Preventing bacteria infection in my irrigation reservoir

[illmatik]

I have a 20 gallon reservoir I use to feed my 6 coco plants 1-2 times a day. At this rate I can last 7-10 days on a full reservoir.

I have a mixing pump that I run throughout the day to keep the water moving, and doesn't get too much light. Still - I notice after a day or two the water/nutrient mixture starts to develop a smell and a browner color.

What should I do to prevent issues with bacteria from developing in my reservoir? I am wiping it down with clorox disinfecting wipes in between fills, but adding something to the water which prevents bacteria would give me some peace of mind.

I've seen people adding hydrogen peroxide and even bleach to their water, what do you guys recommend that is safe and effective?

 

[Butts4Supper]

There are a number of enzymes that work, I use multi zen.
In a pinch you can use API Stress Zyme. I mix 20-30ml to a 225l rez.

 

[Jack og]

Clear Rez brand name, does a great job in keeping bacterial materials at bay and it’s fairly cheap

 

[cemchris]

What are you mixing in the rez? Could try dropping whatever is causing it. Shy away from the sugar stuff like molasses and all the of refined versions of it.

Personally I wouldnt leave pumps running in a rez. It will heat the water and enhance the problem you are having unless you are running chillers. Not to mention PH swings and if it's a magnetic pump it can pull Fe/Mg out of the solution. If you are mixing stuff that falls out of suspension I would change the nutes up. Long term rez's should only be for total solubles. The real milky organic stuff is usually a feed within 12-24hrs. If you are using something like that you can just mix up a dose by hand and feed it 1-2 times a week separate.

If you want to dose H202 it's 34% @ 0.5ml a gal. You can go higher then that but you need to be careful. It's one of those things you need to slowly ramp up imo. That dose and your plants wont skip a beat. You also need to dose about every 3-7 days. Just know if you are running anything with bennies or that is alive it will kill all of it and you will basically be wasting money if pouring products like that in the rez.

Or do what I do. T off of the timer and just have a separate pump recirc only when they are feeding.

 

[illmatik]

Right now I'm only mixing CalMag, RapidStart and Sensi Grow Coco in my water. The pump I only run periodically, mostly before I feed to mix up the water in case any nutrients sink to the bottom.

I'm not sure which of my nutrients is causing the stink/color change. But this is my first grow and whatever I'm doing is working because my plants are growing very well. So I'd like to not switch up any of my nutrients at this stage in the game.

I think I might start adding H202 with my water for that extra security blanket.

 

[Aqua Man]

Use air stones to mix I say this because it keeps the water agitated and oxygenated. No light leaks so I would find a lid. Either sterile like @cemchris stated or live which I would use hydrogaurd.

Organics is what's going to be causing the issue bacteria feed off organics and as was mentioned higher temps increase metabolic and reproductive rates so keeping cool would be ideal.

There is another way but I'm not going to get into that here. It's using denitrifying bacteria much like an aquarium and those of you that were fish people probably know how much of a difference it makes between a cycled tank and un cycled tank in terms of maintenance (they basically look after themselves) I run my whole system like that.

 

[illmatik]

Fellow reefer here! I'm in the process of finishing the plumbing on my 100 gallon tank. It's awesome how much overlap there is between these two hobbies.

If adding hydroguard to my water is all I need to do then I'm all for that. I'm not sure if it's even 100% necessary with my setup but my goal with this is to be able to walk away from it for a week at a time. It would be nice not to worry about losing all my plants to some infection while I'm on a vacation. If there's anything the reefing hobby has taught me is that there's no such thing as being too careful.

 

[Aqua Man]

Fellow reefer here! I'm in the process of finishing the plumbing on my 100 gallon tank. It's awesome how much overlap there is between these two hobbies.

If adding hydroguard to my water is all I need to do then I'm all for that. I'm not sure if it's even 100% necessary with my setup but my goal with this is to be able to walk away from it for a week at a time. It would be nice not to worry about losing all my plants to some infection while I'm on a vacation. If there's anything the reefing hobby has taught me is that there's no such thing as being too careful.

Used to be a duse here named heisenbubble. Him and I had some conversations on this topic. I run my whole RDWC system live and do 25-50% water changes a week with a canister filter full of biomedia and 1 layer of filter floss. He was RDWC also and eventually used a HOB filter to provide media for the bacteria on his top off res with hydrogaurd and if you could find him now I'm sure he would swear by it. You may be able to search his name and find some of his threads where he said it made all the difference in the world.

