sven_lordy
Active Member
Not after advice here - just trying to save other newbies from making the same silly mistakes as me.
I recently manifolded a plant... around 4 weeks in, I got root rot. For the second time in one grow. I was on the fence about whether to keep going with the manifold so had another seedling on standby. On second bout of root rot, I thought 'f**k it', killed it and made the switch to the new seedling. I've constantly battled with rot since moving to DWC and was adamant 'never again'.
As most know, when you have rot, you clean everything. Thoroughly. So I did. Threw out the hydroton and after rinsing/de-dusting, I soaked the new hydroton in pH 5.5 water. As for my res and air stone, I filled it with water and added 4 heaped teaspoons of pool shock (it's a 45l res)... enough to tear the skin from your hand in no time at all.
It turns out 'less is more' is just as applicable to cleaning agents as it is to nutrients. I rinsed everythig thoroughly. I filled the res again with fresh water and soaked the airstone for 20 mins before switching it back on and pushing out any residual chlorine. Emptied the tank again, and this time added nutrients and new seedling.
I have 17l in my res as standard. Within 4 hours, my pH climbed from 5.5 to 6.7. Initial ppm was 130 (RO water started at 1.1). Within 24 hours I'd added so much pH down that I was at 230ppm. I emptied my res again, added a pond liner, and although not quite so severe, my pH is still rising from 5.5 to 6.6 within 16 hours.
That's 77litres of water the stone has been operating in, we're now on day 3 of new seedling, and still I'm getting some crazy pH climbs. All I have in the res is formulex and orca.
So - don't be a chump folks - pool shock is no joke, and if you soak a big airstone in 100x the recommended dose, you'll be getting through a lot of RO water and nutrients for the next week or so (I'm assuming it'll be balanced again by that time - fingers crossed). If I'm still battling this tomorrow, given that roots aren't through the pot yet, I'll be filling the bath and running the stone in that for 24hrs while top-watering my seedling for the day.
As for the root rot issues? I finally found the source. I have a Hailea V-30 pump. It didn't look like there was a way to remove the air inlet and I couldn't find an aftermarket inlet filter. I brute-forced it when I started my clean-down to discover the tiniest piece of air filter material known to man, fully clogged with gunk. The gunk was around the outer housing of where the black inlet housing sits too. Obviously this has also now been thoroughly cleaned, but with an antibac spray as opposed to my prior nuclear option!
Your system is only as robust as your weakest point of failure. Check every source of contamination twice before letting it anywhere near your tank - especially if it's air from a contaminated pump.
Cheers!
Sven - happy to show myself as a dumb-ass to save you having to be one yourself
I recently manifolded a plant... around 4 weeks in, I got root rot. For the second time in one grow. I was on the fence about whether to keep going with the manifold so had another seedling on standby. On second bout of root rot, I thought 'f**k it', killed it and made the switch to the new seedling. I've constantly battled with rot since moving to DWC and was adamant 'never again'.
As most know, when you have rot, you clean everything. Thoroughly. So I did. Threw out the hydroton and after rinsing/de-dusting, I soaked the new hydroton in pH 5.5 water. As for my res and air stone, I filled it with water and added 4 heaped teaspoons of pool shock (it's a 45l res)... enough to tear the skin from your hand in no time at all.
It turns out 'less is more' is just as applicable to cleaning agents as it is to nutrients. I rinsed everythig thoroughly. I filled the res again with fresh water and soaked the airstone for 20 mins before switching it back on and pushing out any residual chlorine. Emptied the tank again, and this time added nutrients and new seedling.
I have 17l in my res as standard. Within 4 hours, my pH climbed from 5.5 to 6.7. Initial ppm was 130 (RO water started at 1.1). Within 24 hours I'd added so much pH down that I was at 230ppm. I emptied my res again, added a pond liner, and although not quite so severe, my pH is still rising from 5.5 to 6.6 within 16 hours.
That's 77litres of water the stone has been operating in, we're now on day 3 of new seedling, and still I'm getting some crazy pH climbs. All I have in the res is formulex and orca.
So - don't be a chump folks - pool shock is no joke, and if you soak a big airstone in 100x the recommended dose, you'll be getting through a lot of RO water and nutrients for the next week or so (I'm assuming it'll be balanced again by that time - fingers crossed). If I'm still battling this tomorrow, given that roots aren't through the pot yet, I'll be filling the bath and running the stone in that for 24hrs while top-watering my seedling for the day.
As for the root rot issues? I finally found the source. I have a Hailea V-30 pump. It didn't look like there was a way to remove the air inlet and I couldn't find an aftermarket inlet filter. I brute-forced it when I started my clean-down to discover the tiniest piece of air filter material known to man, fully clogged with gunk. The gunk was around the outer housing of where the black inlet housing sits too. Obviously this has also now been thoroughly cleaned, but with an antibac spray as opposed to my prior nuclear option!
Your system is only as robust as your weakest point of failure. Check every source of contamination twice before letting it anywhere near your tank - especially if it's air from a contaminated pump.
Cheers!
Sven - happy to show myself as a dumb-ass to save you having to be one yourself
