healthy in the cloner, you won't have to worry about using tap water in the VEG and flowering systems because the Cyano will have a tough time latching on after the cloning stage.

Reading comprehension was never one of my strong points. Damn, you mentioned every question i asked in your original post. Thank you so much for clearing this up and sorry for my lack of intelligence

FWIW the guy at the fish store knew exactly what i was talking about when i mentioned cynaobacteria and assured me this was the correct method. He did mention that for plants you can go half strength at one packet per 20 gallons. But since i am not actually using this on plants i am going full strength without replacing 25% of the water everyday like suggested for fish tanks.

Thanks again for your contribution, its nice to have some solid information on this after so long of just guessing.

 

[Snype]

Reading comprehension was never one of my strong points. Damn, you mentioned every question i asked in your original post. Thank you so much for clearing this up and sorry for my lack of intelligence

FWIW the guy at the fish store knew exactly what i was talking about when i mentioned cynaobacteria and assured me this was the correct method. He did mention that for plants you can go half strength at one packet per 20 gallons. But since i am not actually using this on plants i am going full strength without replacing 25% of the water everyday like suggested for fish tanks.

Thanks again for your contribution, its nice to have some solid information on this after so long of just guessing.

Yeah I'm not like those other guys here to tell you to go do some research and not give answers even though they were already stated. I just hope that people don't use this on plants. That's the fucked up thing about releasing information like this. Some people will go using my knowledge to fuck up their patients because they are lazy or hard headed.

 

[TrichCrazy5280]

Yeah I'm not like those other guys here to tell you to go do some research and not give answers even though they were already stated. I just hope that people don't use this on plants. That's the fucked up thing about releasing information like this. Some people will go using my knowledge to fuck up their patients because they are lazy or hard headed.

Again, thanks for your patience for people like me. I would also hope people respect the knowledge and not use this on plants. When i said the fish store guy suggested half dose for plants he was referring to aquarium plants and i assured him this was a cleaning technique and not for use on my plants.

 

[TrichCrazy5280]

I completed the 6 day cleansing with the EM. Replaced the spray heads, hosing, air stones, pump, neoprene's and completely cleaned the thing till my hands were pruned. I boiled up 10 gallons of water and added .5 ml bleach as suggested in your other thread. Today is day 2 since the new HEALTHY clones were added to the machine and no slime yet!!

I am excited for the potential of actually having successful cloning results again, just wanted to say thanks.

 

[calikush4life]

just read all your cloning threads interesting stuff.. am definitely going to have to go back to the drawing board on what I've learned throughout the way... if I just developed this problem after day 5 and I never added chlorox to my water by adding the recommended dosage will that help at all? the slime is more dark not white

 

[Snype]

just read all your cloning threads interesting stuff.. am definitely going to have to go back to the drawing board on what I've learned throughout the way... if I just developed this problem after day 5 and I never added chlorox to my water by adding the recommended dosage will that help at all? the slime is more dark not white

If you already have some sort of pathogen, you should give 2.5 PPM chlorine. Because you have some sort of pathogen, the chlorine will go down very fast. It's hard to give an accurate schedule for your situation because there's no way to know how fast the chlorine will go below 0.5 PPM in the system without a Chlorine meter. We are just playing a guessing game so your 2 options are to either toss all your clones, clean the cloner and start over, or add 1-2 drops of Clorox Bleach per gallon to the system every 24 hours. Hope you get your issues worked out.

 

[squarepush3r]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanobacteria

according to this, CyanoB are photosynthetic (meaning they need light).
Have people lightproof their cloners?

Also it mentions Calcium Hypochlorite kills it, but maybe as Snype mention there is some strains that are more resistant to chrlorine. However the article mentions Calcium Hypochlorite (which is different than Bleach) so maybe that is more effective.

We should consider the possibility that it isn't Cyanobacteria causing the problem if you have good light seals and high dose chlorine doesn't work.

 

[Snype]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanobacteria

according to this, CyanoB are photosynthetic (meaning they need light).
Have people lightproof their cloners?

Also it mentions Calcium Hypochlorite kills it, but maybe as Snype mention there is some strains that are more resistant to chrlorine. However the article mentions Calcium Hypochlorite (which is different than Bleach) so maybe that is more effective.

We should consider the possibility that it isn't Cyanobacteria causing the problem if you have good light seals and high dose chlorine doesn't work.

I wouldn't listen to wiki about important issues. Cyanobacteria is known to grow in the dark.

http://huey.colorado.edu/cyanobacteria/about/cyanobacteria.php
"Most species are phototrophs, but some filamentous species can grow in the dark using sugar from glucose or sucrose as a carbon and energy source."

 

[cannabacca]

Why not just run a dead rez ? I got slime even while running EWC, it's such a pain in the ass I'm thinking about running a dead rez to get through rooting then go to standard practices to veg and flower.

 

[Snype]

Why not just run a dead rez ? I got slime even while running EWC, it's such a pain in the ass I'm thinking about running a dead rez to get through rooting then go to standard practices to veg and flower.

We are running dead rez's with Chlorine. There are certain types of slime that are resistant to Chlorine. Those growers have to take extra precautions.

 

[Vg_Ace]

Snype is it ok to run chlorine AND Erythromycin in my cloner to clean it out? Will they have any effect on each other?

 

[Snype]

Snype is it ok to run chlorine AND Erythromycin in my cloner to clean it out? Will they have any effect on each other?

If you use the Erythromycin that I advertise here, it already contains chlorine in it. It doesn't only have Erythromycin. There are more chemicals added so I wouldn't add anything else.

 

[LostTribe]

double post please delete me sorry admin!!

 

[LostTribe]

SM-90 'll take care of that asap. Kills all root rot and really quick and made from flowers and smells like lemon drop cleaner. Is not known to mess up PH.

 

[Timeless Seeds]

Thanks for the info, I ditched my EZ cloner because of the slime. Now that I know how to address the problem, it might be time to go back.