DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes

wheeelman said:

Thanks for the input...I'm currently at 24 hours with the new tea...I just put a cup or so in the rez because the roots are pretty bad not with slime anymore but the slime I cleaned off yesterday took a heavy toll on them. I'm going to add another at 36 hours and then a few more at the 48 hour mark to complete the suggested amount. The slime sure is a pain in the ass!

I can't find the post but didn't you say you stop using the tea in flower? What was your reason if so?

Click to expand...

I use the tea up until the final flush. What you probably remember me saying is that plants well into bud with substantial root balls are not likely to get slime, so the tea isn't necessary. There are some growers that claim adding the tea or other stimulants during flower causes the plant to put too much energy into root production during a time when it could be used for fruit. This makes sense and is probably worth thinking about in some setups, but I feel the tea helps my DWC plants develop a nice root ball just in time for serious bud production, and then helps them stay cleaned up and healthy until the flush. My roots keep growing new tips up until week 6 or so, and then turn a bit tarnished and old looking near harvest.

Ahhh ok thanks for that...I feel I am doomed to deal with the slime so I will probably be running the tea permanently now!

It's clear that we are probably dealing with different organisms which we call slime, and it is a sort of generic term. Cyanobacteria is suspected in 'classic' cases because the slime grows in total darkness ruling out algae and resists colder temps than water molds. By no means was this confirmed.

Recent findings have demonstrated that Cyanobacteria do not rely solely on CO2 fixation but can and will thrive in environments that are rich in organic matter These findings are confirmed by researchers such as Carr and Whitton, Fog, Stuart and Fay, and others still.

Not all Cyanos can utilize this mode of food uptake as some are Obligate Photoautotrophs (meaning they rely totally on photosynthesis for food and growth). It turns out that most of the ones that fit in this category are freshwater types. Most saltwater cyanos rely on either organic foodstuff uptake and/or on photosynthesis (and are called Facultatively Photoheterotrophs), and will uptake organic food and substances if they are available.
Of course, we all know that our aquariums are laden with organic material. This is especially so if the skimmer we are using is not removing organic material efficiently or cannot remove all or the majority of it because it is either too small, or the tank is so heavily stocked that the skimmer cannot keep up with the amount of organic material produced on a continuous basis. Overfeeding would obviously contribute to this situation even more.
It should be noted also that "light" actually enhances the uptake of organic material (Fay). The situation this puts hobbyists in is that not only are we faced with blue-greens that feed on organic substance and their breakdown components, but that light increases the uptake of these substances and results in a more dense and more widespread growth of cyanobacteria. Sort of a Catch 22 situation, unless we realize that we need to do what ever is in our power to keep the amount of organics in the water low, as low as possible. - http://www.athiel.com/lib/txtfiles/cyano3.html

Click to expand...

Undoubtably in some cases people are dealing with water molds or forms of algae. The common thread in all of these cases is that one organism is dominating the res. The solution is competition, diversity. RE does indeed add diversity to the tea, although many of those secret organisms never thrive, because they are anaerobic. Some obviously do, because adding RE to the tea recipe does indeed give the roots a slight boost. Adding it directly to an aerated res that is infected with slime tends to make things worse; in many cases much worse. I have stated many times that the advice I give is meant soley for application in a non-organic DWC grow. The tea is a blunt force treatment meant to deliver a diverse population of beneficials to displace the slime. This task is easily accomplished with some cheap microbe inoculations. Many do not feel the need to spend $80 to simply add a few more undistinguished organisms to the mix. If they do, the recommendation is to add them to the tea and not directly to the res.

As always I welcome dispute and corrections. No doubt I have made mistakes in attempting to answer people's questions. The simply rule is that you have to act civil before you get to join a discussion with serious adults. At that point any criticism is taken seriously.

dp sux said:

Im startin to think you can read what I type even if I erase it and dont post it(you commented on something I didnt even post I wrote it then erased it)WTF dude??

Click to expand...

Wow... just wow. this statement alone speaks volumes. paranoid much? lol

i cant help but feed the trolls... so fun

Dustybowlz said:

Does anyone here add tea to any soil plants? Any suggestions for dose?

