Sterile UC users, how do you keep your reservoir sterile?

  • Thread starter Mr.Sputnik
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Mr.Sputnik

Mr.Sputnik

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Thank you for the tea recipe. I have ben using mycogrow from fungiperfecti, age old kelp and humic, 1tbsp per gallon molasses, 1 handfull ewc per gallon. 2 gallons tea per 100 gallons of water. Give it about 2 days in the bucket with a bubbler. Been great ever since.
 
yukon369

yukon369

84
33
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.
So no pool shock or anything? What temp are you keeping your water at in the system then? I have well water that is 90 ppm with 0 contaminants. I've been keeping my water at 65.
 
F

FooDoo

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So no pool shock or anything? What temp are you keeping your water at in the system then? I have well water that is 90 ppm with 0 contaminants. I've been keeping my water at 65.

Nothing. Less is more. My municiple tap comes out at 150 tds however it carries something that causes root for so I use RO water at 0 tds. I keep water temp at 68.
 
DapperDon

DapperDon

412
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Nothing. Less is more. My municiple tap comes out at 150 tds however it carries something that causes root for so I use RO water at 0 tds. I keep water temp at 68.
That's some good ass water man.


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ken dog

ken dog

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I'm giving ozone a try... And everyone that runs a sterile system might want to try an orp meter.

I intend on starting at about 300 mV.
 
timmur

timmur

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I'm giving ozone a try... And everyone that runs a sterile system might want to try an orp meter.

I intend on starting at about 300 mV.

Help me out ken dog. Why do I need to know ORP when running sterile. The reason I ask is that I have the ability to measure ORP or DO on a continuous basis with my Agrowtek controller, but I'm not sure why it is significant. Thanks.
 
ken dog

ken dog

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With an orp meter, you can tell the condition of your water with regards to how well it will oxidize organic material.
The way I see it, it doesn't make any sense to run a sterile system unless you are sure that the treatment you are doing to the water is actually keeping the water fairly sterile.
I shoot for right around 300 mV
 
timmur

timmur

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So can the same probe be calibrated to indicate DO or ORP depending on how the signal is interpreted? When I bought the controller I was told that it can read DO, but the transmitter box say ORP where the probe hooks up.
 
ken dog

ken dog

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So can the same probe be calibrated to indicate DO or ORP depending on how the signal is interpreted? When I bought the controller I was told that it can read DO, but the transmitter box say ORP where the probe hooks up.

I would assume you would need an orp probe... which would be different than a dissolved oxygen probe.
 
palm eezy

palm eezy

79
18
What's your recommendation for going sterile? I have read H2O2, bleach, zone, chlorine, chloramine, physan 20, naccosan, UV, RO, UC roots, root guard, ect ect.

I think a lot of people assume problems are coming from within their systems, light leaks, etc., when really it is the water itself..

just my experience & opinion:

H2o2 downsides are costs, half-life, & fine line between effectiveness & toxicity

bleach @ low dosages can be cheap and effective, though also has potential to be harmful. effective at fairly miniscule doses in most cases.

zone is useful against some things but IME won't combat 'bad water' scenarios like ozone/bleach/etc will. more of a bandaid for light leak algae or other minor stuff. it's chloramine, which has a good half-life, and copper sulfate i believe.

physan 20 is a bit different. everything-cide that can be useful, but doesn't provide the liquid elbow grease factor (oxidation of buildup) that strong bleach does. be careful with this stuff, it doesnt take a lot of leftover residue to ruin/kill your plants.

UV can be effective but where you will run into problems is in the root mass itself, and it won't do anything for stuff that doesn't pass thru it.

RO doesn't really kill anything in your water, but in my experience it alone can reduce the amount of iron bacteria after it goes through it. if your iron is real bad, you'll need a greensand filter or try something other than water culture.

UC roots...i'd never tried or heard of until I got back into reading forums. No CC stuff at any of my local shops. Was running regular ol germicidal bleach for over a year but have found 24 grams pool shock per gallon of RO, used 1-3ml/gal, to work awesome. Using between 2.5-3ml/gal at changeouts and roughly adding that amount back to match every top-off. ymmv

and last but not least, ozone... Going to RO & treating my holding tanks with ozone ended up being a major breakthrough for my UC'ing. I know of 3 people with old 8 gallon systems for sale; although I didn't firsthand witness their troubles, water quality was definitely a factor. Kendog's setup intrigues me greatly and am very interested in seeing the results.

if you have bad water that doesn't really wreck an RO, an easy but manual way is to get 55 gal drums, 275s, whatever, as holding tanks. Bleach them fairly heavily on a cycle where you give them about a week to bubble off (with air stones). Once it passes the nose test it's good to go. You can also cheaply and effectively deploy ozone w/ holding tanks, but not within a living area, as ken's troubles with off-gassing have illustrated.
 
ken dog

ken dog

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I've got an ozone monitor coming in the mail tomorrow... We will see if my upgraded reactor has solved the off-gassing problem... If so, I will post the details in the other thread.
 

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