Help with Bugs in reservoir

[CelticCannabis]

Good morning fellow growers. I’ll start by saying I am a novice grower. I am into my fourth Indoor grow in two years. My first was an soil grow which was not too bad. I decided though to switch to hydro. My next two grows were not stellar but hey, I’m having a great time learning, modifying my setups and generally communicating with other growers in these types of forums.
I am into my fourth grow now. I am very happy with my system. I am running a recirculating, nine bucket setup. I feel that my quality parameters are good. I am at day 54 from seed and some of the plants are showing signs of pre flowering so I am preparing to flip them in the next number of days.
I am reaching out today because I’m the last four days or so, I have what I think are springtails showing up in my reservoir.
I have checked the individual buckets and they are not in any of them...only the reservoir.
Does anyone know where they come from. I filter my water and it appears as though I get all the pesky buggers of the top of the water but the next day, they are back again. They do not appear to be harmful to the plants.
Can anyone offer some advice?

 

[Scolymia7]

They look like little spring tails. Harmless and benificial. They eat fungus and rot but don't cause damage.

 

[dollardos]

If you just hate seeing them wash out the rez with a lil bleach once a week and use all water soluble products.

 

[CelticCannabis]

If you just hate seeing them wash out the rez with a lil bleach once a week and use all water soluble products.

I do. They showed up after the last cleaning so I did it again and they returned. I thought they were specific to the reservoir but now I know they are either coming from the buckets or from the drain line back to the tank. The return line is not sealed around the drain spouts so perhaps they are getting In there. My place is super clean and I see no evidence of them inside the buckets.
see the attached photo. This may be the ingress point. Your thoughts?
I filter them off the surface of the reservoir each day and they don’t appear to be negatively impacting my plants. Just a little disturbing to go so many weeks without them and all of a sudden they show up

 

[Scolymia7]

Best of luck! Spring tails are tough!!! They are also called snow fleas because they can survive freezing weather.
I had already been running a sterile rdwc hybrid system so there was bleach in water 95% of the time. They don't just live in the root system. In walls, on floor, anywhere extra moister is present. But they don't really move up the plant. I never seen one on leaves or buds, only on base of stem here and there. Grant grow room is unfished basement so situation is kind of different. After a shutting down for a couple months and weekly cedar oil sprays I did permantly get rid of them.

On my return lines in rez I added120 micron filters, kept them out of there atleast. Never hurt the plants though, I personally think the roots loved those little things lol. Always had huge white strong roots.

Pic of my last grow having spring tails.

 

[CelticCannabis]

Wow very nice pic. Thanks for the tip on the return line screen.
can I ask about the scrog netting. Where did you get it and what size squares is it?

 

[Scolymia7]

10ish bucks at home depot lol.
Nylon thread
3/4 pvc
3 way pvc elbow(4)
4 threaded male adaptors
Build frame to the measurements of grow.
Start with either all vertical or horizontal thread then weave from opposite of what you start.
I try to keep 2-3 inch squares, but adjust them to fit plants as needed.

 

[DistyDemon]

I'd be more worried about electrocution if water happens to spill on that 6 way power strip laying on the floor directly under the pvc pipes.

But that's just me.

 

[CelticCannabis]

10ish bucks at home depot lol.
Nylon thread
3/4 pvc
3 way pvc elbow(4)
4 threaded male adaptors
Build frame to the measurements of grow.
Start with either all vertical or horizontal thread then weave from opposite of what you start.
I try to keep 2-3 inch squares, but adjust them to fit plants as needed.

Very nice...!