White slime

[Innov8tr]

I found this in my res, I'm pretty sure that its a problem with GH ph up. I noticed this slime building up in my clone machine and in my 9 site veg UC system a couple days ago. I changed the water in my veg system and gave up on the clone machine. I only added a little ph up to it and it turned milky again, it was a brand new bottle of ph up.

I sterilze my system inside and out so I'm 90% sure this is no algae or bacteria bloom. I use zone and pythoff (chloramine) on a regular basis. I also only add RO water ran through a UV sterilizer, after being made it is chilled to 68 degrees to keep it as bacteria free as possible.

I called GH and they agree that with me that its the ph up, they think its silicate falling out of the solution. Really sucks because its really hard to get it off and its on and in everything. Any suggestions on how to clean the system with the plants still in it? I tried some flora kleen in a bucket and dropped in this nasty airstone and it did nothing.

 

[norcal215]

try some companion or hygrozyme

 

[grnmountainboy]

i used gh ph up and got the same problems, even worse my roots were covered in the slime and my plants suffered big time! they ought to put a warning on the bottle or something!

 

[norcal215]

sometimes areating with certain broducts have been known to cause slime and bacteria problems

 

[phenotyper]

I'm going to second the hygrozyme. What products have you been using? As norcal215 said, sometimes bubbling causes bacterial blooms.

 

[ibTheMan]

You need to do a 3 day cleaning 1st 24 hours use Hydrozyme, 2nd 24 use Germicidal Bleach, last 24 H2O2.
if you take your pump cover off its full of slime.

When you start over use Tap Water adjusted to 6.0ph NOTHING ELSE!
The stuff in Tap Water fights infection, RO is the worst thing to use, that slime is the plant dissolving.

 

[Innov8tr]

i used gh ph up and got the same problems, even worse my roots were covered in the slime and my plants suffered big time! they ought to put a warning on the bottle or something!

Damn that sucks, what did you do about it? My veg system has week old plants in them, I really hope they make it. I've always used Gh ph up and have never had this problem, I think that there is something wrong with the product when this happens. GH said they would send me some nutrient for the hassle, if I lose the plants there better send me a pallet.

 

[Innov8tr]

I'm going to second the hygrozyme. What products have you been using? As norcal215 said, sometimes bubbling causes bacterial blooms.

I would have thougt that too but I'm already sterilizing the water and putting sterilizers in the system. I can't imagine that I would have a super tough bacterial that can survive high doses of chloramine. Also with having it in 3 systems with no cross contamination between them, only the brand new bottle of ph up as the common denominator.

 

[Innov8tr]

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. I talked with CC and they have a new product that I paid to have overnighted to me. It should be here today and its called UCRoots and Dan really thinks this will break down the nasty shit in there. I'm going to pull out the plants, clean the system the best I can, put it all back with new water.

GH suggested that I use tapwater too but that isn't an option for me since I'm using well water. Its high in iron and has plenty of pythium in it, RO and sterilizing is the only option for me.

 

[ibTheMan]

You need to do a 3 day cleaning 1st 24 hours use Hydrozyme, 2nd 24 use Germicidal Bleach, last 24 H2O2.
if you take your pump cover off its full of slime.

When you start over use Tap Water adjusted to 6.0ph NOTHING ELSE!
The stuff in Tap Water fights infection, RO is the worst thing to use, that slime is the plant dissolving.

Bro^ thats all true no guessn, listen if you want or Always mess your shit up, up to you.

 

[Innov8tr]

I just went and checked on them, the plants are actually growing. I noticed some new roots sticking out, really surprising. Something odd though, there is a white fuzzy covering on top of the rocks, looks almost like mold or fungus. I have the water level really high since they are babies, that funky water had bubbled up on top of the rocks and had dried. That makes me think more about it being bacteria related but still I go back to how well things are sterilized and the fact that its in 3 differenent systems...not my 4th system. I just dropped in a heavy dose of flora kleen and will be cleaning and changing the water in a couple of hours.

 

[Innov8tr]

Bro^ thats all true no guessn, listen if you want or Always mess your shit up, up to you.

Ibman thanks for the suggestion. I'm assuming that with your strong advice you have had this exact same problem before? You mention, always mess my shit up, I'm not sure what you mean by that. Unless I have this strange problem over and over again, and try to cure it the same way over and over again, and it doesn't work over and over again I guess I could see your point. I'm not trying to be a a-hole because I really do appreciate the advice, but to assume that there is only one solution to the problem and that all other methods will "always mess my shit up" I don't think is accurate. Since its CC's system I am at least willing to give it a try. If it doesn't work quickly I would definitely try your advice, personally I didn't like using hygrozyme in my UC, messy stuff. If it takes that to cure my problem then that's exactly what I do.

BTW I mentioned that I'm already using germicidal bleach (pythoff made from chloramine), and I can't use tap water, but I can try h202 and hygrozyme. I'll ask CC is its ok to run h202 with UC Roots since I already have some, seems like a good thing to add like you and a couple others mentioned.

 

[UCMENOW]

ibUCMENOW

Bro^ thats all true no guessn, listen if you want or Always mess your shit up, up to you.

