How Do I get rid of Algae build up in my flood table and reservoir?

Smoke Screen

Active Member
what do you not understand about algae photosythesises to grow? even if you kill it with bleach it will return because of the light. good luck my man!
 

zem

Well-Known Member
never knew that bleach can do this. come to think of it, swimming pools dont have algae and they are treated with chlorine, isnt that the main component of bleach?? i dont use it as i worry of its effect on plants, i use H2O2, usually people wait for chlorine to evaporate before they grow, and it evaporates in 24hours, so you have to add it daily.... anyway, bleach or not i'm covering my res up lol
 

Icannabis

Well-Known Member
I use a product by Dutch Master called Zone and I leave my table open and not a sign of algae or pythium or anything...I also use SM-90 but for different reasons. I've been thinking of covering my table because of the roots. I've used h2o2 too it will work. Anyway just my 2 cents.
 

choempi

Well-Known Member
never knew that bleach can do this. come to think of it, swimming pools dont have algae and they are treated with chlorine, isnt that the main component of bleach?? i dont use it as i worry of its effect on plants, i use H2O2, usually people wait for chlorine to evaporate before they grow, and it evaporates in 24hours, so you have to add it daily.... anyway, bleach or not i'm covering my res up lol
Not talking about the res, that is always covered, and look at the things plants need, one of them is chlorine. Nurseries have always used it for sterility. You only need to add back every 3 or 4 days. I used to use h2o2 till I found something better and cheaper- bleach. Peeps do a lot of things they think they need to do, but in reality they are caught up in myth and marketing. The only thing you can't do with bleach is if you use organic nutes. All the very technical info is here, Bleach instead of h2o2
 

choempi

Well-Known Member
I use a product by Dutch Master called Zone and I leave my table open and not a sign of algae or pythium or anything...I also use SM-90 but for different reasons. I've been thinking of covering my table because of the roots. I've used h2o2 too it will work. Anyway just my 2 cents.
roots get air pruned, no need to cover it, but no reason not to.
 

zem

Well-Known Member
I used to use h2o2 till I found something better and cheaper- bleach. Peeps do a lot of things they think they need to do, but in reality they are caught up in myth and marketing. The only thing you can't do with bleach is if you use organic nutes. All the very technical info is here, Bleach instead of h2o2
cheaper maybe in your case, but better? how so?
 

choempi

Well-Known Member
cheaper maybe in your case, but better? how so?
Sterile water, zero pathogens, zero. I was using h2o2, and still had some slight algae due to a table that left a tiny bit of undrainded water, then found out that a little bit of algae is enough to grow into alot of algae, so was desperate to find a fix. Researched bleach and used it and it wiped out the green gunk. So, my lesson learned is h2o2 is second to a simple few drops of bleach which everyone has in their home anyway. Beautiful white roots and no more worries. h2o2 is fine, just bleach is better. If you have no problems then don't worry about it, but if you ever get a bit of root rot, algae, or having a problem keeping temps in your res down, bleach to the rescue.
 

dbkick

Well-Known Member
happy new year as I see the time zone of riu is past midnite. heisy, I quit on the ewc tea due to in dwc it seemed to jack with me. It never affected my aerospring systems but did my shitty little buckets (japanfreak uses them, yuck) haha, where the fuck was I? oh right, the tea, I'm not using it anymore and would rather run a sterile res, one plant I had in dwc developed this nasty snot looking slime and I've had it do that before(in aerospring never) , I added h2o2 first and then bleach after I decided fuck it (10 dollar clones aren't to invaluable to me).......fuck I forgot my train of thought.....oh right sterile res, the bleach seemed to have a little affect on the snot looking shit but not really so I chopped that bitch up into clones earlier. Dunno if this has anything to do with the thread other than killing every-fucking-living-thing is the res and I'm all for that!!
 

