Quality solution to add to my irrigation reservoir for keeping water clean?

I recently switched to blumats irrigation for my setup and I noticed today that somehow the water inside my 20 gal tank is already getting cloudy with a colorful film on top, after only a handful of days.
I scrubbed the tank down before hand ofcoarse and added r.o water then mixed with tap. I've also got a water pump in there that's keeping the water moving aggressively to try to combat any bad growth building up.
I know next to nothing about hydroponics, always been in soil and am running with super soil, so now I'm seeing my next important step is to find something that is absolutely friendly with the microbial life in the soil but will keep my water clean. Detaching my tank every week and cleaning is not an option as it will screw up the settings of my blumats, I cant just detach my water line to clean the bin all the time. So I'm wondering what everyone's using for quality SS friendly H2O cleaner?

A little bit separate topic is daily my ph is rising to mid 7's after lowering the ph the day prior, is this normal and something I'll have to do daily or is there something I can do to help against that too?

And while I have you all here, eventually I'll have to start feeding a little, have never had soil last me the whole way through, and I have mega crop. I see 50% of people saying use plain water ONLY through blumats. Another chunk claims to run mega crop in their rez with NO problems. So that's got me a bit confused. If you've actually ran MC through irrigation lines, did it work fine? What problems if any did you run into?

I appreciate anybody's feedback very much!

Is that tank light proof? Minerals in the tap water will allow algae etc to grow. Even RO water will get green crap growing in it if I leave it sitting in one of my milk jug watering cans for a few days in the grow room.

You say you have a water pump moving the water around but no mention of an air pump. I'd get a cheapo aquarium air pump and stone from the pet store and toss that in. Or have the outlet end of your water pump above the top of the water creating a waterfall to add air to the tank.

When water gets stagnant it will get scummy. We get our house water from a dugout on the property and it's dark grey when you fill a bathtub in the winter and before even getting in it leaves a black, oily looking ring around the tub. A shotglass of bleach added while filling the tub prevents that as does 35% peroxide but peroxide ain't cheap like bleach.

You should be able to add megacrop to the tank if you keep it aerated and light proof. Garbage bags will work to block the light as will any heavy black plastic wrap or Panda Film.

Good luck eh!

OldMedUser said:

Is that tank light proof? Minerals in the tap water will allow algae etc to grow. Even RO water will get green crap growing in it if I leave it sitting in one of my milk jug watering cans for a few days in the grow room.

You say you have a water pump moving the water around but no mention of an air pump. I'd get a cheapo aquarium air pump and stone from the pet store and toss that in. Or have the outlet end of your water pump above the top of the water creating a waterfall to add air to the tank.

When water gets stagnant it will get scummy. We get our house water from a dugout on the property and it's dark grey when you fill a bathtub in the winter and before even getting in it leaves a black, oily looking ring around the tub. A shotglass of bleach added while filling the tub prevents that as does 35% peroxide but peroxide ain't cheap like bleach.

You should be able to add megacrop to the tank if you keep it aerated and light proof. Garbage bags will work to block the light as will any heavy black plastic wrap or Panda Film.

Good luck eh!

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It is light proof so I have that going for me. Yeah the pump pushes the water pretty aggressively, I have it at the bottom and it still makes a serious bulge/wave of water at the top. I've read in several places that you dont want to oxygenate your water in the blue mats reservoir but I'm kind of unclear for the reason why, and also read that the water pump is a better option. Read those things from random threads on different websites so theres always mixed answers and some bad info here and there so makes it just a bit harder finding the right answer.

I did purchase Hydroguard though, would that be okay to mix into the tank and run through the lines? My main worry with it is, is it going to clog up the 3mm lines over time and is it going to be friendly with my super soil.
I always thought it was for keeping clean water but talks on the bottle about being a bacillus root inoculate..?

Don't go putting hydroguard or anything like it in your tank. You'll get biofilm going on and that won't have a happy ending. Add that to your pots with hand watering along with some carbs like unsulfered black strap molasses to feed the bioherd.

I'd get an airstone going. I can't think of any reason that would cause problems in a Blumat system. It's not like it makes the water all fizzy like soda pop or anything. Just keeps the water moving and as high in dissolved oxygen as possible and that will prevent any scum forming in the water. I'd even add food grade peroxide at low levels to keep the water sparkling clear.

Been thinking about getting into those Blumats myself but have read so many threads about people having trouble getting them working right. I expect to be keeping a few mothers and it would be handy for that.