DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes

rkymtnman said:

if you say so.

Click to expand...

Bfunk327 said:

Not sure why you are on a thread labeled DWC root slime cure using bennificials, and making comments about sterilization what does not work. Read the thread.

Click to expand...

rkymtnman said:

not sure why you said you were gonna use physan 20 which is a sterilizer to sterilize your system before you added the bennies?

read your own posts.

and just to be clear, sterile does work for those that are smart enough to figure it out.

Click to expand...

Bfunk327 said:

You read any of the thread there are 208 pages of people stating you can not get rid of slime steralizing. I wanted to wash slime off of roots before switching to bennies. Thanx for nothing. As far as your comment about being smart enough, you seem like a real dick.

Click to expand...

Bfunk327 said:

Thanx for nothing.

Click to expand...

rkymtnman said:

i was trying to give you a different point of view but you came off like an a-hole so that's how i responded back.

don't you see the irony in your post? you want to sterilize everything first and then later say sterile doesn't work.

i've used a sterile res since i started seven years ago.

Click to expand...

Bfunk327 said:

Ok man, 5 years uninterrupted perpetual till about 6 months ago. I have used as much as 20 mil a gal of uc roots along with 7 mil a gal of 29% H2o2 cleans the slime away to return 12-24 hours. Tried physan to clean before switching to bennies. That's just where I am at man very frustrated. I like you about 7 months ago would of said the sane thing. 5 years 0 problems now can't seem to get over this slime.

Click to expand...

rkymtnman said:

I'll be glad to pass along a few things that have worked for me. I do hempy buckets now so I have no chiller, my root zone is whatever my grow room temp is (this grow i tried CO2) so as high as 90F and my roots when I get done with a grow are as white as snow.
Tell me more about your setup and we'll go from there.

Click to expand...

rkymtnman said:

wow, that is quite a set-up.

so let me just clarify a few things: we need to fix the veg room ASAP.

the 3 gallon veg buckets: are they chilled? or just room temps with an air stone in each one?

there are 2 ways of running sterile that I have used:
first, is dutchmaster Zone. it is extremely hard to find this product anymore. dutchmaster got bought by fuji and they fell way behind on production. if you have any grow stores nearby, give them all a call and see if they have this product. if they do, use it at the maxiumum dosage which if i remember is like 12mL per 5 gallons.

second, which i went to after not finding Zone, is HTH pool shock. to use this properly,, you will need a fairly accurate scale that can measure to 0.01 grams. i bought one for about 30 bucks off ebay. i use at 3 ppm free chlorine (MJ and humans can drink water up to 5ppm free chlorine) and chlorine is actually a nutrient that is used by the plants so win/win. so for 10 gallons of water, i mix in 0.30 grams of pool shock to get 3ppm. min dosage would be 0.10grams per 10 gal.

which ever way you go, Zone or pool shock, you'll need to make sure that once mixed up, you get this solution on everything. roots, net pots, hydroton, air hoses, air stones, etc. every nook and cranny you can find.

on day 2, do the same thing: mix up a new batch of Zone or shock, and do it all over again.

i would almost guarantee that this will kill the rot and get rid of the slime.
any questions? good luck!

Click to expand...

Bfunk327 said:

First off I miss those mountains lived on the western slope 2007-2010. Veg buckets are not chilled. I picked up some sure shock from local pool store they do not cary hth this stuff is 47.6% calcium hypochlorite (same same?). Now not sure on your directons as stated to mix the same thing up on day 2. So if I have a 3 gallon bucket with 2 gallons of water and nute mix are you recommending I just add a certain amount to existing or start with new mix of water that has chlorine then mix in nutes not sure. The part of add same next day is throwing me off. Do you have a formula to calculate by the gallon or two or should I maybe mix up in 5 gallon bucket at .15 grams of shock per 5 gallons.

Click to expand...

Bfunk327 said:

this stuff is 47.6% calcium hypochlorite

Click to expand...

rkymtnman said:

hth is 56% so you should be good to go.

what i meant by day 2 was i would just mix up a batch for each 3 gal bucket without nutes and try to kill what you got on day 1. drain everything out and do it again on day 2 but add a light dose of nutes. i think you could go to sure shock and regular nutes on day 3.

i'm pretty sure 2 days of a good dose of chlorine will kill all the nasties and you should be back to normal.

that will be really cool to see a side by side of what works best and fastest.

i just think a sterile res is easier to maintain and not have to worry about making teas and hoping that the good bacteria outnumbers the bad.

i'm not sure you need to invest in a free chlorine meter just yet. if it looks like the sure shock is working better than bennies, then it might not be a bad investment.

hope this works for ya! keep us posted.

Click to expand...

Heisenberg said:

When a clear snot forms on roots in a DWC, and the normal course of treatment for root disease doesn't work, you probably have something called brown slime algae, which actually isn't algae at all, but a cyanobacteria. It loves oxygen and doesn't need light to grow. It doesn't care if your res is chilled or not. Safe levels of H202 slows it a bit but doesn't cure it. It can show up for DWC growers for no apparent reason even after years of successful grows. Once it shows up it's often a nightmare to get rid of. It WILL eventually spread to other DWC tubs, although it almost never gains a foothold on older well developed healthy plants/roots.

Several root conditions will cause a slimy build up; doesn't mean you have the brown slime. Common root disease is almost always caused by improper res conditions, and they improve greatly when those conditions are corrected. This isn't true of the slime. When to suspect brown slime algae is when you are doing everything right and still can't get rid of it. People who get this try the normal stuff... More bubbles in the water, cool res temps, and h202 treatments. The slime may appear to be gone at first, but comes back strong in as little as 12-36 hours. It starts out subtle like a clear coating of mucus on the roots with no odor. Plants often still appear healthy for a while, but all root production stops. In a very short time it will cover the entire root base and become thicker and sometimes turns yellow. Eventually it strangles the roots which causes pythium to set in, and at that point turns brown and finally has an odor.