legallyflying

Well-Known Member
I covered my table with panda film and cut x's for the plants. Reflects light back at the plants and keeps the roots cool
 

zem

Well-Known Member
Sterile water, zero pathogens, zero. I was using h2o2, and still had some slight algae due to a table that left a tiny bit of undrainded water, then found out that a little bit of algae is enough to grow into alot of algae, so was desperate to find a fix. Researched bleach and used it and it wiped out the green gunk. So, my lesson learned is h2o2 is second to a simple few drops of bleach which everyone has in their home anyway. Beautiful white roots and no more worries. h2o2 is fine, just bleach is better. If you have no problems then don't worry about it, but if you ever get a bit of root rot, algae, or having a problem keeping temps in your res down, bleach to the rescue.
i used bleach back when i started hydro, in small doses, never dreamed to raise it to levels to prevent algae. i needed to add much more than i would h2o2 and never saw the curing effects of h2o2. for prevention maybe but when i flush roots with h2o2 mix, it breaks down any dead roots in the medium much better than anything i saw, i actually see the water getting murky. and i got it idustrial grade 35% for 40$ or so. thats so cheap, i use it a lot in various sterilizing, i wipe cloning scisors with it, easily washes off no need for flushing, i can use it to spray plants, i clean my jars with it, even my ashtrays, and after each grow i let the floor of room soak with it then flush, it gets very clean. for plants i only add 0.5ml/L weekly or less, to prevent any sign of larvae which is my cause. battling algae with bleach or h2o2 with open tray and living plants sounds crazy to me. not being close minded just realistic, i mean they might live through and not die, but is it good for them in high doses? might as well add the C for chlorine on NPK like N-P-K-C 5-2-3-1 LMAO im high
 

choempi

Well-Known Member
i used bleach back when i started hydro, in small doses, never dreamed to raise it to levels to prevent algae. i needed to add much more than i would h2o2 and never saw the curing effects of h2o2. for prevention maybe but when i flush roots with h2o2 mix, it breaks down any dead roots in the medium much better than anything i saw, i actually see the water getting murky. and i got it idustrial grade 35% for 40$ or so. thats so cheap, i use it a lot in various sterilizing, i wipe cloning scisors with it, easily washes off no need for flushing, i can use it to spray plants, i clean my jars with it, even my ashtrays, and after each grow i let the floor of room soak with it then flush, it gets very clean. for plants i only add 0.5ml/L weekly or less, to prevent any sign of larvae which is my cause. battling algae with bleach or h2o2 with open tray and living plants sounds crazy to me. not being close minded just realistic, i mean they might live through and not die, but is it good for them in high doses? might as well add the C for chlorine on NPK like N-P-K-C 5-2-3-1 LMAO im high
educate yourself; https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/327967-bleach-instead-h2o2.html
 

zem

Well-Known Member
choempi, this is bullshit, that thread is plain stupidity. educate yourself and cover your damn rezs. i dont give a shit if you use it or if fatman uses it, bottom line is, you cannot claim that it is better than h2o2 and go around givin it as fact. and man change that avatar, it's stepping in my nerves!
 

choempi

Well-Known Member
choempi, this is bullshit, that thread is plain stupidity. educate yourself and cover your damn rezs. i dont give a shit if you use it or if fatman uses it, bottom line is, you cannot claim that it is better than h2o2 and go around givin it as fact. and man change that avatar, it's stepping in my nerves!
easy dude.
You keep saying cover res, when it is about tables. Never heard anyone mention not covering a res.

You don't like my avi? Who the fuck you to tell me to change the pic I have used for over 2 years on the net. You sound like a punk now. You hate the Giants or something? Or you don't know who the fuck that pic is?

View attachment 1356459
Chill
 

zem

Well-Known Member
no i don't know whose pic it is, but he sure looks ugly. anyway when i say res i mean the table thats filled with water, we call it a dwc res. i don't see how you can keep it open, under the light, with high enough bleach concentration not to allow algae, and still grow good plants in it. i explained it before, but all you did was give me a bullshit link. so yeah i probably can add watever toxins in res and still manage to keep plants alive, but is it good? sure NOT. i've seen many growers who use bleach, but only to clean up their systems, then they keep flushing it to keep the toxic chlorine out. add to it the fact that all household bleach, scented or not, have residues,things mixed with chlorine to stabilize it. anyway, i guess it's useless tryin to make sense here.
 

