Is this salt build up or fungus/mold on clay pebbles?

Darknes01

Well-Known Member
Hi all,
I have a 20 bucket grow going and today i noticed some weird stuff on the clay pebbles when i opened the buckets for inspection. at 1st glance it looked like salt build up but when i used a 60x mag it looks fuzzy , like fungus or mold but cant tell.
and on 1 pebble i found what looks like to me black mold.
what you guys think this is?
4 weeks into veg
i run 3 stage water filter , water temp is 69, ec is 1.6 and ph is 6.1. lucas formula+calmag, Southern Ag, and from last water change i added floralicious plus & liquid koolbloom
overall plants look pretty happy to me, but i thought i they should of been a bit bigger at this point but overall they look healthy.

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Darknes01

Well-Known Member
Looks like some sorta mold or mildew.
im using athena cleanse right now to see if it cleans it up then it was salt build up but if not i have no idea how to fight this.
Do u know what someone does in a situation like this?
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
im using athena cleanse right now to see if it cleans it up then it was salt build up but if not i have no idea how to fight this.
Do u know what someone does in a situation like this?
Well you could use a little H2O2 or pool shock to kill it off, but that would also kill any beneficial bacteria and mycos that you have going on. There is also a good chance that the growth is just mycorrhizal growth.
 

Darknes01

Well-Known Member
Well you could use a little H2O2 or pool shock to kill it off, but that would also kill any beneficial bacteria and mycos that you have going on. There is also a good chance that the growth is just mycorrhizal growth.
weird thing is that i took some of the clay pebbles with that white stuff on it and dropped them into a cup of 35% h2o2 and basically nothing happened. some of the white stuff came lose and floated on the top of the h2o2, I have seen how h2o2 reacts with organic matter and this didnt even fizzle or show any reaction.
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
weird thing is that i took some of the clay pebbles with that white stuff on it and dropped them into a cup of 35% h2o2 and basically nothing happened. some of the white stuff came lose and floated on the top of the h2o2, I have seen how h2o2 reacts with organic matter and this didnt even fizzle or show any reaction.
Well I dunno if it would fizz or not. TBH if the plants aren't looking pissed I wouldn't worry about it. Chances are that it's not harmful but actually beneficial. It reminds me of the mycorrhizal stuff that grows on Rapid Rooter plugs.
 

Darknes01

Well-Known Member
Well I dunno if it would fizz or not. TBH if the plants aren't looking pissed I wouldn't worry about it. Chances are that it's not harmful but actually beneficial. It reminds me of the mycorrhizal stuff that grows on Rapid Rooter plugs.
ya plants look healthy happy and eating about 40 to 50 ppm a day so I will try a few small things to see if it clears up but right now im not in panic mode lol.
 
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