Bleach instead of H2o2

kingromano · Jan 5, 2021

bleacher said:
Just for the beneficial bacteria and fungi. Actually I already tried using the dechlorinator and noticed some negative effects. I didn't know if it was residual bleach or the dechlorinator causing it. The plants turned a bit yellower with streaks on the lower leaves. They recovered after a week.

chlorine contained in your tap water will not make plants yellow
plants can tolerate way heavier doses than the 1-2ppm of your tap water
city water is actually very well suited for sterile hydroponics
it's sterilised and sent to you with enough chlorine to reach you clean and free of pathogens

but to use your beneficials it's problematic
to run with bennies you need to use 100 % ro water, or recover the condensate water of your air conditionners/dehumidifiers
or eventually rain water if it's clean

dont forget to use soft water nutrients with RO water
don't do the regular nutrients+calmag thing
use soft water suited nutrients

pinner420 · Jan 5, 2021

I'm wondering how many rdwc threads I've read over the years with guys seeking 2 gpw were just to cheap to buy a 300 dollar chiller. c'mon man.. H's and O's for me 29% h202 is cheap and don't need a chem degree to know that an 02 bond will just add O.

SuperiorBuds · Jan 5, 2021

pinner420 said:
I'm wondering how many rdwc threads I've read over the years with guys seeking 2 gpw were just to cheap to buy a 300 dollar chiller. c'mon man.. H's and O's for me 29% h202 is cheap and don't need a chem degree to know that an 02 bond will just add O.

Lots of ways to handle this for sure. Personally I like HTH Pool Shock, a $6 bag will treat thousands of gallons of water. Even with my chiller I prefer to run sterile, it's eliminated any problems I used to run into. And unlike bleach the shock is calcium hypochlorite not sodium hypochlorite. Breaks down cleanly within a few days, too.

bleacher · Jan 5, 2021

QUOTE]

kingromano said:
chlorine contained in your tap water will not make plants yellow

I used a lot of bleach, 1 ml per gal because I'm using stored rainwater which I know is full of pythium. Also could be the particular bleach I used. Noticed it said "with fabric protection" on the bottle. I'm going to try cutting it down to .5 ml/gal and use regular plain bleach. Then use a bubbler.

kingromano · Jan 5, 2021

bleacher said:
QUOTE]

I used a lot of bleach, 1 ml per gal because I'm using stored rainwater which I know is full of pythium. Also could be the particular bleach I used. Noticed it said "with fabric protection" on the bottle. I'm going to try cutting it down to .5 ml/gal and use regular plain bleach. Then use a bubbler.

are you using chlorine or beneficials ?
you can't use both

beneficials is the way to go for you
rainwater+beneficials=good

bleacher · Jan 5, 2021

kingromano said:
are you using chlorine or beneficials ?
you can't use both

beneficials is the way to go for you
rainwater+beneficials=good

I guess I have to explain again. I'm using stored rainwater that was comes off my roof and goes into my gutters. I know this is full of pythium. It must be from all the dust in the air and on the roof. I had several grows in coco with bad root rot. I want to disinfect my water with bleach, remove the chlorine, then use the benes. By removing the chlorine I mean either chemically with dechlor or bubbling it away. BTW there are dechlorination products specifically for hydroponics available.

rkymtnman · Jan 5, 2021

bleacher said:
I guess I have to explain again. I'm using stored rainwater that was comes off my roof and goes into my gutters. I know this is full of pythium. It must be from all the dust in the air and on the roof. I had several grows in coco with bad root rot. I want to disinfect my water with bleach, remove the chlorine, then use the benes. By removing the chlorine I mean either chemically with dechlor or bubbling it away. BTW there are dechlorination products specifically for hydroponics available.

i had to re-read your post but i figured out what you are trying to do.

if you want to be really cost-effective, i'm pretty sure you can make your own filter of sand to run your rainwater thru which will remove any nasties too.

Jack James · Jul 12, 2021

Just ran 10ml of bleach in my system of 35 gallons, it's only been 2 hours and two of my plants are wilting fairly badly? Is this somewhat normal / will resolve itself, or do I need to flush the system?

Wastei · Jul 13, 2021

Jack James said:
Just ran 10ml of bleach in my system of 35 gallons, it's only been 2 hours and two of my plants are wilting fairly badly? Is this somewhat normal / will resolve itself, or do I need to flush the system? View attachment 4942438

10ml doesn't tell us anything about the concentration. It's very important to use unscented sodium hypochlorite and nothing else if you use regular bleach.

I use 2ml 5% bleach in my 33 gallon reservoir. That equates to 1ppm residual. You should aim for 3ppm in DWC. Add 3ppm to anything going in to the reservoir, top off etc. Good luck!

You can follow my journal if you like. I've used bleach in hydro since 2010. Use this calculator to foolproof yourself: Chlorine dilution calculator

Budley Doright · Jul 13, 2021

Jack James said:
Just ran 10ml of bleach in my system of 35 gallons, it's only been 2 hours and two of my plants are wilting fairly badly? Is this somewhat normal / will resolve itself, or do I need to flush the system? View attachment 4942438

It’s not looking good. Empty and refill with straight water and flush it a few times and hope for the best. Then follow Wastei’s method. I always used hydrogen peroxide so know nothing of bleach except I had issues with it but it was all on me lol.

Jack James · Jul 13, 2021

Wastei said:
10ml doesn't tell us anything about the concentration. It's very important to use unscented sodium hypochlorite and nothing else if you use regular bleach.