Has anyone ran any side by side comparisons of the original recipe VS a deviation of it? Im looking for more diversity.

I have at my disposal
-zho
-aquashield
-subculture b
-subculture m
-ancient forest.
-molasses
-an bud candy
-HG roots excel
-MYCOgro soluble

My batches I made with the original would foam in a day and stop foaming about 40hrs. It would start foaming again when I added it to the rez. The new tea, with subcultures added, doesn't ever foam. Im sure the tea brew is right at 76-78*. It doesn't foam in the rez either. What's the foam mean?

Also. I hear lots if debate on using subculture b only vs using b and m. Does anyone have an opinion they would like to share?

Thanks

Click to expand...

First, Im not here to feed the trolls so the only thing I can say is.

Im a, see it to believe it sort of guy. You, the hydro store guy or any other bum can say all they want. Unless you provide some proof, some situations or some suggestions to battle an issue a lot of people have, then stop posting. If you really are as "experienced" then you know how to eradicate this stuff. I can only hope your next post is somthing to contribute to the cause.

With that being said. Heis on the other hand has tried to put the "why" into it. This is why I am giving it a shot to fix my issues..


Now back to my issues.
-My root issues started out brown.
-After a lot of changes over months and months only flushing with 29%h202 cleaned it out.
-Every time the plant is very slow to re grow.
-My veg plants get less and less vigor each cycle
-I switched from an bennes to the tea with OG ingredients
-No change in veg, lots of change in bloom?
-I put white poly fim around my buckets, not only are they light proof, the water is also much cooler. Never tops 68*
-I let the h202 run for a week and there was zero brown or slime.
-I did a rez change and put tea in there.
-4 days later I got the weirdest clear snotty slime on the roots, bottom of net pot.
-That was today.

Someone was so kind to post a photo of the bottle of myco grow! Very happy! I will be going to pick some up tomorrow! I also have had HG roots excel in the fridge for the past few months (suggestion from hydro guy, very expensive suggestion too btw).

I have a
-Black 5 gallon bucket with 9 screened holes in the lid.
-Aquarium heater to keep water at a minimum of 78*
-Same air pump that is in the last photo.
-Round medium air stone
-Temp strip on the side of bucket so I can monitor temps.
-Ro water

Things im not sure about
-I phed the water first. Not much, just to get it down under 7.
-I use a random molasses brand. Not black strap (is there really a difference? or worth sourching the black strap?)


Now this is where Im going to need some help from Heis here. After trying everything I started looking into other other pathogens or possible sources of this issue. I was thinking all sorts of crazy things. Going crazy. I ruled out my cloner, my water, possibly my hydroton, im hoping light leaks, water temps. But then I saw a really stressed out clone from the same person I got my (specifically this strain, possibly only this strain) grap god from. It looked sad and had almost all the symptoms of a MOSAIC VIRUS. Doing much research, sometimes another virus can attach itself to the mosaic virus and use it as a host. Im my specific situation we tested this as follows. Cut two clones, Put them in aero cloner, Gave them to a friend, He put them in seperate systems. He got the brown roots from the grape god and perfect roots from the pineapple express. I have yet to grow any other strain in DWC because this is my prize strain I dont want to lose. I ditched all strains in efforst to make this one work while keeping the strain alive. Little did I know I may have been dealing with a viral retard this whole time.

No matter how I clone, I get the brown as soon as I go to DWC. The only thing that is consistent is the brown only comes around when I use AN sensi 2 part+DWC in veg. For bloom, so far the tea seems to be working even with the AN sensi 2 part.

Heis suggested MORE DIVERSITY, my question is can anyone help me achieve this? I have everything on this list provided above available to me but I dont know where to begin making somthing "more diverse" If I dont even know how diverse my first batches are?

I have show you guys pictures of the brown, it sways in the water as it moves like algae would.

Now the shit lost its color and has changed/evolved to clear snot. Now I see what people are talking about thats all over the air stones. I have never seen this before. I sprayed a root system off into a bucket and poured that into a cup and took some pix.

