notpatient
- 14
- 3
@DapperDon I only say" disaster" because Ive its a uc8 6 site , I would only be adding 1ml to the whole system and Im not sure but I dont think that 1ml would get the job done
Sterile UC users, how do you keep your reservoir sterile?
DapperDon
- 412
- 63
As long as you are not using a live rez then yes. On your next rez changeout (And I mean get it ALL out) you will be able to start using it.
DapperDon
- 412
- 63
I have a 4 site system with a total of 49 gallons total and with 1 ml it totals out to 0.50 ppm. Use whatever the total gallons of your system and adjust accordingly until you get 0.50ppms. I also said that you can give a good healthy plant 1.0 ppms. I have found that different species and environments/grow styles can cause more of a chlorine demand and have seen plants be fine in systems with as much as 2.0 - 2.5ppms and thrive. Your milage may vary but going over 3 starts bad things to happen.
cephalopod
- 96
- 18
I'm guessing it's the Free Chlorine level you recommend to keep at .50ppm as preventative , is that correct?
stutter
- 325
- 93
the answer is so simple.
drop these 2 products
GH Diamond Nectar humates
Maxicrop seaweed
if your going to run sterile then you need to keep all the organic stuff out because your just throwing fuel into the fire, your feeding all and any nasties that are getting in there. i highly doubt you will miss them anyway
drop these 2 products
GH Diamond Nectar humates
Maxicrop seaweed
if your going to run sterile then you need to keep all the organic stuff out because your just throwing fuel into the fire, your feeding all and any nasties that are getting in there. i highly doubt you will miss them anyway
DapperDon
- 412
- 63
Yes that is the minimum ppms you want to have in your entire system. You can go as high as 2.5 in extreme cases, but I have never gone above 1.0.
DirtySanchez
- 171
- 43
Please elaborate.
M
masterplan
- 7
- 3
Sterile is extreme. Clean better?
B
budfarmer
- 222
- 43
The most knowledgeable grower on this topic is Snype at I-see, lots of tutorials of his there he always grows with bleach and I am starting down that road myself.
DapperDon
- 412
- 63
While Snype does have some good knowledge, he is inconsistent with his info when he isn't in the middle of one of his psychological episodes. Yeeeeaaaaaah.
ramboo
- 7
- 3
i see the use of the word sterile a lot, thought id just share my input on the topic
and please excuse me if my thinking is wrong, but really my understanding is 'sterile', [meaning devoid of all microbes, inc fungi, yeast, bacteria, viruses,] is improbable to attain
actually, you really couldn't even get close to sterile if you tried.
the environmental requirements for such a system would be biologically prohibitive for your plant and nearly impossible to maintain even if one could introduce a truly sterile plant into sterile system.
'clean' is probably a more accurate term..
and honestly I'm not trying to initiate a debate either way :)
Papa
Supporter
- 2,474
- 163
"sterile" in regards to "live" vs "sterile" rez.
the term has been in use for many years and is shorthand for how one might maintain their reservoir environment.
we understand that it's not clinically sterile . . . but the intent is to strive for sterile, providing an inhospitable environment for bacteria, fungi, etc. to flourish by not providing them with potential food sources and by being hostile towards them with disinfectants . . . while maintaining a healthy environment for the plant.
the term has been in use for many years and is shorthand for how one might maintain their reservoir environment.
we understand that it's not clinically sterile . . . but the intent is to strive for sterile, providing an inhospitable environment for bacteria, fungi, etc. to flourish by not providing them with potential food sources and by being hostile towards them with disinfectants . . . while maintaining a healthy environment for the plant.
highland420
- 58
- 8
Foo: you sticking with this?
slimjimham
- 399
- 43
Yeah I just posted about this to see if that's still the consensus for the best sterilizer... Do you use at the same rates as uc roots? 2 ml per gallon?
highland420
- 58
- 8
One to two ml per gallon of UC roots. About every 10 to 14 days. Water temp always 68-69°
Just looking for an affirmation of the formula from some one with expert opinion. Cal-hypo is unstable chlorine and pool shock is 65% available chlorine. Much higher than liquid pool chlorine.
