RDWC Bacterial Growth CAN IT BE SALVAGED ?

GrowDogg

New Member
Hey guys,
This is my first time doing Hydro, and things are going great, im using Current Culture H2O nutrients line with Bud Boosters Early and Late and also using Reverse Osmosis water.
I have a custom built RDWC intermittent pump for 15 mins on and 15mins off to mitigate the heat issue. Its a 3 pot system 2 x plants and 1x reservoir, im growing an AK47 Auto and a White Widow Max Auto. Both are in week 2 of flower. My problem is I changed the water and flushed the system 2 days ago and put new nutrients in to a ppm of 850.
Basically I left the override switch on for my water pump so it was running for 24 hours straight causing temperatures to rise to 27° and the pH to rise to 6.7 and the ppm stayed the same roughly but the plants drank their usual 2 litres each, now there is a film on the surface of the water in the reservoir and a smell of root deterioration, there isn't slime as per say yet on the roots, it hasn't gone that far. Though im sure it could progress further if I dont correct it. What I have done to temperarily fix the issue is add Frozen water bottles to bring the temp down to 20°c to try kill any pathogens and ive also added 2ml per 10 litres of HydroEdge (beneficial bacteria for DWC applications)(6ml) total), and lowered my pH to 5.6 instead of 5.8 to also create an acidic environment not favourable to bacteria. Seeing as I did a full system flush and refill a couple days ago you can probably see why im hesitant to 'waste' all of the nutrients in the system if I can find a way to salvage it SAFELY or atleast let the plants use most of the nutrients in the system and do a full change out tomorrow or the following that would be good. If there is any risk of it causing further damage or problems such as root rot/slime to set in seriously then I dont want to risk it, I'd rather do a full drain.
I want your advice on how I can correct the bacterial fungi growth that has occurred overnight. Would you guys recommend that I need to do a complete system drain and flush immediately or is there something I can do to salvage it, like adding tap water with chlorine and bennies and Acidic environment for a few days.
This is my first time doing Hydro, and things are going great, im using Current Culture H2O nutrients line with Bud Boosters Early and Late, just one little slip of the mind, leaving a switch on and temperatures rise out of control, I probably could of prevented this by using beneficial bacteria to prevent a problem but as I said up until now I've had no problems at all so I thought why add something if it isn't needed.
Im going to do a full system flush tonight if I dont get enough advice about if I can do something to save this batch of nutrients.
Note I AM ALSO USING CURRENT CULTURE UC ROOTS WHICH IS A MINERAL DESCALER AND RECOMMENDS TO NOT USE ANY OTHER STERILISER OR DISINFECTANT, OR BENEFICIAL BACTERIA.
UC roots in hypochlorous acid in a safe mix ratio for plants, will this itself be enough to correct the issue?
 

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Larry3215

Well-Known Member
My 2 cents worth...

You're risking loosing the plants to save a few $ on nutes. Toss the rez and all the nutes in the buckets. Flush well. Flush again and use some chlorine at 4-6 PPM or H2O2 each time to clean/kill as well as possible before re-filling with new nutes. Scrub everything uou can with strong bleach in between flushes with plain water and 4-6 PPM bleach. Even that may not work.

Ive never seen benificial bacteria kill an active infection. Even chlorine doesnt work most times after it gets going strong. Bennies are only good for prevention and then only if you do everything else right. use pool shock to save money.

Switch to Jacks 321 hydro nutes and save a ton of money and get the best hydro nutes out there. You are spending a ton of extra $$$$ for a small amount of nutes in a bunch of water.

Good luck and hope you get it under control.
 

kingromano

Well-Known Member
you need to build a biofilter otherwise your bennies wont be efficient

they usually do not survive well in water
 

GrowDogg

New Member
Hey guys, all is well.
Turns out my air pump had failed for 36 hours and the pump on with the heat caused the water to go off.
Drained my system completely, flushed with tap water ( sprayed the roots and the buckets walls with tap water - medium pressure ) I figure there is enough chlorides in Tap water to kill the bacteria and I was right, it certainly helped to control the issue better then if I had only used RO water to flush.
When the water was drained and sprayed with chlorinated water I let the roots sit in the tap water being aerated for 20 minutes.
Cranked up the A/C to lower the ambient temperature to 21°c and I am checking the water ever few hours for signs of returning water born problems.
Lesson learned, follow the procedure to check everything is working and functioning well, and dont skip the steps because it is usually okay.
I am also using an extra 10% Ultra Clear roots, (hypochlorous acid) is the solution too.
My Bud Booster - Late - arrived in the mail today, it is extremely high is phosphates and potassium.
Will introduce that to my system at the end of this week. Bud booster early and bud booster mid are basically the same just slightly stronger, where as bud booster late is substantially more potent.
Will update photos soon
 
