RDWC Root rot?

[donkeyjunk]

G,day, girls , boys, and hermies.
Can anyone tell me what this is, or more to the point the cause of this root problem?- — that’s if it is a problem as the plants are super healthy, not one single blemish on any of the leaves and the plant isnt suffering or stunted in any way.
so I’ve recently switched to RDWC, and seeing fantastic results, I’m using a system I’ve built myself, ( loosely based on a CC system I saw- with high end LED”s and an O2grow device.
today was the 21st day of my second DWC run , and I pulled up my scrog netting to give my ladies a good defoliation and their last flush with CC”s ,UC roots.
AND I came upon this soggy, slimey, seems to be rotting patch of brown gooey root mass!,
its only a relatively small patch but was on a couple of the plants.
BUT we all know how quickly small problems can turn into big problems.
anyhoo, I have a couple of theories if someone could let me know I’m on the right track or no.
1/ my room is 29 (84.2) and my RDWC water is at 21 (69.8) maybe the differential is too much
2/ I have a very very minor fungal gnat/ root aphids situation ( I imported them when I was doing Super Soil but have just about eradicated them now)
3/ I only have a 50mm (2 inch) gap between the bottom on my net-pot and the water line
4/ as well as running an O2grow I’m also running air stones intermittently and for the first 2 weeks I had my air compressor on the ground so therefor I was super saturating my nutrients with oxygen for an hour with the O2 grow, leaving it for an hour and then pumping the CO2 sitting low in the room straight into my root mass For an hour.(( one of those blonde moments)).
so I’m thinking it’s probably either (3/) or (4/),
Is there anyone who could enlighten me to my situation
cheers
donkeyjunk

 

[oldsmokey]

How does it smell looks like rot. Are you sure about your temps thats a big difference in room and res temps unless your using a chiller. Are you using any enzyme cleaner? If your using CO2 have your air pump outside of the room and run all the time.

 

[Bush Doctor 77]

Welcome. I quit using hydro because I lost a crop to root rot. That sure looks like it. Using Hydroguard or the like?

 

[donkeyjunk]

How does it smell looks like rot. Are you sure about your temps thats a big difference in room and res temps unless your using a chiller. Are you using any enzyme cleaner? If your using CO2 have your air pump outside of the room and run all the time.

Cheers. Yes I’m using chillers.and I rectified my air pumps 10 days ago. What is enzyme cleaner? Is it the same as UC roots by current culture?

 

[donkeyjunk]

Welcome. I quit using hydro because I lost a crop to root rot. That sure looks like it. Using Hydroguard or the like?

I’ve been using UC roots by current culture which is a cleaner and descaler by I haven’t heard of hydroguard. What is it?

 

[Bush Doctor 77]

I’ve been using UC roots by current culture which is a cleaner and descaler by I haven’t heard of hydroguard. What is it?

Hydroguard is a biologic rot control.

 

[oldsmokey]

Hydroguard is a enzyme cleaner. Beneficial enzyme that converts bad bacteria to good.

 

[donkeyjunk]

Ok cheers. I’ve been using emerald harvest root wizard. Which I’ve checked is the same as hydroguard. Basically , just beneficial bacteria , I’m not sure if they contain the same beneficials but very similar .
im pretty sure I nutted out the problem last night.
ive had my chillers set at 19 (66.2) and the reservoir sat at 21 (69.8)(with all the recirculation through the pipes ), but the water from the res went to the far end of the 10 pot system and then back to the res via the pots (5 per side) .
i noticed the problem was virtually non existent in the two end pots but got worse as the water returned to the res, so I checked the temp in the pot closest to the res and it’s temp was 23.5 (74.3). An easy fix, but yet another steep learning curve.
I also gave everything a dunk in a strong solution of UC roots (hydroclorous acid) and 24 hours later a dunk in a strong solution of oxy-plus (hydrogen peroxide), which seems to have cleaned away most of the issue.

thanks for the help guys, but to ask another question, I saw this guy on you tube and his method was totally sterile, so no beneficials ! Just UC roots and a UV filter in line with his res to kill all bacteria and his roots were fukn amazing with healthy plants, so my question being, do the benefits of using beneficials outweigh being totally sterile?

 

[oldsmokey]

I have never ran a sterile system always thought it would be to difficult to maintain but with a inline uv filter it just might work.