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Mr.Chocolate
- 82
- 18
(*Note regarding pictures: ) A friend called me up nearly in tears after trying for months after countless plants died and trying to get rid of his chronic ROOT ROT. The pictures are taken 7 days after I stepped in. We cleaned his buckets, added the same nutrients he had been adding before and zero changes to his system. The ONLY thing different is I added tea compost and trimmed much but not all of the dead roots away. His room consisted of individual buckets with 1 air stone and a room temp of 72F. approx. 1000ppm. You can see the amazing transformation after 7 days.
@Mr.Sputnik
Hi Mr. Sputnik.
I'm a commercial and LICENSED grower and I'll be happy to offer some advice that has been thoroughly researched with much scientific data to back it up, along with a lot of experience and success to back up my claims.
First, stay away from bleach, pool shock, and the ever common H2O2 (Hydrogen Peroxide). Simply, these chemicals can stunt your plant and root growth and potentially KILL your plants.
So, what works? If you do want to run a sterile system, the safest and strongest method is CHLORINE DIOXIDE. The formula I buy online is via Amazon is called "Oxine", however several other companies sale this with various names. This is simply an amazing product. If running a sterile system the manufacutere recommends 20 fl.oz of Oxine activated with 60 grams of citric acid. (Remember to wear a chlorine air respirator)
So Why is this the BEST of the best?
-It's OMRI (Organic Materials Research Institute) listed.
-It's safe in it's un-activated formula. It's being used today to treat water. You can actually add it to your drinking water right from the bottle to disinfect and kill any harmful bacteria/etc. in your water or your cattle/dogs/pool water etc. Farms use it to not only deodorize their chicken coops, horse stalls, etc. it's actually used to treat horses with severe infections such as Thrush. Chickens have it sprayed in their faces for several days to rid them of sever respiratory issues that would usually kill them. Some people use it in a diluted formula to spray their shoes to get rid of the stink and athletes foot and other weird oders in their homes. Another bizzare thing I found is that people actually drink the stuff to kill off PARASITES in their bodies, which works too. The things that came out of these people were terrifying.....
-It's stronger than the bleach. Oxine is already a very strong product however between every harvest I throw on a gas mask and a painters suit and completely sanitize my growing areas using an ACTIVATED Oxine/Chlorine Dioxide. spraying the buckets, fans , walls and trellises. Currently this is the only time I ever use Oxine however in the past this was what I used to keep a STERILE system. It has been shown to kill all forms of fungi (Yes it kills powder mildew spores*) bacteria, and even Ecoli. The results are that I haven't had to treat my plants for powder mildew in over a year, however I have also kept lower than 50% humidity levels as well. You don't need to activate Oxine, and when you don't it lasts longer in your reservoir. (Note: To activate Chlorine Dioxide you add Citric Acid)
-It's cheaper than H2O2. A bottle of Oxine is cheaper and will stretch allot further than a bottle of H2O2. After a year of constant use I still have quite a bit of Oxine left and it's quite a big facility.
-It breaks down into table salt. Simply, as it degrades over time it breaks down into harmless table salt.
-It's currently approved and used for spray on leave in commercial agriculture. This simply means that many companies are using this to clean and sanitize your fruits and vegetables because it can kill things such as E coli while breaking down into table salt. I haven't tried it yet on powder mildew since it has been forever since I had any, but it may possibly work.
-It's simply the best and most effective sanitizer. It's what is being used at a commercial scale because it works the BEST.
So, now that I've put you to sleep, what absolutely works the best for your hydro system to kill bad bacteria and root rot?............ Compost tea. The stories I've read about why you shouldn't use this stuff is simply a bunch of BS. I had been listening to this BS for years and finally after months of research and talking to countless experts, reading several books..... Basically I researched the shit out of it and finally tried it. IT ABSOLUTELY WORKS.