Seems that "IthinkibTheMan" has a high self opinion of his opinions, surprise. Though I guess that's a no brainer given the self appointed moniker ;)


I tend to think it's not microbial at all, but rather a chemical reaction as GH suggested, it does seem they would know best given the 30 years of experience as a manufacture of hydro chems. As for the fuzzy on the rocks, it's likely the precipitate from the silicate that has been suggested is reacting to the pH up, stalagmite style.

From what I've heard about the UCROOTS product it breaks down mineral and biofilms so I guess we'll get to see how it worx cause your shit is funky for sure.

Hope it worx itself out Innov8tor.

 

[mrdizzle]

sadly, from my experience, that is the start of brown algae, it will be brown in a few days

I suggest a deep clean

 

[Innov8tr]

sadly, from my experience, that is the start of brown algae, it will be brown in a few days

I suggest a deep clean

That's exactly what I did, I just spent the last 2 hours cleaning the system out...shit sucks. I put flora kleen it in for 4 hrs before I cleaned it. I think this did help, it loosened the hold the slime had. My water hose with a high power sprayer knocked off most of it, it even cleaned out the pipes just by spraying them. Cleaned my filters, changed my airstones, washed my lids, scrubbed the system, scrubbed the pots , refilled with sterilized water and put them back in. There are chunks of stuff still floating around in there, probably from the pvc, it was nearly impossible to get it all. I'll change the water again in a couple of days to hopefully remove all the leftovers.I really don't think its brown slime, the water has been white and cloudy for days now. And the brown slime would have to be able to bloom with all the sterilizers I'm using already.

The small plants are actually growing a little so I'm not sure they will stall out by this or not. Damn, I thought this would be the first harvest with no problems...I should know by now its always something.

 

[Buddy Hemphill]

That's exactly what I did, I just spent the last 2 hours cleaning the system out...shit sucks. I put flora kleen it in for 4 hrs before I cleaned it. I think this did help, it loosened the hold the slime had. My water hose with a high power sprayer knocked off most of it, it even cleaned out the pipes just by spraying them. Cleaned my filters, changed my airstones, washed my lids, scrubbed the system, scrubbed the pots , refilled with sterilized water and put them back in. There are chunks of stuff still floating around in there, probably from the pvc, it was nearly impossible to get it all. I'll change the water again in a couple of days to hopefully remove all the leftovers.I really don't think its brown slime, the water has been white and cloudy for days now. And the brown slime would have to be able to bloom with all the sterilizers I'm using already.

The small plants are actually growing a little so I'm not sure they will stall out by this or not. Damn, I thought this would be the first harvest with no problems...I should know by now its always something.

dammit son!

Thats some work....good luck.

 

[Innov8tr]

Well good news. After cleaning out the system I put in sterilized RO water, a low dose of nutrients, and added UCRoots. There were still chunks floating around in there immediately after filling it up. I came back the next morning and the chunks were dissolved and the water was a little cloudy. It wasn't anything like it was before, I really wasn't worried about it. Since then the water has cleared up completely and the plants are starting to grow again. I had planned on doing another water change but at the moment I don't think its necessary.

I won't be using liquid ph up from GH anymore. Luckily I had some powdered ph up, I need it after putting in the nutes. Funny story...I went to shake up the powder and the lid came off, a large amount of it went right in my eye and the rest went all over the room. Had to scoop it up off the floor just to have enough to dose the system! I had some RO water handy and washed it out, I can still see lol

 

[Innov8tr]

Ok so thought I would update. Had clean water in the system for 2 days, no problem. The third day I added some nutes bringing it up to 250 ppm, no problem. The following day my ph was low after adding the nutrients so I added some ph up powder that I have been using for a long time....not the same liquid ph up that I had problems with. Within 24 hrs back to the same slimy cloudy SHIT!

Ok so its not a problem with ph up, its a problem with the nutrients. I just cracked open the new nutrients too so this makes sense. I also have used the ph up in another system with h&g nutes with no issues. I added ph up, ro water, and veg/green nutes...is clouds right up instantly.

I cleaned the system yet again, put in UCRoots, and ran the water level all the way up for 24hrs. The UCRoots dissolves this stuff immediately, the trick is to change the water out again 24 hrs after application to get the rest out of the system. I put in h&G nutrients and gh ph up and no issues at all. Water is almost crystal clear and the plants are starting to grow a little more.

In these pics you can see where the silicate bubble up through the top of the rocks and crystalized on it....looks like mold but I'm 100% sure its not. When I ran the water level all the way up with a fresh dose of UCRoots it dissolved it right away.

 

[Shane20]

Hopefully you solved the problem. That stuff looks icky! Hope the plants take off well now.

 

[shakey]

sadly, from my experience, that is the start of brown algae, it will be brown in a few days

I know this to be true from experience. You had the beginning stage of brown algae. Zone and pithoff are only temporary fixes, and you have to re introduce these products every 3 days or the slime starts to take over again. The best thing I found was physan20 but you can't use it with plants in the system or it will mess them up. Where you using Dutch master fertilizer? That's when I got the slime in my system and the water starts to get funky... Bad funky! Can you tell us more about cch2o roots? What's the ingredients in it?