Added Silica To DWC Reservoir, Brown Residue On Roots?!

I'm running a mini DWC with 2 clones, both girl scout cookies. This main clone I'll show you is about 2 weeks young now and has been growing rapidly.

My first res (2 weeks ago) was 4 gallons of RO water, 1 tsp of GH Maxibloom and 1 tsp of GH Calimagic. pH was steady at 5.8. However, after about a week I started noticing some sort of brown/reddish residue forming on the bottom of my reservoir. Not too sure what it was but my roots were fine and my plants were growing so I brushed it off. In the next few days, I decided to just get rid of the res and make sure that I clean it thoroughly and that I rinse off the hydroton.

After cleaning, I refilled the res with 4 gallons of RO water, 2 tsp of GH Maxibloom, 2 tsp of GH Calimagic, and 1 tsp of GH Armor Si (silica). The next morning, there was more of the same brown/red residue on the bottom of my res. But worse! The roots also were covered in that same residue. It didn't seem like slime or root rot for me but I decided to add some H2O2 to my system just as precaution. They are looking slightly better but I just want to see what you guys think.

Probably root rot or residue from the nutes change your res more often

Did you rinse the hydroton or soak the hydroton? Normally especially when its new, Hydroton will shed some of its casing as well as have a lot of clay dust. I always soak for 24 hours before using and it cuts down the run-off tremendously. If your res doesn't smell foul then I'd guarantee that its still the clay, nothing to get alarmed about bro. Otherwise, add an air pump and an extra air stone.

Quick question, can root rot be naturally reversed, or do you need to take care of it yourself by snipping the little bastards out?

Do your roots stink?
is that stuff in the middle slime?
do you see any black?
Are your res. temps high?
are you cleaning your system every week with H2O2?

Usually you run into some staining from the nutrient solution, but that sorta takes a little while to happen.
You can run a H2O2 solution that should stop root rot.
and cutting out the infected areas.

I'm unsure if that is even root rot/slime on your roots.
Nice root system.

Good Luck on Your Grow.

swisha said:

Probably root rot or residue from the nutes change your res more often

Click to expand...

I really doubt this could be root rot due to the frequency of res changes since she has only been in my system for a little bit over two weeks now and I had changed the res after the first week...

Str8Dre said:

Did you rinse the hydroton or soak the hydroton? Normally especially when its new, Hydroton will shed some of its casing as well as have a lot of clay dust. I always soak for 24 hours before using and it cuts down the run-off tremendously. If your res doesn't smell foul then I'd guarantee that its still the clay, nothing to get alarmed about bro. Otherwise, add an air pump and an extra air stone.

Click to expand...

I did rinse the hydroton, no soaking. This seems like the most viable answer and it really relieves me! My res does not smell bad and temps in the room are 70-80F so I really doubt the res can get warmer than maybe 70F. I'll pick up a thermometer today to make sure. I also bought a new air pump which absolutely destroys my previous one. I'll be using my previous one in my DWC cloner! Thanks man!

oceanside said:

Quick question, can root rot be naturally reversed, or do you need to take care of it yourself by snipping the little bastards out?

Click to expand...

From what I know, root rot cannot be reversed and the roots that have been affected just stop growing. I am not 100% confident on this.

topfuel29 said:

Do your roots stink?
is that stuff in the middle slime?
do you see any black?
Are your res. temps high?
are you cleaning your system every week with H2O2?

Usually you run into some staining from the nutrient solution, but that sorta takes a little while to happen.
You can run a H2O2 solution that should stop root rot.
and cutting out the infected areas.

I'm unsure if that is even root rot/slime on your roots.
Nice root system.

Good Luck on Your Grow.

Click to expand...

My roots do not stink. The middle stuff is NOT slime. I do not see any black. My res temps are not relatively high, but I don't have a thermometer yet... I have not cleaned my system every week with H2O2. I was planning on doing reservoir changes every 2 weeks and alternating the rubbermaid containers between changes. I'll make sure to start cleaning them with a good solution.


I ended up adding about 10ml of 3% H2O2 to my res once a day for a few days just in case it was root rot and I also added a much better, powerful air pump. Now, the roots are no longer covered in a residue. The bottom of my res still has some, but I believe that is the clay dust. I will be getting another rubbermaid container today, flushing out the hydroton once more, and doing another res change. Again, thanks for your replies