The results are that I've forgotten what root rot looks like. I've SAVED soo much TIME and MONEY because I NO longer clean by deep water system every 1-2 weeks, only between harvests. My production has increased, my plants are happier and stress free, the medicine is stronger, has an "organic" grown taste to them that everyone thinks is better than 100% organic grown medicine (I flush the last week only using compost tea and RO Water). Gardening has become stress free and enjoyable when your plants are so easy to care for and produces so much wealth and happy medicine. Also, the ingredients are CHEAP and will last you a long time.
I've done a lot of research and I'll be honest, I'm still evolving my compost tea, but after hours of research I can think I can save you some time and research.
-How much do you need? The rule of thump is about 1 cup of compost tea per gallon water in your system/reservoir.
Environment for the Tea:
-5 Gallons of reverse osmosis water in a 10 gallon container. (The compost tea will bubble up so a larger container is needed.)
-Temperatures 70-80 degrees
-Brew time approx 48 hours. I found 36-48 hours is optimal because as the fungi and bacteria multiply the Strongest species in your ocean of brew are left while multiplying. Think "Survival" of the fittest. You want the sharks and killer whales types of bacteria left after 48 hours, not the weaker bacteria.
- Lots of oxygen and direct light. Throw that compost tea near your grow lights and give it a solid amount of oxygen to breed and thrive in.
Receipt:
-1/2 Cup of Humus: This is basically compost from an old forest, however the thousands of years of decomposition have left this soil rich in bacteria and fungus that are beneficial to the forests creating a symbiotic relationship. Now it's working for your hydro system. However this stuff is rich in carbon, so don't add too much.
-1/2 Cup of high quality worm castings. Like the Humus this is very rich in bacteria from guts of earthworms. Stay away from the garbage that Home Depot sells. Invest in a high quality worm casting.
-60 ml of sulfur free black strap molasses. This is kinda tricky, because you don't want to feed the bad bacteria when you add this stuff to your system with too much molasses left over. I've personally found 60 ml to be about right, but that may be different for you.
-1-2 table spoons of fish protein. This can be either in the form or liquid hydrolysate fish ( which is kinda pricy). I currently use "Down to Earth" brand Fish powder which is very concentrated. By the way, this stuff ALONE has been an amazing fertilizer. This has been some of the best stuff for my hydro system, along with making an amazing foliage spray at 1 table spoon per gallon with the compost tea. OMG, it smells terrible, but many gardeners alone claim this alone can be BETTER than compost tea by itself. Together, it's amazing.
Optional:
-50 ml of liquid sea kelp. Great root stimulant and bacteria food. Stuff is fantastic.
-Azomite (rock dust) 2 table spoons. Make sure this is water soluble or it just sits at the bottom of your system. I only recently added this stuff and I'm still fine tuning the amount needed. but it's basically micro nutrients that work as an excellent catalyst for compost tea as well as adding health and flavor to your medicine.
-Humic Acid. Using Terra Viasta brand purchased through Amazon at 0.1 oz per 5 gallon.
Best of luck.
Some videos so you don't have to spend days reading books.
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seaslug
- 481
- 93
Thanks for the info about Oxine, which is 3.35% sodium chlorite. Clorox bleach is now 8.25% sodium hypochlorite.
I gave up fighting white aerobic mold in my chem nute Blumat reservoirs and went to hempy buckets. I monitored total chlorine with Hanna colorimeters and Hach test strips. The results of the test strips needed to be doubled due to nitrites interfering with the dye. The EPA approved test strips don't work at all in a nutrient solution.
I gave up fighting white aerobic mold in my chem nute Blumat reservoirs and went to hempy buckets. I monitored total chlorine with Hanna colorimeters and Hach test strips. The results of the test strips needed to be doubled due to nitrites interfering with the dye. The EPA approved test strips don't work at all in a nutrient solution.
F
FooDoo
- 1,278
- 263
I don't use anything anymore. Just RO and a water chiller. No teas. No chlorine.
slimjimham
- 399
- 43
Why did you pull the sterilizers out of your line up. Have you noticed they reduce yield our something or just not needed for you?
F
FooDoo
- 1,278
- 263
Just no need for it. Why would I remove chlorine when I make RO just to add it right back in.
I didn't notice chlorine do anything bad nor did I notice it do anything good. My roots are just as white without it.
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