TDS problem in DWC?

[boondock00]

My resevoir is a 4 gallon tub with 4 holes cut in the top. I only fill it to 2 gallons so the net pots dont sit in the water. Anyway. I had been battling root slime (r0t?) since i started the DWC. The first time i found that if i gave my plants nutes less often then i should the slime would eat up what it could and then die, allowing the roots to absorb whatever nutes were left and the plant would grow! Then i would re-nute and the slime would come back, dissapear after about a week, then the plants would grow some more. Very annoying and slow progress.

Once they were big enough i took clones (althought they definetly should have been bigger the clones were very small but lived!) and put them in the DWC after a THUROUGH cleaning. Sure enough the slime was back after i started the full strength nutrients. Frustrated i looked for other solutions and found aquashield.

Now heres where i hit a brick wall. When i started aquashield, as a control to make sure it was working, I used my spray hose in the sink to wash off the slime on two plants, and left it on on the others. Refilled my res, apllied nutes so my TDS read ~600 (.5 conversion) The corrected pH and applied aquashield. A few days no real changed. Applied more aquashield as it said on directions. few more days huge change! All slime gone and new roots busting out everywhere. Very pleased. Now today has been 8 days since i first put in the aquashield so i was going to re apply nutes to get back to 600, but i took the TDS and it was still right at 600. So i have a few questions. Does the slime even absorb nutes? Or does aquashield affect the TDS reading? Really need some answers i dont want to empty and refill my res everyweek with all new nutes/water/aquashield.

 

[socalpunx]

You should always clean out your res once a week so that you dont get slimed.But alot of organic materials dont register on TDS I personally dont use TDS when im doing pure organic just with synthetics and I dont think slime absorbs nutes but im not sure on that one

 

[PuregenetiKs]

I have never heard of the slime changing the tds, but it makes sense. I wouldn't think with a decent size reservoir it would be enough to notice. If I came back to check my rez and the ph and tds were the same when I left it, I would call that dialed in with that strain and its current age/environment. Aquashield is a good product if you can't control water temps, and even if you can. Make sure you got a lot of oxygen going on and keep that tub of water circulating as much as possible. I am not sure if aquashield changes tds but I would guess yes some. Make up one gallon of nutrients and apply aquashield and test before/after. Depending on how well dialed you are and how important the growth stage you are in you can get away without weekly changes. In flower I would be more adamant about frequent water changes to ensure the plants are getting a proper full range diet.

 

[dutch69lover]

What sorta nutrients are you using?? If you are trying organic hydro you will get slime problems from time to time if you aren't changing your Rez every week. Seems like organics in hydro causes these problems. If you run all synthetic nutrients and change weekly you should be good.