Fighting Nasty Root Rot

I'm currently applying 100 ml Hydroguard / 20 gallons in my res during weekly res changes. 4 Large airstones. Lots of bubbles and aeration. Temps in tent peak at 78 during lights on and same with res temp. It follows very closely to air temp. Res is a black and yellow strong tote. Thick, sturdy construction. No light leaks. Even went the extra mile and painted the top black to block light then white to reflect it. In addition to that, put some insulating reflecting bubble wrap on the lid to reflect light directly around the netpots and made homemade netpot covers out of the same reflective insulation to block light coming through net pots and clay stone medium.

There has been rapid root growth since the last res change yesterday morning but I can already see brown tinges on the new roots again. I really don't want to have to use an AC or water chiller. My current power costs for this operation are already about 100 / month... what can I do??

78 is really high. 75 is the highest I've ever seen suggested being used but im sure people do it and do it well. You're really lowering the amount of disolved oxygen available even with stones.

If you have the ability you could use frozen bottles to lower your temps. Or the way i do it is with sheets of styrofoam boards cut to fit between plants above totes and it works VERY well. I have a chillet but when the styrofoam is sbove the totes it NEVER comes on. You should also wrap the silver bubble wrap around your pvc tubes.

shawnery said:

78 is really high. 75 is the highest I've ever seen suggested being used but im sure people do it and do it well. You're really lowering the amount of disolved oxygen available even with stones.

If you have the ability you could use frozen bottles to lower your temps. Or the way i do it is with sheets of styrofoam boards cut to fit between plants above totes and it works VERY well. I have a chillet but when the styrofoam is sbove the totes it NEVER comes on. You should also wrap the silver bubble wrap around your pvc tubes.

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I'm not using any PVC

I second the frozen water bottles or jugs. I'll bet a frozen gallon would last all day or close to it. It would be another daily chore and you could probably skip it a couple days if you had to be gone a few days. I have never had to do it but that is what I would try first. If a frozen gallon made it too cold then I would try half gallons.

FruityHigh said:

I'm not using any PVC

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The styrofoam is cheap and works regardless of pvc.

the frozen water jugs saved my ass in a heat wave this summer. used a frozen wine bottle with about 10 of those ice packs for my 50 gal res and dropped it 5 degrees

Okay so I gave in and connected an AC. Turns out my basement has 1 circuit and with the AC its riding damn well near the max (breaker flipped when I was installing extended vent for AC and it was working harder. Nothing else is on the circuit except the stuff for growing. Wiring with insulation is sitting at about 90f and is slightly warm. Should I just throw out everything and give up because it seems somebody somewhere doesn't want this to happen?

Is the circuit dangerous?

Wiring should not be warm. Yes it's dangerous. I had to run the plug for my lights down the hill to my bedroom bathroom.

Especially in hydro you don't want your breaker flipping when you're not around to fix it, even you even know it happens!

FruityHigh said:

There has been rapid root growth since the last res change yesterday morning but I can already see brown tinges on the new roots again. I really don't want to have to use an AC or water chiller. My current power costs for this operation are already about 100 / month... what can I do??

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Hydroguard only lasts a few days in the res m8.

Yeah AC is not an option. The breaker tripped again. I'm really at a loss

Bubblin said:

Hydroguard only lasts a few days in the res m8.

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Would I be able to get away doing it every 3 days or?

STYROFOAM BOARDS!

WATER BOTTLES!

FruityHigh said:

Yeah AC is not an option. The breaker tripped again. I'm really at a loss



Would I be able to get away doing it every 3 days or?

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Yup, bout every 3 - 4 days n usually 2ml per gal is enough. But more won't hurt anything.

shawnery said:

STYROFOAM BOARDS!

WATER BOTTLES!

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Wouldn't the Styrofoam just lock in the heat? Tent sits at 77.

Bubblin said:

Yup, bout every 3 - 4 days n usually 2ml per gal is enough. But more won't hurt anything.

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Okay Ill do it every 3 days because the rot is intense.

you dont want to run a breaker at more than 80% load continuously.
i Have the same issue in my basement, the whole thing is on 1 15a breaker, I h ad to run an extension cord thru the wall into the garage for my lights.

Like i said before,

Without styrofoam board chiller kicks on regularly but with it i never saw it on once.

Huge difference!

It's the directed heat from the lamps that really increases solution temperatures.

Is the brown you see appear slimy? If so you have algae. If not, it could be nutrient staining is the fert has a brown color. It could also be Pythium root rot, which will kill plants.

polishpollack said:

Is the brown you see appear slimy? If so you have algae. If not, it could be nutrient staining is the fert has a brown color. It could also be Pythium root rot, which will kill plants.

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That's what I' wondering. When I ran GHFlora trio, it always stained my roots brown.
My experience with RDWC and DWC has been running at room temp. That means my solutions temps will also run at ambient. I also used Hydroguard and now GFF to keep pythium at bay. It's not ideal but it has never had any issues for the past three years. Just sayin that it can be done

have someone install a line. I bought a multi outlet board at my grow store and had a friend install a 220v to hook it up to. never had an issue since. and I was running so many extension cors that were literally getting hot to touch

Okay so I ducted a line outside to deal with intake of cool air. For the last 2 days res temp has not gone above 72, however the rot persists and seems nasty still. Plenty of hydroguard in the res. Wednesday is normally my res change day (once a week). Should I do my res change tomorrow? Root rot gets nastier after res changes...

If you mean the smell gets worse, that's bacteria making the odor. What people call root rot many times is stinky bacteria. If you roots were rotting it would be obvious.