The treatment is to clean up and sterilize the root base, and then populate the water with beneficial microbes. Simply running a continuous sterilizing agent such as SM-90, Zone, ect will almost certainly end with the slime as the winner. Some people have had luck running bleach or physan 20 continuously in the water, but most do not want there plants soaking in these particular chemicals. Making a microbe tea is cheap and easy, and IMO the proper way to fight this slime in a perpetual DWC garden.

Clean up the root base as well as possible. Best thing to do, if you can, is hold the plant over the sink and use the sprayer to vigorously rinse the roots, trying to get all the dead roots and gunk to slough off. It's also okay to give the dying roots a slight tug to see if they come off. Now let the roots soak in a mixture of whatever sterilizing agent you have. Physan 20 works great. This is a good time to sterilize any equipment and give the res a good scrub. After a few hours, no more than 12, of soaking in the solution rinse the roots really really well again, prepare a fresh res, and inoculate the res with beneficial microbes. Wait another 12 hours before adding nutes.

*** The smaller your roots, the less likely the are to survive a strong h202 treatment. In my experience using h202 will increase your recovery time.

Once the slime is gone be sure to practice proper res maintenance, which includes keeping any type of organic material out of the res. Trying to sterilize the res water is often a losing battle. In fact, since most hydro sterilizers fail to kill this stuff, when you sterilize the water you are removing competing microbes and opening the field to slime. There are people who use RO filters and then run their water through a UV sterilizer and still end up with the slime. The answer always seems to be beneficial microbes.

Below is my previous introduction to preparing and applying a microbe tea.


In DWC the roots sit in water constantly putting them at huge risk for disease. Some people have great luck using nothing at all. Others find sterilizing products keep their roots white, but a few of us have found that even with proper res maintenance and doing everything right, we still get a slimy build up on the roots. This is when a microbe tea can really make a difference by robbing the slime of housing, food, and actually attacking it.

By making a microbe tea with a diverse selection of organisms you will have a super tonic for you res that will ward off nasty gunk and build up while at the same time keeping your roots stimulated and growing. Best of all it can be made for just pennies per batch.

Ok so we wont be starting from scratch. You have to buy a few products. But instead of using the products directly in the res, you will be breeding them in a tea. This way, you can use a fraction of the regular dose and make your products last much longer. Plus, you will end up with a freshly active tea that is more diverse than anything you can buy on the market.

Aquashield ($12) The product composition consists of: Bacillus subtilis, Paenibacillus polymxa, Bacillus circulans, and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. This gives you a base population of beneficial bacteria. (Aquashield can be replaced by any inoculation that contains bacillus bacteria.)

ZHO Powder ($10) The product composition consists of: Glomus intradices, Glomus aggregatum, Glomus etunicatum, Glomus mosseae, Trichoderma harzianum, and Trichoderma koningii. This gives you a base populartion of beneficial fungi. (ZHO can be replaced by any inoculation that contains myco fungi)

Ancient Forest ($14) - Soil amendment provides a high diversity of microorganisms, including more than 35,000 species of bacteria and over 5,000 species of fungi. (AF can be replaced by any earth worm casting)

EDIT* Mycogrow soluble is the cheapest and most diverse inoculant we have found. It can replace everything here except the ancient forest.


The recipe is really simple. Start with non-chlorinated water. I make 2 gallons at a time, but you can easily adjust the additives for whatever amount you wish to make. Now put the water into a bucket and throw in a couple air stones. The more air the better. You want the water to be almost turbulent from the bubbles. Now, add 15-30ml of aquashield and about 1/4-1/2 scoop of the ZHO powder. You will be breeding these into the billions so it doesn't really matter how much you start with, just don't overdo it. Now take an old sock or pantyhose and fill it with about 2 handfuls of EWC or Ancient Forest. Tie off the sock and place it in the water above an air stone, or better yet, feed an air stone down into the sock itself. If you want, you can just throw the EWC directly into the water and strain it out later with cheesecloth or even an aquarium net. Next, add about a tablespoon of molasses to wake up the microbes and give them something to eat. We will only be feeding the microbes in this tea; never add food for the microbes to the res itself. It's okay if the bennies in the res starve. You will be replacing them every few days. Now let the tea bubble at room tempeture for 48 hours. It can be used after 24, but will be more active and diverse at 48. If you use EWC you will probably notice a foam eventually, this is normal. After 48 hours you can store the tea in the fridge where it will stay fresh for about 10 days. Once it starts to go bad it will develop an odor. If you ever detect an odor from your tea, throw it out and make a new batch. Fresh tea can have a range of smells from earthy to mossy to shroomy. Bad tea smells like gym socks, fecal matter, or decay.

Initially, add about 1 cup to your res for every gallon of water, and then add 1 cup total every 3 days after. If you can, pour a little over the base of the stalk to inoculate the root crown. Your water might get a little cloudy but your roots will stay white and stimulated. When you use tea and practice proper res maintenance you can feel confident your roots will be healthy. By multiplying the microbes this way your products should last a great deal longer. Once you have eradicated slime and simply want protection from future outbreaks, adjust the tea dosage to 1 cup per 10 gallons about once per week.

If you are interested in why the tea works, or what products you may use for substitution, continue reading the rest of the thread. It is a journey I took with
Correct.

Click to expand...