DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes

fartoblue

fartoblue

Well-Known Member
This root rot really is a bugger. I have brand new system (modular flood and drain) and my roots are black, no slime. I don't understand it I have kept my temps very low below 65f/18c. Flooded every 2 hours lights on and once during lights off. Roots were pure white before they went into the new system, has me beat.

I flood, let it sit for 2 minutes then drain. Flood height is about 2 inches from the top of the media.
 
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voxultrasonic

Member
fartoblue said:
This root rot really is a bugger. I have brand new system (modular flood and drain) and my roots are black, no slime. I don't understand it I have kept my temps very low below 65f/18c. Flooded every 2 hours lights on and once during lights off. Roots were pure white before they went into the new system, has me beat.
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I’ll try paying it forward since I’ve been neck deep in literature and forum posts on this topic for the last month.
  • what nutrients are you using?
  • Is your reservoir well aerated w/ air stones and/or waterfalls
  • How low are your temps? Apparently too low during lights off can invite mold (which could be the black stuff)
  • Are you using any additives aside from basic nutrients?
  • Is your reservoir completely light proof?
  • Are you ensuring your hands and tools are super clean before touching anything?
  • What substrate are you using?
 
fartoblue

fartoblue

Well-Known Member
  • what nutrients are you using? Botanicare Kind-Tea-Silica
  • Is your reservoir well aerated w/ air stones and/or waterfalls Waterfall 200 litre res
  • How low are your temps? Apparently too low during lights off can invite mold (which could be the black stuff) Mmm quite low as low as low as 14/57 on some occasions
  • Are you using any additives aside from basic nutrients? Botanicare Tea-Silica- Yellow bottle Roots (until week 3)- Photosynthesis Plus
  • Is your reservoir completely light proof? Yes
  • Are you ensuring your hands and tools are super clean before touching anything? I don't wash them more than usual.
  • What substrate are you using? They are started in a small pot of 60/40 maybe a litre, then potted up into clay balls 6.5 litre Aquapot
 
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voxultrasonic

Member
The original small pot - what medium? I used peat plugs for a DWC setup and it introduced algae almost off the bat because the peat doesn’t drain.
Think about maintaining a more stable temp at night.
 
zem

zem

Well-Known Member
fartoblue said:
This root rot really is a bugger. I have brand new system (modular flood and drain) and my roots are black, no slime. I don't understand it I have kept my temps very low below 65f/18c. Flooded every 2 hours lights on and once during lights off. Roots were pure white before they went into the new system, has me beat.

I flood, let it sit for 2 minutes then drain. Flood height is about 2 inches from the top of the media.
Click to expand...
What is your source water? Tap, well, RO? what ppm? That's way too much flooding at these temps. I flood just at lights on, then every 4 hours then just when lights shuts and keep it 12 hours without flooding while lights are off. I do that with temps higher than yours. You don't want the roots saturated all of the time. You might want to run some H2O2 or poolshock periodically to help them recover.
 
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Tuptup

New Member
hi i have a full starter kit from biotabs and voodoo juice and rhizotonic, can i make this tea out of it? The biotabs in the set have mycorrhiza, bacteria and here I'm not sure but I think there is also something to feed the microbes because it resembles caramel, I also have voodoo juice which has a bacterial strain and rhizotonic or vitamins ... will I do something about it for DWC?
 
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