White slime on air stones and roots

Gorgothl

Active Member
So I switched my ladies from coco to DWC. I've been trying to combat what I call white slime. I'm not sure where it's coming from or what it actually is. Should I be using A.N. piranha or tarantula? To fight the stuff causing the white slime.
 

Attachments

  • 20200316_155635.jpg
    20200316_155635.jpg
    526.5 KB · Views: 446
  • 20200316_155603.jpg
    20200316_155603.jpg
    650.2 KB · Views: 323
  • 20200316_143719.jpg
    20200316_143719.jpg
    313.6 KB · Views: 376
  • 20200316_155653.jpg
    20200316_155653.jpg
    528.4 KB · Views: 536
Are you using citric acid for your pH down product? If so, STOP, and get a good phosphoric acid pH down.

And you can probably knock that slime down by draining/cleaning your reservoir and everything that comes in contact with the roots, reservoir, aeration devices, etc. with regular consumer-grade 3% H₂O₂ from the nearest grocery store / pharmacy / etc. Refill the reservoir with water and dump a bunch in after cleaning everything, and let things run for a little while (few minutes should be plenty). Drain/rinse/refill as per normal and get on with your day. Consider adding a few ml of H₂O₂ per gallon of liquid in reservoir until harvest. And in every other DWC grow you do, lol. Unless you're using "organic" nutrients (don't do that in a DWC environment - it can be done, but it's a RPITA and you end up having runaway microbial growth half the time, assuming you're providing adequate (for the plant) levels of oxygenation).
 
I've been using h2o2 to clean everything, hasn't stopped it at all, using 3% solution found at shoppers drugmart. My nutes are not organic as far as I know. And my ph down is from root farm, it's citric acid and phocphoric acid I believe.
 
How about pics of your buckets, tops, net pots, etc

How often you change water

Oh nevermind, just saw yer tomato nutes

No clue on those

Good luck
Chris you commented on my thread of browning on plants in coco, same nutes as back then, but I'll be switching to GH or AN lines.

As for buckets and lids and water sure.
Water is done every 5 days, tap water I have to ph down it from about 7.5-8 to 5.5.

Buckets are 9.5 liters in 16L capacity. Wrapped in reflective aluminum tape.

Lids are 6" net pots again taped with reflective aluminum tape. Just made some pot covers to cover the hydroton, they are made from cardboard and the aluminum tape.
 

Attachments

  • 20200312_202716.jpg
    20200312_202716.jpg
    1 MB · Views: 253
  • 20200312_202710.jpg
    20200312_202710.jpg
    1 MB · Views: 278
  • 20200312_202719.jpg
    20200312_202719.jpg
    1 MB · Views: 318
  • 20200317_102014.jpg
    20200317_102014.jpg
    479.3 KB · Views: 419
  • 20200312_202707.jpg
    20200312_202707.jpg
    866.2 KB · Views: 411
No light leaks I covered them up, there was light leaking from the hydroton because it's only big pebbles, sadly no small mixed in there. That's why I made those tops out of card board.
 
Bet the nutes are gunking up unless you have light leaks into the water, can't tell if that's the case

Light leaks won't cause the white slime condition. The big DWC reservoirs I used to run were near the transparent end of translucent, and the only issue I ever encountered was some green algal growth before I started using H₂O₂ every time I mixed up nutrient solution (and supplemented with it, if I didn't need to top off the reservoir that day).

You can find other cases of the white slime infestation via a search engine. One common factor seems to be trying to cut costs by using orange juice and the like to adjust pH. Citric acid isn't a stable pH-adjuster. Not as big a deal in a soil grow, and maybe not quite as big a deal in a soilless one such as handwatered coco hydroponics, but there's no way I'd go that route in an active hydroponics setup.

OP: Running straight 3% H₂O₂ in your system won't immediately harm your plant (although I wouldn't leave it like that for an extended period of time). If you try that and notice your root mass has been lessened slightly, you can give the plant a trim to rebalance the plant.

Other than that, I'm stumped. However, as I stated, you can find multiple threads about this issue via a web-search engine. Use the following for your search terms:
Code:
"white slime" cannabis

Good luck with your issue!
 
Root rot. That’s bio film.could be nutrient sludge. Need to change water more or thouroughky drain pots of water. Get some z7 and or hudroguard. I looked into h202 but beneficial microbes are better all around. Let them soak in a cleaning solution in new clean containers while you wash the others. You might not be getting enough water movement with your pump it should look like it’s boiling
 
Thanks for the replys fellow farmers, hydroguard isnt available in canada due to something in it. Can't even get neem oil here. I'll be cleaning and soaking everything in a dilute solution of 29% H2O2. Bought some new stones to allow the ones from before to just soak for a few days. Cant afford a chiller during this covid19 crap, will have to drop ice water bottles in each bucket. And that's the worst part. Each bucket has it's own airline but they all have the same issue. Slime on the stone first then the roots after.
 
Get new nutes

Make sure no light gets into the rezz, I chased that issue for weeks till I figured out my orange kids leaked light

Get z9,no z7 in kanuckistan

Don't use h202 with z9


Then yer good to go
 
I've also ran all summer with water at 78-80f, no issues at all

Yeah, as long as the gardener ensures a constant (and huge) influx of dissolved oxygen, warm temperature won't be an issue. Often, a good bit higher than that. Plants are awesome and, of course, cannabis is no exception. I used to germinate seeds in my oven (50+ years old - has pilot lights). One day I forgot when I turned the thermostat up to 400°F. Wasn't until I walked back into the kitchen to put food into the oven to bake that I smelled burning plastic from the little nursery trays. Whoops :rofl:. Into the sink, hosed with water, into the trash can. One missed, and I didn't notice until the next day - when I noticed a sprout, lol. Went ahead and pitched it because I figured the experience probably didn't do it any good, but it reminded me, yet again, that many of the species in this world can survive a great deal - sometimes, even the things that we do.
 
I use citric acid for pH down but my rez doesn't stay filled more than 2 days when I'm running at half capacity. By the 3rd-4th day there's white slime started.

As mentioned an enzyme cleaner like z9 for you Canucks would make the biggest difference.

Where is your air pump located? Being that it starts on the stones there is a possibility you are pulling extra contaminants in through the air pump.

And it may be that your nutes just aren't hydro stable.
 
The air pump is above the buckets sitting on a plant pot that's been cleaned thoroughly, I practice excellent cleaning methods. Clean, sterilize, everything has a home where it sits, do this everytime.

I have no cash for z7, drained my bank for human food for potential global economic halt.

Otherwise I would be buying either GH flora series or Optimum hydroponics series, plus AN zymes would get the three that work in tandem.

But for now I'm going to do a root bath and rinse in H2O2 and change out my stones. I only bought the stones this grow. But I bought new ones that will weight themselves down. Also air pump is at max, it's the eco pump, at 15L per Min.

Then while bathing the roots for about 15 minutes I'll be going over the buckets with a flash light to look for light leaks. And covering them up with more aluminium tape. Rez temps like I said are 69-70°F, no cash for a chiller, I'll just have drop in and rotate frozen bottles of water.
 
Will metal cause issues in the rez? I have curtain rod rings weighing down my air stones ATM, doubt they are coated in anything. Will the oxygen in the water cause the metal to oxidize? And will the ferrous oxide feed bacteria?
 
Back
Top Bottom