Calling all the old heads.. I NEED HELP

Here is a mystery and a conundrum for anyone who can help me.. Im not a newb. I have been growing for a lot of years. I have done coco, soil mix, aero, hydro. Right now Im running a flood and drain controller with a 55 gal rez and 8, 5 gal buckets. Im using botanicare and I'm running a dead rez with gold zone. I root in a cloner. Then I put babies into rock cubes until roots establish. Then I put the cubes in net pots with hydroton.
I created this profile specifically to start this thread. I never bring clones into my grow. I grow from seed. Except this one time. I got a REALLY good sour P pheno from a buddy of mine. He had no bugs or anything as far as i knew.. I think I was wrong though. Normally with this setup I get 3 to 3.5 lbs a light.. Yeah thats right.. 3 to 3.5. The system and nute regiment is perfect. The problem Im having is this:
4 grows ago I noticed my roots looking like shit. They where brown and slimy and stopped growing. Usually my buckets are filled with bone white roots. Looked just like pyth. I ran h2o2, didn't work. I ran physin 20, didn't work, I ran gold zone, didn't work. Every kind of benny you can think of (rizo, orca, aqua shield etc). Didn't work. This lead me to believe maybe something else is going on here besides root rot. I did some research and found a thread talking about a new microscopic root aphid thats going around.. U can't see them. Even with 30x mag. They will suck the life out of your roots and make them look just like they have pyth. So I was like bugs? Ok not the first time. So I threw all I had at it including Imid which I don't like using but I was at wits end.. Nothing worked.. Then I thought maybe its brood mites. I threw everything I could think of at it. Neem, take down, forbid 4F, azamax etc. Nothing.. Come to find out my buddy who I got the clone from has it too.. And he can't get rid of "it" either. W changed out our whole systems. New buckets, new hose, new pumps etc. Nothing is working. I thought I had it licked and just put 8 new ones in veg. Im in week 2 and Im seeing signs again.. The first thing you notice is the new growth is yellow. Looks like its nuts deficient. Something is the roots is not allowing the plant to eat.. I cloned them in a cloner and the roots where super white and healthy when they grew.. Now Im seeing the signs again.. I got rid of my mothers.. I ordered new seeds. Im thinking the only thing it can be is some pathologic bacteria or disease? Im at a loss.. Anyone else dealing with this??

Hmm.....interesting.
The plants don't look bad in the pics......As this problems goes down the road, do the plants suffer?
I ask because I have run a strain some years ago that had "pithy" roots as you describe....damn things finished out fine, but it bugged me and I felt they did not perform as well as could have been......I quit the strain after 2 runs.....Everything went back to normal (Did sanitize everything with great care).

Anyway, If you feel it could be root aphids. Simply put up a yellow sticky trap. Do you have smaller then Fungus gnat bodies of the same "looking" type......Root aphids.
The thing with R.A.s is that in time the plant gets yellow out and appears like over use of high P bloom feeds. Then they simply die early. Bad yields and over all quality.....
Some have told me that a treatment of Imid worked for them......One of my friends a county over tried Imid and it did not work for him! I told him at the first sign of them you must take a 2-3 step approach to get them dead.....Damn painful job to get them gone too.
Pyrith concentrate mixed for a root drench.....fill a bucket so your Hydroton/stones/media are below the liquid level. Let them sit for 20 min.
In 5 days do the same with BOTANIGUARD 22WP. Repeat the Botani in 5 days. (don't remember the amount of Botani per. Not driving over to my notes at this time of might).
In 5 more days, do the same with ACEPHATE 97 UP. Repeat the Acephate in 5 days (4.48 grams per gallon)
Now, clean and sanitize everything with a STRONG h202 mix (I make mine with a 40%, available at your local hair salon supply store, for about 5 bucks a quart ) Now do the whole grow area. Walls, tables, floors, etc, etc. The damn eggs can get everywhere when your moving dried equipment around and it has been said that ants move them around ( I heard that somewhere back then. I don't know if I believe that but, better safe then sorry).

The trick is to catch it early and you'll have a normal finish! To this day I keep yellow stickies around just to monitor the situation. None in over 5 years.

This method DID work for me a few years back.

Hmm, a single strain. I clone everything and have not had the problem otherwise......

Thanks Doc.. Yeah the plants yield and quality suffer slightly.. I would say with the "thing" going on my grow as at about 75 to 80%. I know things have been better.. Its the damnedest thing.. My buddy and I have been going nuts for a year now trying to figure this out.. You know how it is.. This is all in 2 months increments. .

way to persevere blueC, by starting a second thread. i ended gaining some unexpected knowledge from dr who also.
damn RA's are tricky buggers... you can find/see them in soil easier than indro i believe. the ants are a ra flag w soil. they fly diff than gnats, way faster