Worms in dwc?

Dr.funkenstien

Active Member
Last night before I went to sleep I checked on my plants, roots were beautiful. This morning I check and they're kinda discolored which has happened before I figure it was just stain from nutes. But I looked a little closer and there was this little black worm crawling down the roots. I added some h2o2 and the color is fine now. I saw another worm thing but it was a lot smaller, kinda clear with black running through the middle. What is this? Are the plants gonna die? The leaves were turning this morning as well. Not positive cause I'm new to this but it looks to me like calcium deficiency.
 

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
might be fungus gnat larvae, a good dose of h2o2 every few days ought to keep them under control, or something like hydroguard or zonemaster. the larvae will eat the hairs off of your roots.
i'd get some mosquito bits and sprinkle them all over the surface of your pots, and some yellow traps, if you can cut down on the gnats , you'll have a lot less larvae to deal with
as far as leaves turning, some pics would help. i don't think the two things are related, if you had gnat larvae bad enough to fuck up your plants overnight, you would have noticed them before now, i would think
 

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
the first pic looks like calcium deficiency, the second pic looks like leafminer damage. there's a lot of good products to get rid of bugs, i personally like captain jack's dead bug brew, which has spinosad.
so i'd get some hydroguard, cause its just good to have on hand, some mosquito bits, some yellow sticky traps, and some good bug spray. use all of that and give it a good dose of cal mag and see what happens
 

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
i'm not a hydro guy, but those look funky to me, i understand hydroguard or dutchmaster zonemaster are both good products to keep roots healthy in hydro. i'm sure hydro people will know better than me, but i'd say you definitely need something
 

Dr.funkenstien

Active Member
i'm not a hydro guy, but those look funky to me, i understand hydroguard or dutchmaster zonemaster are both good products to keep roots healthy in hydro. i'm sure hydro people will know better than me, but i'd say you definitely need something
Crap, I guess if it ain't too much I gotta hit up the hydro store today. I know my system isn't the best. But I'm all for learning, so eventually it will be a real good professional rival (hopefully)
 

HydroRed

Well-Known Member
Between the bugs and the deficiency I figured it was root snot. It happens when there is a poor condition somewhere in your res whether it be improper temps, non-sterilized (using organic nutrients),no air stone,etc. You need to rinse the roots in another bucket or something then clean everything from the tub,pumps,hoses,any tools you may be using like pH meters, ppm meters etc. Once you get everything cleaned up make a new batch for the res and only use synthetic nutes. Change your res every cpl weeks or (depending on how clean you keep it) longer if you manage it well. If your hydroponic grow is small just buy the 3% h2o2 from the drug store and add 8-10ml to every gallon of water you add to the res. This will be enough to keep your res clean and steril in between res changes. Keep your res temps below 72 and you will hardly have conditions for root snot. Keep the res supplied with plenty of oxygen with lots of bubbles/airstones. If you dont use a water chiller, here's a couple things you can do that will help with keeping res temps lower:

-you can keep the res on the cold ground and insulate the outside of the res with styrofoam to help keep it cool.
-If you can, keep the res in a dark area out of the direct grow light.
-If you have a tote style res with the pots in the lid, you can paint the totes and the lids white.
-use small dual diaphram air pumps for the res. Larger air pumps put off lots of heat and this blows into your res through the bubbles continuously raising your res temp and making it a breeding ground for bacteria. Small dual diaphram pumps run cool and if needed you can use 3-4 dual diaphram air pumps and it will still be a tiny fraction of the heat a single large pump would put off.
 

Dr.funkenstien

Active Member
Between the bugs and the deficiency I figured it was root snot. It happens when there is a poor condition somewhere in your res whether it be improper temps, non-sterilized (using organic nutrients),no air stone,etc. You need to rinse the roots in another bucket or something then clean everything from the tub,pumps,hoses,any tools you may be using like pH meters, ppm meters etc. Once you get everything cleaned up make a new batch for the res and only use synthetic nutes. Change your res every cpl weeks or (depending on how clean you keep it) longer if you manage it well. If your hydroponic grow is small just buy the 3% h2o2 from the drug store and add 8-10ml to every gallon of water you add to the res. This will be enough to keep your res clean and steril in between res changes. Keep your res temps below 72 and you will hardly have conditions for root snot. Keep the res supplied with plenty of oxygen with lots of bubbles/airstones. If you dont use a water chiller, here's a couple things you can do that will help with keeping res temps lower:

-you can keep the res on the cold ground and insulate the outside of the res with styrofoam to help keep it cool.
-If you can, keep the res in a dark area out of the direct grow light.
-If you have a tote style res with the pots in the lid, you can paint the totes and the lids white.
-use small dual diaphram air pumps for the res. Larger air pumps put off lots of heat and this blows into your res through the bubbles continuously raising your res temp and making it a breeding ground for bacteria. Small dual diaphram pumps run cool and if needed you can use 3-4 dual diaphram air pumps and it will still be a tiny fraction of the heat a single large pump would put off.
The other day I did notnt plan right and I took one of the airstones out (it had 2) to put it in another bucket. I'll get another pump today as well. Almost to the hydro store now
 

Dr.funkenstien

Active Member
Now I just thought about something. Last week or so I noticed that the rock wool was getting a little mold. Could that be the culprit?
 

HydroRed

Well-Known Member
Now I just thought about something. Last week or so I noticed that the rock wool was getting a little mold. Could that be the culprit?
Mold or algae? If its algae then thats relatively normal and wont really harm the plants. If its mold, you will need to address it before it spreads to the leaves. I dont see mold on your RW cubes being the culprit for your issues though. I still believe it is an issue in your res conditions. Res temps/oxygenating the res/cleanliness etc. What are your res temps? What nutes are you using? How many stones and what air pumps are you using?
 

Dr.funkenstien

Active Member
Mold or algae? If its algae then thats relatively normal and wont really harm the plants. If its mold, you will need to address it before it spreads to the leaves. I dont see mold on your RW cubes being the culprit for your issues though. I still believe it is an issue in your res conditions. Res temps/oxygenating the res/cleanliness etc. What are your res temps? What nutes are you using? How many stones and what air pumps are you using?
When poured water over them the what I thought was mold disappeared. There wasn't much and it was white. I'm using the gh flora series. Today I just got the cal mag and hydrogaurd. I picked up another air pump and stones. One pump says aqua culture and has 2 outlets. One goes to the res I'm having problems with. The airstones is one of the long ones I picked up at pet something or other. The other is also a dual outlet. It's a active aqua. That has the plump round ones on it. Guy at the store said those were best. As for the temp...well I'm not sure on that. I been trading off frozen 2 litres. Thought I was going to have the funding to start my whole project but shit happened before I could get it all. I know I need more lights but I think this may be sufficient for the next week or so.
 

HydroRed

Well-Known Member
You need the tools to monitor your res temps, ppm and ph. If you dont have those tools you can almost always anticipate major issues.
It may have just been salty buildup from nutes on the RW cubes, but pretty hard to say without seeing it.
3 part flora series or the FloraNova series?
Also, any pics of how your rockwool is set up? I see that you have hydroton in netpots and a tote for the res in your last set of pics.
 
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