Heres one. It has brown in the core. The white shit is all some form of substance and it looks nasty.



Also, my ph in veg always rockets from 5.6 to 5.9-6.0 in veg in 24 hours for the first 2 weeks every time. I cant raise the ppms to make it more stable because they get burned.

Soo lost here. I really want to change the water again asap but dont know what to do here.

I'm starting to think this DP guy knows what he's talking about. Because when we had the slime everything that happened to us is what he talked about (white slime turning into brown when dying, clinging to airstones, etc). But once again, that was all solved by using the Heis tea. Only problem is when you come across the way you are people arent gonna take you serious and tell you you're just trollin around forums.

DP,
Appreciate your meaningful contribution in the past few posts. No one ever doubts your experience or knowledge here. But you do have to admit you did not lend to your deep well of knowledge with your first few posts. I feel I can "learn" from this page forward. Past few pages have been unreadable.

Yes, much thanks for a positive contribution. The more experience here the more awareness.

I have found another fellow that has the same issues as I, He lives in south CO. He said its just straight in the water. He explained how if he takes a bowl and fills it with his well water and sits it on the counter for a few days. Then dumps out the water and rubs the water line with a paper towl, theres a slime build up on the paper towl. Its in the dog water bowls, if you leave a 5g bucket of water out for a few days, lining the tub, in the toilet, anything this water touches and sits out in the air for awhile. After getting my water tested when I moved in and now a year later, theres no differences in what there telling me. No difference in how the water acts a year later either.

He also stated he ditched the hydro and went back to the trusty soil and never had the problem again. He said all his house plants, garden veggies and anything else soil grown is never affected. Just his hydro.

Makes me think, all my "bowl of water" tests show the same or similar. Mine is more of a yellow film with this test.

It has a ppm of 200-225 and a ph of 7.5-8
After my ro machine it is 5-7ppms and ph of 7.5

I dont seem to get the build up in my 55g "ro water holding tank" that I do If I leave just well water in a bowl. BUT there could be dormant zoo spores or some form of it just waiting for a proper environment to breed and florish?

DP, you suggest that the pathogen is clear when growing and brown when dieing. Mine has always been brown. I just this last week saw any clear snot. I just also noticed it attacking the air stones. In the past year, it was never like this.

The first few times I made the tea I used the origional materials.

The 2nd time I added some subcultures b and m to the mix. Trying to make "more diversity" I used my nose to smell when It was done, not allowing any bad smell. I noticed the same slime I saw in my DWC air stones, on the air stones in my TEA. Does this mean either that my tea is not made right OR that I possibly put too much TEA in? OR could it mean, like you said, there was still some residual H202 left somewhere?

I had to brew another batch of tea, this time I did it the same as 2nd batch BUT I added a drop of HG roots excel. I am going to flush the rez again tonight, fill back up with just base nutes and tea and try it again.

Im very close to just soiling it up. I dont know why it is soo hard to find out why my issue is soo different.

dusty..are using well water or municipal water? My municipal water has chloaramines in it. I just installed a triple carbon filter to take them out and I did notice more foam in my tea. It could eb that maybe some of the beni bacteria are more susceptible to the chloramines?

DP.. so you found that the GH root excelerator knock off did not work as good? I have almost a full bottle of it as I was adding it directly to my rez and it really gunked things up. not so much "slime" but just a heavy heavy dark GUNK that kind of freaked me out.

Dusty, if you have a prize strain that you keep sterilizing and inoculating over and over you are eventually going to lose it. You might consider putting it in soil and get it healthy until you figure your problem out.

Few things... Do not PH the tea, ever. Slime on the air stone in the tea is normal. Your slime changed to clear because you blocked out the light. Mycogrow + AF will give you superior diversity, and yes RE at 1ml per gallon will increase diversity even more. I would think though that sub-b/m should give you sufficient diversity themselves. As long as your molasses is unsulfured it will work fine, but you may want to back off a bit. It is always better to underfeed the bennies than overfeed them.

