Algae in brand new DWC, should I restart everything?! Help me please!

Hello all,
A days ago I picked up a small 6 net pot hydroponic box. First time trying it out. I set it up and put my little seedlings (that are in rockwool) in the hydroton and put in all the nutes. Now a few days later (about 3), I notice a algae line at my water line and some slimy stuff starting to form on my tubes. The water is fairly cloudy, Should I take the plants out and clean the res with bleach and h202? I didn’t do this prior. Second question should I take the cube out of the hydroton and rerinse it before the plants develop a solid root base? I’m using advanced nutrients trio, with rapid root, been using critic acid for PH down. Maybe the holes where my tubes go into the res need to be blocked from the light. I attached some pics but I wiped the alge ring off from the water line. Please help me!

Algae after 3 days, wow something is very off. Yes give everything a thorough scrub, dont worry about the rockwool cubes whatever caused the algae probably hasnt reached them. I wouldnt bother with nutes at this stage. Until the roots hit the water i have my water level above the bottom of the netpot to ensure enough water is splashing into the hydroton. What are the temps in the res?

shiva71 said:

Algae after 3 days, wow something is very off. Yes give everything a thorough scrub, dont worry about the rockwool cubes whatever caused the algae probably hasnt reached them. I wouldnt bother with nutes at this stage. Until the roots hit the water i have my water level above the bottom of the netpot to ensure enough water is splashing into the hydroton. What are the temps in the res?

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Even if the dirty water has been splashing on the hydroton? Won’t the bad bacteria just leech back into the water from the hydroton?

Put a flashlight up to the outside of your box and on the lid, if you can see the light through it, that's your problem.
Roots need complete dark, that box looks to glow pretty good.

fragileassassin said:

Put a flashlight up to the outside of your box and on the lid, if you can see the light through it, that's your problem.
Roots need complete dark, that box looks to glow pretty good.

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No light through the lid itself, just some peeking through the net pots, I’m gonna add some more hydroton on top to make sure zero is getting through that way

Im not sure about that, hopefully some of the DWC experts here will chime in. Maybe remove rw cubes and give the hydroton a soak in bleach solution then rinse and set it up again just to be safe...

CentralCoastKush said:

No light through the lid itself, just some peeking through the net pots, I’m gonna add some more hydroton on top to make sure zero is getting through that way

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If that's not enough, get a couple paper plates and cut a small hole in the middle and cut a single slit from the edge to the middle. Use these upsidedown to cover the tops of your net pot. If you have thin plates, you night need to double them up.

I use these little white plastic covers for my 3" netpots to stop any light.

fragileassassin said:

Put a flashlight up to the outside of your box and on the lid, if you can see the light through it, that's your problem.
Roots need complete dark, that box looks to glow pretty good.

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+1 fragil

also cover that lid with heavy duty aluminum foil to block the light and heat