Algae growing in new DWC, should I restart?! Help

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
I've used the same hydroton for years now and never once washed it. I need to clean it though. There's just lots of pieces of stem, leaf, and other material that's found its way into it..
I'm thinking a screen of some sort to shake all the Shit through while leaving the hydroton on top.
1/4 mesh screen from home depot. small wooden frame as a shaker. works perfect
 

fragileassassin

Well-Known Member
I've used the same hydroton for years now and never once washed it. I need to clean it though. There's just lots of pieces of stem, leaf, and other material that's found its way into it..
I'm thinking a screen of some sort to shake all the Shit through while leaving the hydroton on top.
I throw all mine in a big tote and let it soak in water and peroxide overnight. Most of the plant material will sink to the bottom so I use a strainer to scoop out the hydroton.
 
I w
This is easily fixed with a 90 degree barbed connector through the side of the box.

@rkymtnman what are h2o2 dosing recommendations? I really need to right this shit down lol.
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a lot of that on the bottom is just going to be settled nutrient. We all deal with stuff like that to some extent.
i was curious if that’s what it could be. It’s definitely not just that though. There was shit all over the airstones. I’m gonna run some h202 mix with water through them for awhile before putting them in the new clean res, Ive cleaned their hydroton, it was filthy still...
 

doken125

Member
lightleaks surely are a big problem , but the main culprit here is temperature !
cyanobacteria is your problem here. they DON'T NEED LIGHT to grow, and they love oxygen and all sorts of organics.
they can survive safe concentrations of chlorine and H2O2.
The only way to deal with them for once and for all,
is proper cleaning and maintaining water temps below 21°c all the time (ideally 17.5-18°c).
The reason being is those bacteria strains can't bloom under those temperatures
Afterwards, adding compost tea once a week to introduce beneficial bacteria.

Also one tip is to remove airstones since that's from where they enter yr reservoir.
Airpumps not only bring in pathogens, their test results regarding Dissolved Oxygen where dramatic !

You only need a waterpump on the bottom of the reservoir which is aimed to the surface.
the water surface will swell and create more DO than airpumps - all the downsides.

As last, as mentioned by other people, blacken out your reservoir and fix lightleaks !
But without fixing temperature, you will def fail again, that's why it ain't the culprit !

Succ6 beating cyano, i did it so one day you will to ;)

PS: loads of peeps will tell you to buy bigger airpumps and stones and all sorts of crap, don't listen to that !!
i believed all this crap and kept on failing over and over again ! save your money and buy a chiller.
the only workaround here is mentioned above.
 

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
You only need a waterpump on the bottom of the reservoir which is aimed to the surface.
the water surface will swell and create more DO than airpumps
spend the extra money on some tubing and a few plastic elbows and make a waterfall. way more DO than swelling water.
 

doken125

Member
spend the extra money on some tubing and a few plastic elbows and make a waterfall. way more DO than swelling water.
i don't believe so. comparing results from only a few hobbyists who did testings with DO and ORP meters, both surface swell (flooming) and waterfalls reached compareable DO levels. + ive ran both systems myself, and couldn't see any difference on the plants. why bothering ?
 

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
i don't believe so. comparing results from only a few hobbyists who did testings with DO and ORP meters, both surface swell (flooming) and waterfalls reached compareable DO levels. + ive ran both systems myself, and couldn't see any difference on the plants. why bothering ?
good point. is flooming as effective when your res is a massive root ball though?
 

Just Be

Well-Known Member
what do you mean?
The design of the Power Grower vesrion of the WF is such that the lip of the top chamber fits right over the upper lip of the res making it kind of like one solid lip made of two lips. In order to be able to effectively LST, I've been tying off to that upper lip and in doing so I haven't been able to lift the top chamber out of the res. I could try to do it now since nothing's tied off any more but I'll wait and see the root mass when it's done in a few weeks. I still hear a lot of sloshing and 'blub blubbing' from the air lines so I'm assuming that it's not jam packed.
 

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
The design of the Power Grower vesrion of the WF is such that the lip of the top chamber fits right over the upper lip of the res making it kind of like one solid lip made of two lips. In order to be able to effectively LST, I've been tying off to that upper lip and in doing so I haven't been able to lift the top chamber out of the res. I could try to do it now since nothing's tied off any more but I'll wait and see the root mass when it's done in a few weeks. I still hear a lot of sloshing and 'blub blubbing' from the air lines so I'm assuming that it's not jam packed.
gotcha! i took a peek at mine this morning: a solid cube.
 

Just Be

Well-Known Member
gotcha! i took a peek at mine this morning: a solid cube.
Cool! I was reading something a few weeks ago about the medicinal benefits and uses of cannbis roots but I forgot to save the link. After reading it, it seemed kind of a shame to be wasting the lower half of the plant especially since DWC makes reclaiming those roots a lot easier that it'd be if we were in soil.
 
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