RDWC Water HELP

I am running a recirculating system, Water got murky So I completely flush it and wiped out everything. Changed water and it did it again in one day. It smells too. Anyone experience this?

Water temp? Nutrients used?

I suggest dissembling everything & a good soak in bleach.
Kinda looks like what killed 2 of my plant just a bit ago, check for brown roots (no slime)

Good luck

Do you use a potassium silicate product? I get cloudy water and some crystalization if I'm to fast adding nutrient after I've mixed silica.

Run it sterile, it will remove the rot smell and remove any resisting biofilm covering the tote and pipes. I run bleach at 0,5 ppm residual. 3% Sodium hypochlorite, it's the cheapest and most important additive I use.

Any major change in ppm's?

Water Temp is 70.
Nutrients is General Hydroponics

PPM after all that is like 1200, I'm circulating onto the rockwool cubes is that my problem?

This is my first set up. So will be lots of errors, Willing to learn.

What do you mean by “circulating onto rockwool cubes” ?

Got a pic of the setup ?

I've already taken it apart. I had the circulating pump on a timer to run 15 min every hour. The Hose came up and ran onto the https://www.wegrowbuds.ca/collections/rockwool/products/grodan-hugo-cubes-6 . I feel like its decomposing it and flaking off into my water in sense?

My personal opinion that’s way over feeding rockwool. You need to let it dryback between waterings. And it’s recommended to not feed during lights out. Do you have roots out the bottom of the cubes?

No roots. I think im going to clean everything just just do single bucket systems for now. Once I get experience I'll rebuild my circulating system. This way I can see if was my circulating system causing me the problem or if it something else.

Check this out...

I’m just confused your title says RDWC which is deep water culture with added recirc of the nutes. But what you described above is top feed rockwool cubes but capturing and reusing the nutes. Both are very different grow types with very different pump timing requirements. With rockwool cubes you must let them dryback to encourage root growth. In true rdwc the roots live submerged in nute solution which is circulated throughout the system.

Sounds like you just tore it all apart tho? I would try and nail down the system your using and let us try and help you dial it in next time before you give up and tear it all apart

Yes you are right, When I took it part the rockwool was very saturated and mushy, I think it was just falling apart and going into my water.

Ya, I went in over my head with this set up and learned a lot. I didn't start my seedlings properly either so I'm completely restarting.

When I do rebuild. I wanted the reservoir so I have more control and PH and Easier to control water levels ETC. When I do rebuild I want to recirculate to the side of the bucket then not over the top?

Thanks for your time BTW. I do appreciate it.

Just trying to determine why you gave up on a grow without letting anyone help you out. But hey you do you

May wanna start running some pool shock or some H2O2.

So I get my reservoir fill up again, Let it get to room temp for 4 days and bubbled it. Now I Added PH Down to start my cubes again. I walked into the room and that smell was back. Not as bad yet. But it definitely was there. The water was perfect for the time I let the water warm up

Im using tap water that has 120ppm and is 0.2 CL Levels. Could the PH down be causing the problems with my water?

I do RDWC of sorts but top feed into 20 litre pots of rockwool croutons 4 x each day for 30 minutes each time then recirculate, the 20 litre pots are full of roots and a secondary root system has grown out of the bottom of the pots and into the RDWC water/feed. I have no air stones but recirculate 24/7 and waterfall into a epicenter outside of my grow room before it recirculates. After 30 minutes of watering the water is teaming out through the pots also creating little waterfall in each tub 4 times a day as I have a 5" gap between the bottom of the pot and the water level

Had a nightmare of a time with normal RDWC and pebbles but with this system my roots both in the pots and in the RDWC are snow white plants looking the best I have ever grown.

Hailmary said:

So I get my reservoir fill up again, Let it get to room temp for 4 days and bubbled it. Now I Added PH Down to start my cubes again. I walked into the room and that smell was back. Not as bad yet. But it definitely was there. The water was perfect for the time I let the water warm up

Im using tap water that has 120ppm and is 0.2 CL Levels. Could the PH down be causing the problems with my water?

Click to expand...

unless your tap water has a smell?The air bubbles can smell like the clear rubber hose?Or the air pump itself can have an odor.IDK.

Does it have an almost greasy film on the top?
You can catch it now if your quick, before root rot really sets in....
Dump your res, clean out the whole system, fresh water, fresh nutes.
You don’t need to add pool shock or h202 etc. once you have things under control again,
You’ll just have to figure out what’s caused it in the first place. Eg. light leak in res, not enough aeration in water, water temp too high.
It’s funny how people use pool shock etc as a preventative, you don’t need a preventative if everything is running right.