I know to most hydro people this must sound kinda funny but I bred fish and did planted tanks for over 20years. When I came to hydro I thought to myself fuck these people have it all wrong and sure make things hard on themselves. The issue is it's not plug and play it takes time just like an aquarium to establish a strong biofilter and with current practices like 100% water changes its Impossible.

He was one of very few people that was starting to understand just how beneficial and easy this made grows.

That's why I usually recommend sterile or hydrogaurd and don't go much beyond it. Hydroponics is just not at a point for it to be mainstream thinking yet.

 

[BigCube]

Just use a uv c bulb. This is exactly what they are for.

People just submerge a sealed glass tube in the rez and have the light inside it. You can buy submergable ones too.

Coospider UV Germicidal Light Lamp UVC with Ozone Bulb Kills Bacteria Remove Odors Air Cleaning E26 27 25w 110v Covers up to 400sq ft CTUV 25

 

[Aqua Man]

Just use a uv c bulb. This is exactly what they are for.

People just submerge a sealed glass tube in the rez and have the light inside it. You can buy submergable ones too.

Coospider UV Germicidal Light Lamp UVC with Ozone Bulb Kills Bacteria Remove Odors Air Cleaning E26 27 25w 110v Covers up to 400sq ft CTUV 25

I believe these can also cause iron to precipitate out of a solution. There are a few other things about them I cannot remember

 

[BigCube]

I believe these can also cause iron to precipitate out of a solution. There are a few other things about them I cannot remember

I was referring to treating the water. Not sure what it would or could do to nutrients. My guess is if the use is limited, you should be ok. They are on a timer and only come on 3 or 4 times a day for a few minutes each time. Just enough to kill any bacteria that wants to take hold. They use them in large aquarium setups and stuff.

 

[Aqua Man]

Let me get home and I will try to explain it better.

Wrong thread

 

[Aqua Man]

I was referring to treating the water. Not sure what it would or could do to nutrients. My guess is if the use is limited, you should be ok. They are on a timer and only come on 3 or 4 times a day for a few minutes each time. Just enough to kill any bacteria that wants to take hold. They use them in large aquarium setups and stuff.

Yeah they use them to treat pythium and cynobacteria. They work extremely well for this but the nutrient content is much much lower. to give you an idea your typical planted tank with fish should not go over 40ppm of nitrates and is typically about 10-15ppm and total ppm of less than 200. Its great for treating water but I wouldn't use after adding nutrients and bacteria are everywhere so even after treatment you will get bacterial blooms after mixing with nutrients containing organics and it takes very little organics to see this happen.

 

[cemchris]

Yeah live bacteria system work and work well if you know what you are doing. Bio Bucket guys and aquaponics have been slaying it for years.

@Aqua Man funny you talk about a live system. Guys used to run the Bio Bucket systems on OG and IC. Bio filters like a fish tank. Lava rocks for a medium and drip recirc with teas ect. Always cool to see those systems up and running after a couple of months and the whole mini eco culture they would have going on. Not enough control for a control freak like me

 

[Aqua Man]

Yeah live bacteria system work and work well if you know what you are doing. Bio Bucket guys and aquaponics have been slaying it for years.

@Aqua Man funny you talk about a live system. Guys used to run the Bio Bucket systems on OG and IC. Bio filters like a fish tank. Lava rocks for a medium and drip recirc with teas ect. Always cool to see those systems up and running after a couple of months and the whole mini eco culture they would have going on. Not enough control for a control freak like me

Yeah its my cup of tea but its complicated to someone just trying to get into hydro definitely not for everyone and then its also time consuming to get up and going, not plug and play at all. Once they are up and going though its just so dam easy to look after and virtually erases all the typical problems of hydro like root rot, bacteria blooms, algae and many others.

 

[BigCube]

Practicing good hygiene, and proper procedures can eliminate the need for any drastic measures. Things like:

Keep light out of your system

Wash your hands before touching anything

Only using trusted products

Regular system cleaning

Cleaning parts before you add them to the system

An ounce of prevention is worth 10 pounds of cure. If you do all these things and still have trouble, there are products that can help.

 

[Aqua Man]

Practicing good hygiene, and proper procedures can eliminate the need for any drastic measures. Things like:

Keep light out of your system

Wash your hands before touching anything

Only using trusted products

Regular system cleaning

Cleaning parts before you add them to the system

An ounce of prevention is worth 10 pounds of cure. If you do all these things and still have trouble, there are products that can help.

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