Help please

DWC, water chiller at 67 degrees, running House and Garden Nutrients and using modified for DWC feeding chart.
They were all looking good for the first week or two, Roots were white. Now they have taken a turn for the worst. Just added superthrive last night and roots jelled up as you can see in this picture? any help would be appreciated.

Man you got root rot.

What strain are you running? I had that same prob and the craziest thing ever is what fixed them. I got root rot even worse than yours. Its gonna be at least a 2 week set back. I was gonna just junk them. I had 4 plants all had same prob. I took clones off all of them and unplugged my air pump. I left the plants in the room out of laziness while the clones were rooting. In just a couple days I noticed them getting better. A week later I had new root growth with NO AIR BEING SUPPLIED. 2 weeks later I had new plant growth, (still no air as I was waiting for them to die) but they came back stronger than ever! I had left them with no air for just over 3 weeks and I think that it killed the root rot. After I turned the air back on I did not baby them what so ever and did not PH the water and let the rez run down to almost empty before refilling. I only use sensi a/b grow then bloom. No additives. BTW I personally have NEVER had any luck with superthrive. It has always given me root probs with dwc so I don't use it. Just try no air for a few days and see what it does for you. This is what my roots used to look like and what my plants look like now. I didn't have enough room for all 4 with my aero setup

Look into beneficial microbes. Looks like a pathogen has taken over. Yeah about a 2 week set back if you act quick, but i don't suggest cutting the air supply.

good luck

I am so sorry to tell you sir, but that's that.

Root rot. Even with a chiller I root rot. And I don't know what your chiller costs you to run, but mine is about $300 a month for a 1/4 hp on 110v.

So, get the roots out of the water. I changed to top drip, timer feeding in coco and hydroton 50/50. I gave up on DWC and root rot. Too expensive.

Air stones add heat for the chiller to suffer with. It was just a nightmare for 2 years of f**king with it.

Doer said:

I am so sorry to tell you sir, but that's that.

Root rot. Even with a chiller I root rot. And I don't what your chiller cost you to run, but mine is about $300 a month for a 1/4 hp on 110v.

So, get the root out of the water. I changed to top drip, timer feeding in coco and hydroton 50/50. I gave up on DWC and root rot. Too expensive.

Click to expand...

$300 a month!!!
How often must you run it???
Permanently....?

What size reservoir does it keep chilled?
How effective is it (by how many degrees does it reduce temp) ??

$300 a month!
That's about $10 a day!

You're telling me??? Yeah. I was shocked. I typically had between 60 and 90 liters in the pond, and 12 buckets max. Remember for this, a dozen three foot plants drink a lot of water. But, every bit of water new water added has to be cooled, while it is being heated by the airstones.

And I had a big piston pump running 12 can sized airstones. So, pay to add heat to lift the water for 02, and pay to take the heat out.

The chiller is hot in the back, so despite my best efforts to contain that and exhaust it, I still had to run a 9000 BTU AC.

So, I guess it was not all chiller. It was the devils brew of heating and cooling at the same time.

In term of effectiveness it works great. The EcoPlus has good, simple controls. I can have the water at 45 degrees if I was keeping arctic Krill.

Too expensive so I went with 4 res, no cooling but, some ben microbes added. I'm now doing blooming with the 1000w and not running the AC.

So, keeping the costs in line is important if I want constant but small production as the end consumer of it all.

Thanks for all advice. doesn't root rot smell? There is no smell here. Couldit be something else? How does root rot form in dwc with chilled water? Going to drain water and flush with fresh water, great white and h202 and see what happens. Although just checked and new white roots are sprouting.

no way on giving up on DWC. Have you seen the harvest?! I'm not experiencing any power increases so I shall make it work.




for anybody that's w

The worse case of root rot I have ever seen. See that clear scum drip. That is what is keeping it from stinking. The plant is not dead, but forever stunted and worthless.

How does it happen? It just happens. Pythium is a spore based organism. It is everywhere in the environment. Sterilization is futile. In a pond all specimens have it before any show it.

The problem can only be controlled with O2 saturated water under 70F, AND a consortium of beneficial microbes must be maintained. More expense.

For the electric rate, most people can do better than me, in California. This is top tier rate for me $0.34 per kwh.

IAC, if you either brew the Bens, per the Heisenberg approach, here on RIU or you buy ZHO or Orca and Auqashield. When I was brewing tea, I added a sock full of Alaskan forest loam. The first is a picture of recovery of the roots. The plant never recovered. Stunted.



The next picture is even with the tea on new roots, it was a constant battle. Not worth it.

BTW, save your H2O2. It kills Great White. H2O2 supports Phytium by killing off it's competitor consortia of ben microbes.

So, much to learn and then I failed. So the experiments only are what makes it for you.

Thanks again but clear scum came in one day. After I added superthrive. Before that roots were dark brown?

The first thing is the clear scum. You can't see it. The roots are deprived and they become food.

What's IAC MEAN?

sorry, short hand for In Any Case.