Lord Dangly Bits

Well-Known Member
I noticed a alot of algae build up on my flood table mostly. It was like brown tanish color. The hydro rocks also have some white stuff on them. When the water drains sum of the water sits still on the table and it sits still for about 5hrs. Then the table floods again but more algae is built up and cloggs the water intake. THe lights stay on 24hrs. and the temps are always at 70-75f. I think that the water that doesnt go back down to the reservoir is creating the algae on the table due to the lights being on all day and I know that algae needs light to grows. I cleaned the table ready good with hot water and the pumps and drain worked normally again. I just want to know how to prevent this from happening. Plz help and always Thanx u For Reading..
Now I have never tried Bleach, other then to clean between uses. But Bleach is Chlorine Bleach, which is the same crap water departments add to water supplies to help fight bacteria and such. This is the crap that makes everyone say either use R/O water of let your water sit for a minimum of 24 hours to get rid of. So why would you want to add it?

But I am still not so sure it is Algae. What kind of Nuts and additives is he useing? Some products will leave a brown film on the tray walls and equipment.
He also says water sits in the table after it floods. I am thinking he does not have a 1/4" per 1' of tray slope for the water to flow towards the drain.
He also mentions white stuff building up on his hydro rocks, this sounds like salt build up to me.
Also, what type of material is his rez tank made from. I have seen people use some rubbermaid tubs that allowed enough light through to grow algae.
 

phxfire

New Member
I noticed a alot of algae build up on my flood table mostly. It was like brown tanish color. The hydro rocks also have some white stuff on them. When the water drains sum of the water sits still on the table and it sits still for about 5hrs. Then the table floods again but more algae is built up and cloggs the water intake. THe lights stay on 24hrs. and the temps are always at 70-75f. I think that the water that doesnt go back down to the reservoir is creating the algae on the table due to the lights being on all day and I know that algae needs light to grows. I cleaned the table ready good with hot water and the pumps and drain worked normally again. I just want to know how to prevent this from happening. Plz help and always Thanx u For Reading..
Usually this happens when you don't properly clean your medium... I would tear everything down and start over... TRUST ME.... YOU WILL NOT GROW ANYTHING WORTH SMOKING.... Starting over is hard but in your case there REALLY is no way to get rid of the algae completely.... You don't want that SHIT coming back into your last week of flowering or something... START OVER... Clean yout hydro rocks very well... I soak my hydro rocks, after cleaning them, in a strong mix of nutrients over night.. Be sure to adjust PH... This will allow the rocks to soak up some nutrients and maintain a perfect PH.. Really you should START OVER...
 

zem

Well-Known Member
Usually this happens when you don't properly clean your medium... I would tear everything down and start over... TRUST ME.... YOU WILL NOT GROW ANYTHING WORTH SMOKING.... Starting over is hard but in your case there REALLY is no way to get rid of the algae completely.... You don't want that SHIT coming back into your last week of flowering or something... START OVER... Clean yout hydro rocks very well... I soak my hydro rocks, after cleaning them, in a strong mix of nutrients over night.. Be sure to adjust PH... This will allow the rocks to soak up some nutrients and maintain a perfect PH.. Really you should START OVER...
are you serious? start over? just becayse theres some algae? he didnt even say plants looked bad or anything. crap i have done a couple of grows where plants grew with algae, yes i did have some larvae and some gnats but i did harvest decent. if he only cleans res and covers light, no algae problems anymore. some people forget the fact that it's a plant. and frankly in RIU you can get the worst advice for newbs, full of misleading B.S.!!!
 

Lord Dangly Bits

Well-Known Member
Usually this happens when you don't properly clean your medium... I would tear everything down and start over... TRUST ME.... YOU WILL NOT GROW ANYTHING WORTH SMOKING.... Starting over is hard but in your case there REALLY is no way to get rid of the algae completely.... You don't want that SHIT coming back into your last week of flowering or something... START OVER... Clean yout hydro rocks very well... I soak my hydro rocks, after cleaning them, in a strong mix of nutrients over night.. Be sure to adjust PH... This will allow the rocks to soak up some nutrients and maintain a perfect PH.. Really you should START OVER...
Why the hell start over? Algae will not hurt your buds. Only thing it will do is eat up some of the nutrients. Just clean everything as best as you can and carry on. And make sure your tray drains the correct direction. If you have standing water in your tray after it floods, then it is not draining correctly.
I hear some of the stupidist stuff on this site.
 
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