I use 2ml 5% bleach in my 33 gallon reservoir. That equates to 1ppm residual. You should aim for 3ppm in DWC. Add 3ppm to anything going in to the reservoir, top off etc. Good luck!

You can follow my journal if you like. I've used bleach in hydro since 2010. Use this calculator to foolproof yourself: Chlorine dilution calculator

I appreciate it, I will try that calculator once I get things squared away. Also I am using 6% and it is regular unscented bleach as described by a few people in this forum. Fatman recommended 6-8 drops per gallon, so conversion calculator states that 20 drops = 1ml. 35 gal x 6 (drops) = 210 drops ÷ 20 (to convert to ml) and you get 10.5ml so I did 10ml. Some even say you can go higher and I was on the low end of that spectrum. Not sure why this works for others so well and isn't for me.

rkymtnman · Jul 13, 2021

Jack James said:
I appreciate it, I will try that calculator once I get things squared away. Also I am using 6% and it is regular unscented bleach as described by a few people in this forum. Fatman recommended 6-8 drops per gallon, so conversion calculator states that 20 drops = 1ml. 35 gal x 6 (drops) = 210 drops ÷ 20 (to convert to ml) and you get 10.5ml so I did 10ml. Some even say you can go higher and I was on the low end of that spectrum. Not sure why this works for others so well and isn't for me.

did you add it to your control res? and did it have time to dilute before it went out to the plant sites?

Jack James · Jul 13, 2021

Plants are beginning to bounce back, it has been 19 hours and parts of my two plants that were wilting are picking back up. My one larger plant never had a single negative effect from the bleach. Thinking either this particular strain got stressed from it, or 6 drops per gallon was a bit on the heavy end.

Jack James · Jul 13, 2021

rkymtnman said:
did you add it to your control res? and did it have time to dilute before it went out to the plant sites?

I did add it to my control res, I did 3ml three times and then 1ml to equal 10, however I did not wait but 30 seconds between dosing. At 400 gallon ls per hour on my recirculating pump, my system should do a full cycle every 5 minutes. I'm thinking my control became too strong and as it fed out into the system the plants were receiving a very strong shot of it.

newbplantgrower420 · Jul 14, 2021

why not use calcium hypochlorite?

i do like the sound of bleach only cause its in liquid form vs mixing the pool shock.

only thing that sucks abt using chlorine is ive found i gotta dose it every 2 days ive found. i tried every 3-4 days but my rez gets dirty.... turns brownish from crystal clear... its probably bacteria forming. so i do every 2 days now and no problems

Jack James · Jul 15, 2021

newbplantgrower420 said:
why not use calcium hypochlorite?

i do like the sound of bleach only cause its in liquid form vs mixing the pool shock.

only thing that sucks abt using chlorine is ive found i gotta dose it every 2 days ive found. i tried every 3-4 days but my rez gets dirty.... turns brownish from crystal clear... its probably bacteria forming. so i do every 2 days now and no problems

Just out of curiosity what is your dose? I would think once the system is sterilized it would take longer than 3-4 days but I guess bacteria can hit fast

newbplantgrower420 · Jul 15, 2021

Jack James said:
Just out of curiosity what is your dose? I would think once the system is sterilized it would take longer than 3-4 days but I guess bacteria can hit fast

I go pretty heavy.

anywhere from 2-3g of 65% hypo cal in my 70 gal rez.

ive read chlorine evaporates into the air after 24 hrs so it makes sense to dose every other day at least. i think athena cleanse which is the same as pool shock ... they recommend to dose before every feed.

Jack James · Jul 21, 2021

So all plants bounced back and then 4 days ago I dosed 1.5ml into my 35 gal res to see how they reacted and this time my big plant (which was uneffected by the big dose may have gotten to a point of no return as my smaller plants are doing just fine (other than minor yellowing of some leaves). Now this is a way smaller dose and actually less than 1ppm total using the calculator posted by Wastei. What is going on??? What am I not doing right??

Jack James · Jul 21, 2021

Wastei said:
10ml doesn't tell us anything about the concentration. It's very important to use unscented sodium hypochlorite and nothing else if you use regular bleach.

I use 2ml 5% bleach in my 33 gallon reservoir. That equates to 1ppm residual. You should aim for 3ppm in DWC. Add 3ppm to anything going in to the reservoir, top off etc. Good luck!

You can follow my journal if you like. I've used bleach in hydro since 2010. Use this calculator to foolproof yourself: Chlorine dilution calculator

Forgot to reply to your post in the one I just posted but I am stumped here and am looking for a solution so I can use bleach because it seems like it would be a better solution than beneficial bacteria that I've used

Wastei · Jul 21, 2021

Jack James said:
So all plants bounced back and then 4 days ago I dosed 1.5ml into my 35 gal res to see how they reacted and this time my big plant (which was uneffected by the big dose may have gotten to a point of no return as my smaller plants are doing just fine (other than minor yellowing of some leaves). Now this is a way smaller dose and actually less than 1ppm total using the calculator posted by Wastei. What is going on??? What am I not doing right??

It's better to use an oxidizer from the get go. Don't only use 1ppm in DWC. You need to keep it at 3-5ppm if you're not running a chiller. Plants and particularly roots need time to adjust to it.

If you had an ongoing root issue a dose of bleach could actually temporarily worsen a problem.

What other things have you added to the res? I add that amount every third to 4th day to my res in Aero. Res changes about every two weeks.

Bleach instead of H2o2

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