Remember, aquashield and ZHO are two products you can add directly to the res. Did you try mixing the ZHO in a spray bottle and spraying on the roots? I would get a diverse inoculant (great white, mycrogrow, mycomadness) or simply use the sub-b/m, and brew it with the AF and in the meantime treat the res water with aquashield and the roots themselves with ZHO. When making tea, do not overdue it on the bennies by adding a bunch of everything. Too many initial bennies in your tea will cause them to outstrip the available oxygen faster than it can be replenished. (This also happens if you add too much molasses) Does your friend also use AN nutes? You may want to try something else to rule out the AN stuff.

In the meantime if your problem is really bad and you are depending on a harvest, you can try switching to ebb and flow. DP is right that ebb and flow is much less of a headache and provides similar results. I loved DWC too much to give it up, but when I was in trouble with slime ebb and flow got me by.

YO heis,
I have four packets of mycogrow sitting on my work bench. How much are you adding per gallon of tea brew? I'm brewing 5 gallons at a time. I spoke with the guy at fungi perfect and he said a little less than half a pouch which seems like overkill. Interesting enough he was saying that he didn't think that the myco fungus would reproduce in the water, from what he knows from talking with mycologists is that they are only really known to breed and reproduce in the rhizosphere.

Anywho, would appreciate it knowing how much you are adding. I have that big bottle of GH root stuff just sitting there, perhaps I will add it to the tea as well.

legallyflying said:

YO heis,
I have four packets of mycogrow sitting on my work bench. How much are you adding per gallon of tea brew? I'm brewing 5 gallons at a time. I spoke with the guy at fungi perfect and he said a little less than half a pouch which seems like overkill. Interesting enough he was saying that he didn't think that the myco fungus would reproduce in the water, from what he knows from talking with mycologists is that they are only really known to breed and reproduce in the rhizosphere.

Anywho, would appreciate it knowing how much you are adding. I have that big bottle of GH root stuff just sitting there, perhaps I will add it to the tea as well.

Click to expand...

1tsp per gallon. Mycos will not germinate until they make contact with root surface. Once they settle on the roots they will grow and form a network just fine, but they will never reproduce in an aquatic environment. Thier numbers do not increase in the tea, which is why I like to have some ZHO for periodic applications. It's best to inoculate mycos early and often at first to ensure a proper network. The tea serves to soften up spores and prime them for germination only. Trichoderma love roots, but are not as picky and will germinate on other surfaces. I do not know if trichoderma reproduce in water.

Funny you should say that. When I was talking to the guy on the phone I mentioned "well when I make the tea and add molasses it foams up so something is happening. His reply was "it's probably the trichoderma". So maybe they are reproducing?

Dp. About your gunky organic system... I'm running pure blend pro with liquid karma and pure blend organic compost and my rez, while gritty, is never dirty. Things that I learned really goes the deep dark gunk..adding molasses into the rez and or adding RE.

I wrote that reply in response to heisenburgs post about myco and trichoderma breeding. I think you posted before I hit send or something. I drive and post during my hour commute

After many hours I think I solved my issue

Orange slime/iron bacteria

[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Iron exists in three basic forms as elemental metallic iron, in ferrous (Fe++) and ferric (Fe +++) states. Ferrous iron usually occurs in water drawn from wells. It is present due to the solubility of ferrous bicarbonate as a result of the action of carbon dioxide on iron deposits in the ground.[/FONT]

[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Iron remains in this soluble ferrous state as long as the water remains underground, where molecular oxygen is scarce. Carbon dioxide is commonly found together with high iron concentrations, but this is not necessarily the case. When this iron-bearing water is first brought to the surface, it is usually clear and colorless with a distinct iron taste. After aeration or exposure to the air, the water develops a milk-like haze, which soon turns reddish-brown in color.[/FONT]

