" I HAVE YELLOW ROOTS"
I hope to revive this post to get a better understanding of what bleach can do pros\cons . I'm 3 weeks into veg and have yellow roots I used zone and the problem continued I went to my local hydro store and he suggested that I drain the system fill with RO and use UC roots at a whopping 10ml per gallon, its been 48 hours and there's been NO change!! For you all using bleach can you speak on the gains and its stability. I dont believe its Root rot but theres an issue and I would love to make it thru .
Im using supernatual aqua @ 250ppm
water temp 66 degrees
Try using 1 mL of Clorox Bleach regular unscented / not splash guard for every 50 gallons instead of UC Roots. As FooDoo pointed out, UC Roots is what as known as Hypochlorous acid/Pool Shock is a free chlorine.
Calcium hypochlorite (Ca(OCl)2), also known as HTH, is a solid which is mixed with water to form a hypochlorite solution. Calcium hypochlorite is 65-70% concentrated.
Although decent in its own right, it is limited when combined with organic matter (the plants root system.).
Swimming pool water generally contains three types of chlorine commonly known as Free Chlorine, Combined Chlorine and Total Chlorine. Free Chlorine is the type that we commonly test for to determine the proper chlorine levels in pool water. To understand the difference between the three types of chlorine, consider this simple formula: FC + CC = TC. Free Chlorine is the chlorine that is still available to sanitize your water. Combined Chlorine is the chlorine that has already been "used up” sanitizing your water. And Total Chlorine is the sum of the two.
Think of it this way: when a chlorine compound is added to swimming pool or spa water, it reacts with water to form the compounds known as hypochlorous acid and hypochlorite ion. Together, these compounds are known as "free available chlorine” or "free chlorine.” The primary reason for adding chlorine to swimming pool water is to disinfect or kill possibly harmful microorganisms. But once the Free Chlorine has joined with ammonia and nitrogen compounds to form Combined Chlorine, its ability to disinfect is hindered.
Bleach on the other hand is a similar type of chlorine otherwise known as a combined chlorine. Commercial bleach is the bleach which you buy in a grocery store. The concentration of commercial bleach varies depending on the brand - Clorox bleach is 5% chlorine while some other brands are 3.5% concentrated
- Sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) comes in a liquid form which contains up to 12% chlorine.
Hypochlorites and bleaches work in the same general manner as chlorine gas. They react with water and form the disinfectant hypochlorous acid.
In general, disinfection using chlorine gas and hypochlorites occurs in the same manner. The differences lie in how the chlorine is fed into the water and on handling and storage of the chlorine compounds. In addition, the amount of each type of chlorine added to water will vary since each compound has a different concentration of chlorine.
Bleach has more chlorine concentration and does not break down when it encounters ammonia and nitrogen. Either will work for hydro applications, it comes down to knowing you ratios and frequency but I have found liquid bleach to be more reliable in my system. I hope that helps.
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ie50151a022