Stinky Water

J

julz87

New Member
Hello everyone, newbie here!

I just started to grow on my very first dwc. My problem is water smells disgusting, and I've noticed yellow-ish foams on top of the water.
I'm at week 1. roots are not coming out of the net pot yet.

I'm using;
FloraGro
FloraMicro
FloraBloom
Orca

Water temp is steady at 68F.
Also my pH goes up like crazy over night. like from 5.7 to 8.0
Am I doing something wrong? Is Orca causing this? Is it normal to smell like this and pH changes?

Any help would be appreciated.
 
MrGreenFingers99

MrGreenFingers99

Well-Known Member
julz87 said:
Uh I just changed the water.. couldn't resist the smell so yeah I changed it. now looking fine but tomorrow probably will be same then I'll take a picture and post it.
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Just make sure you dont have any light leaks into the res on your system, just a tiny bit of light will f things up in DWC
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
Gotta be the Orca. Is it expired? Does it smell? How long were the nutes in the system with the orca?

As to the pH, are you using tap water?
 
J

julz87

New Member
MrGreenFingers99 said:
Just make sure you dont have any light leaks into the res on your system, just a tiny bit of light will f things up in DWC
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I'm positive that there are no light leaks but I'll check again to make sure thank you!

Renfro said:
Gotta be the Orca. Is it expired? Does it smell? How long were the nutes in the system with the orca?

As to the pH, are you using tap water?
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exp. date is 2022. Doesn't smell bad in the bottle. It's been 2 days. and yes, I'm using tap water.
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
julz87 said:
I'm positive that there are no light leaks but I'll check again to make sure thank you!


exp. date is 2022. Doesn't smell bad in the bottle. It's been 2 days. and yes, I'm using tap water.
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Well the tap water is the pH problem. As to the stench, how long did you run without changing nutes? Beneficial bacteria over time dies and decays, that could produce the foam and smell.
 
J

julz87

New Member
fragileassassin said:
Does it smell like a dirty fish tank?
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Hell yeah! Exactly!

Renfro said:
Well the tap water is the pH problem. As to the stench, how long did you run without changing nutes? Beneficial bacteria over time dies and decays, that could produce the foam and smell.
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It's been 6 days since I started to run the system and introduced nutes to my seedling. I changed the water 3 times because of the smell so yeah 2 days I ran without changing the nutes.. I feel like something is wrong but I can't figure out what it is.
 
fragileassassin

fragileassassin

Well-Known Member
julz87 said:
Hell yeah! Exactly!
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Its also a big sign of a rot or algae issue. Ive never used orca so I cant speak to its specific smell. My bennies (southern ag) give my res more of an earthy smell, far from a stinky fish tank.
Look for brown slimy stuff on the sides of your res ect. Anywhere hoses/tubes run into the res. Any clear tubing.
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
fragileassassin said:
Its also a big sign of a rot or algae issue. Ive never used orca so I cant speak to its specific smell. My bennies (southern ag) give my res more of an earthy smell, far from a stinky fish tank.
Look for brown slimy stuff on the sides of your res ect. Anywhere hoses/tubes run into the res. Any clear tubing.
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IME root rot smells more rotten. The fish tank smell from the orca is definitely different.

But healthy roots smell like carrots lol.
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
As to the pH issue you should give RO water a try, it's much more stable with the pH. If you just wanna give it a shot without buying a filter you can get 5 gallon jugs of it at walmart, they have a RO filter that will fill jugs.
 
29menace

29menace

Well-Known Member
I was using tarantula in my Dwc and I added Nirvana the organic add-on and had that smell , opened the tent n was hit in the face with the smell 6yr old stagnant fishtank water lol, had my air pump half way without realising and since upping the airflow to the Res the smell went overnight.

Not saying that's your issue but hows your airflow into the Res. Strong yeah.?
 
J

julz87

New Member
29menace said:
I was using tarantula in my Dwc and I added Nirvana the organic add-on and had that smell , opened the tent n was hit in the face with the smell 6yr old stagnant fishtank water lol, had my air pump half way without realising and since upping the airflow to the Res the smell went overnight.

Not saying that's your issue but hows your airflow into the Res. Strong yeah.?
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Can't tell if it's strong or not I don't know what strong looks tbh. Looks great to me but I'll take a picture.

Renfro said:
SAG GFF has only one bacteria strain but the orca has more and thats why it smells like a fish tank.
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So is it normal to smell like that? I wonder did I get a bad batch. Is orca supposed to smell like f. rotten whales in water... Definetely doesn't smell like carrots...
DarkWeb said:
Pic of the system. Is it well water or from the town?
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It's from the town

fragileassassin said:
Its also a big sign of a rot or algae issue. Ive never used orca so I cant speak to its specific smell. My bennies (southern ag) give my res more of an earthy smell, far from a stinky fish tank.
Look for brown slimy stuff on the sides of your res ect. Anywhere hoses/tubes run into the res. Any clear tubing.
Click to expand...
There are brown stuff on the sides I thought that was foam. Isn't it too early to get rot? Isn't she too young? I can't even see any roots, they're are not coming out of the net pot.

So overall what do you guys suggest? Should I switch to sterile? or neither.. just nutes? Or leave it like this for a week or two to see what happens?
 
fragileassassin

fragileassassin

Well-Known Member
You really shouldnt have any buildup on the sides within a week imo. Algae can start growing within days.
Would be interested to see your setup, might have a bit of a glowing problem somewhere. Some plastics and certain sizes of PVC arent totally light proof and will glow on the inside. Stuff like orange home depot and blue lowes buckets are good examples. Even the darker blue lowes buckets arent totally light proof.
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
julz87 said:
So is it normal to smell like that? I wonder did I get a bad batch. Is orca supposed to smell like f. rotten whales in water... Definetely doesn't smell like carrots...
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Well rotten whales sounds a bit extreme, it smells more like a stagnant pond when you go fishing, or a dirty fish tank. If it gets that gross that quick then it's not normal. For example, I used orca when I did DWC, I used a LOT because I multiplied it with carboload and an airstone... So I could add a cup to each plant site if I wanted to and I did because I was running hot dwc, no chiller. So my water temps were rarely below 75 and more like 80 and I used a lot of orca to keep things happy. A few mL of that can multiply into gallons if you want. But I digress, what I am getting at is even with a 5 gallon bucket of sugar water and orca brewing so that it's concentrated like the bottle and has foam, it never smelled like anything worse than a fishtank unless it was old and bacteria were dying off and rotting.

The fact your bottle doesn't smell rotten makes me wonder why it's getting rotten when you add it to your system, and why so fast? Is chlorinated water killing it immediately and it just rots?
 
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