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race winslow

Well-Known Member
Hey guys, all is well.
Turns out my air pump had failed for 36 hours and the pump on with the heat caused the water to go off.
Drained my system completely, flushed with tap water ( sprayed the roots and the buckets walls with tap water - medium pressure ) I figure there is enough chlorides in Tap water to kill the bacteria and I was right, it certainly helped to control the issue better then if I had only used RO water to flush.
When the water was drained and sprayed with chlorinated water I let the roots sit in the tap water being aerated for 20 minutes.
Cranked up the A/C to lower the ambient temperature to 21°c and I am checking the water ever few hours for signs of returning water born problems.
Lesson learned, follow the procedure to check everything is working and functioning well, and dont skip the steps because it is usually okay.
I am also using an extra 10% Ultra Clear roots, (hypochlorous acid) is the solution too.
My Bud Booster - Late - arrived in the mail today, it is extremely high is phosphates and potassium.
Will introduce that to my system at the end of this week. Bud booster early and bud booster mid are basically the same just slightly stronger, where as bud booster late is substantially more potent.
Will update photos soon
I'm on my second run with Cultured Solutions. Ran auto's during first grow. Yield: 4 plants 29.5 oz's.
I did not change my water during the entire grow (11weeks). Managed to keep ph and e.c. stable through out. Cultured solutions is fairly adamant about not adding amendments. I used the boosters too. The only extra that I added was kool bloom for bud fattening.
I'm new to RDWC too. It was really hard to fight the inclination to add beneficial bacteria. There are a couple videos on youtube that go into the science of their nutrients. I found them quite helpful.
I'm in veg now on my second grow with CS. This time growing photos. I'll be flushing when I switch to flowering. This grow will probably determine whether I continue with the line.
Hope it's going well for you.
 

HydroBum

Member
I had a similar situation as you encountered and even had some root rot going on due to high water temps. To my surprise I was able to salvage my plant but it took a lot of attention. It seems strange to say that this is why I prefer Hydro over soil. One word of advise I will share is to make sure your water tester is calibrated and recalibrate it often to make sure its accurate. Part of the reason I ran into issues was due to a "Cheap" and inaccurate PH Tester during my early days.
 

race winslow

Well-Known Member
I had a similar situation as you encountered and even had some root rot going on due to high water temps. To my surprise I was able to salvage my plant but it took a lot of attention. It seems strange to say that this is why I prefer Hydro over soil. One word of advise I will share is to make sure your water tester is calibrated and recalibrate it often to make sure its accurate. Part of the reason I ran into issues was due to a "Cheap" and inaccurate PH Tester during my early days.
Thanks man! I'm glad that you were able to restore your roots and keep the grow viable.
I was using a Blue Lab Ph meter that was about 5 years old. Didn't trust the calibration any longer. I bought a New BLab Ph Pen and Truncheon. No screwing around. The water chemistry is too sensitive and it's easy to overfeed. That's even when the Cultured Solutions nutrient calculator is used. I don't skimp on the UC Roots. Keeping it slightly above recommended dose. At this point I'm only putting clear nutrients in the water which is city water. So far, so good
 

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
I have a 50 gal system with a chiller rated for 70 gal and it has to run non stop to keep the water at 70 when the chiller is set at 68. So if you do invest in a chiller make sure its big enough
are you running your whole system thru the chiller or on a closed loop?
 

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
I run my resivior thru the chiller, and that content runs through the entire loop
i ran mine on a closed loop thru a wort chiller (homebrewing device) and only had to chill about 4 gallons of water. and no nutes thru the chiller coils too which increases chiller life.
 

2com

Well-Known Member
I have a 50 gal system with a chiller rated for 70 gal and it has to run non stop to keep the water at 70 when the chiller is set at 68. So if you do invest in a chiller make sure its big enough
The pump you're using might be running too fast then.
 

BallsackSal

Active Member
I like the DC water pumps for stuff like this. They have variable flow rates and a couple other nice features. :) FWIW
My current pump is rated for 370gph and after you said something I checked the specs on the chiller and they recommend 200-315gph, specifically their 291 gph pump. So that could definitely be the cause of my lower performance. I haven't ordered the new pump yet so I will look into the DC pumps you mention.
 

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
My current pump is rated for 370gph and after you said something I checked the specs on the chiller and they recommend 200-315gph, specifically their 291 gph pump. So that could definitely be the cause of my lower performance. I haven't ordered the new pump yet so I will look into the DC pumps you mention.
how about just an inline valve to slow it down vs a new pump?
 
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