Brown stuff/residue in reservoir?

It can form snot around the roots. The outside layer can be very discriminate and selfish in what it lets through.
Honestly, it is a common problem if you don't maintain res temps within the safe zone.

The next step is to wash it out, give it a nice alcohol wipe then bleach it. That outer layer can in some cases be impervious to short-term bleach exposure on its own, the alcohol cuts through.

ANC said:

It can form snot around the roots. The outside layer can be very discriminate and selfish in what it lets through.
Honestly, it is a common problem if you don't maintain res temps within the safe zone.

The next step is to wash it out, give it a nice alcohol wipe then bleach it. That outer layer can in some cases be impervious to short-term bleach exposure on its own, the alcohol cuts through.

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I think my main issue comes from my RO reserve water. I had 90 gallons of RO that was 3 months old. It had a lid and was constantly aerated but i guess it wasn't enough. There's a kind of very thin layer of transparent residue that's slightly gooey on the vinyl tubing for the airstone in the RO tank. It smells similar to the brown residue. Kind of oceany smell/damp dirt/a little fishy.

hot cheetos said:

I think my main issue comes from my RO reserve water. I had 90 gallons of RO that was 3 months old. It had a lid and was constantly aerated but i guess it wasn't enough. There's a kind of very thin layer of transparent residue that's slightly gooey on the vinyl tubing for the airstone in the RO tank. It smells similar to the brown residue. Kind of oceany smell/damp dirt/a little fishy.

Click to expand...

Good work man, you might have solved you own problem!

Los Reefersaurus said:

Good work man, you might have solved you own problem!

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Yeaah I think the RO had the initial problem, maybe of some bacteria or algae or something but couldn't grow and reproduce because the RO was so plain with no nutrients. I suppose I added the nutrients and it was able to grow and reproduce and thrive. I knew I shouldn't use that RO but I couldn't bring myself to dump 90 gallons of RO which would be 270 gallons of water considering the 2:1 ratio. Now I'm dumping 405 gallons lol great.