[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Chemically what happens is this: upon exposure to the air, molecular oxygen begins to enter the water as carbon dioxide escapes. The oxygen then oxidizes the ferrous ions (Fe++) changing them to ferric ions (Fe+++) At this point, the ferric ions combine with free hydroxyl ions (OH-) to form the insoluble gelatinous compound ferric hydroxide [Fe (OH)3] As the individual molecules join together, characteristic rust color (often called "red water" or "rusty water") appears. And finally a gelatinous precipitate of ferric hydroxide settles to the bottom of the container. In this way the soluble ferrous ions convert into the insoluble ferric hydroxide state. Iron flavor noted in water containing ferrous ions markedly decrease as the ferrous iron passes into the ferric form.[/FONT]

[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Actually iron in natural water supplies may be present in a number of forms including: [/FONT]

• [FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]soluble ferrous ions; [/FONT]
• [FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]ferric ions, soluble in very acid water; [/FONT]
• [FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]ferric hydroxide, insoluble in neutral or alkaline water; [/FONT]
• [FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]ferric oxide, which show up as particles of rust from pipes; and [/FONT]
• [FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]in combination with organic compounds or iron bacteria. [/FONT]

[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Iron, as you can see, is present in water either in a ferrous or a ferric state.[/FONT]

[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Iron is generally found in the ferrous state (colorless and soluble) in groundwater supplies. As iron oxidizes upon exposure to the air, it usually settles out. For this reason it is rarely found in surface water supplies.[/FONT]

[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]When iron is found in surface supplies, the water may well be extremely acid, or the iron may be combined in various complex molecules, which resist oxidation. In some surface waters iron may be present in an organic (chelated*) form. Such water usually contains a greal deal of colored colloidal turbidity, which does not settle and is difficult to remove by filtration.[/FONT]

[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Unfortunately, organic iron can be quite troublesome, although significant progress in the treatment of this type has been made.[/FONT]


Iron bacteria frequently thrive in iron-bearing water. As they develop, these bacteria form reddish-brown growths that may clog pipes and reduce flow rates. A decaying mass of these iron bacteria can cause bad tastes and odors in a water supply, and often cause extremely discolored water when the slimy growths break free in slugs at high flow rates. These iron bacteria can grow either in darkness or in light, but are most frequently noticed in toilet flush tanks. They require water containing an adequate supply of ferrous ions and free oxygen. While they have been grown in cultures containing no iron, they thrive best in iron-bearing waters. The most common names for the various types of iron and manganese bacteria include: crenothrix**, gallionella, and leptothrix.

[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]As this brief discussion indicates, iron can be in water in a number of forms, the cause of which can be quite varied. The chemistry of iron removal is not difficult once the cause has been clearly determined. Corrective measures present difficulties in some instances only because it is not always easy to determine the cause of the problem and because the operation of certain types of water conditioning equipment may not be well understood.[/FONT]

[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]To determine the proper corrective steps requires a bit of sleuthing. The iron, as we have seen, may be in water either in a ferrous or ferric state. Further, it may be the result of corrosion. Again the problem may in a large measure be due to the presence of iron bacteria. Because the problem of iron-bearing water is complex, it is difficult to establish rules for treatment. What must be done depends on the cause and the type of equipment available. [/FONT]

[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Chelate: To combine into a complex molecule having great stability due to the molecular arrangement. [/FONT]

[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]**Crenothrix: This term is sometimes incorrectly used in referring to all iron or maganese bacteria. Some 18 or more varieties of iron an manganese bacteria have been classified and studies over the years. Recent study, however, indicates that some of the varieties of bacteria are simply different forms of the same bacteria. This study shows that the different forms develop differently under differing environmental conditions. The most widely accepted classifications include: a) Gallionella b)Crenothrix c)Leptothrix. One authority in the subject of iron bacteria states that despite a long search for crenothrix, no evidence of a separate bacteria of this type has been discovered. This same authority feels that all iron bacteria are in fact forms of gallionella or sphareotilus which includes what are popularly called crenothrix and leptothrix. [/FONT]



http://www.freedrinkingwater.com/water_quality/chemical/introduce-states-of-iron.htm


What are iron bacteria?

Iron bacteria are bacteria that “feed”
on iron. They are a natural part of the
environment in most parts of the world.
There are several non-disease causing
bacteria which grow and multiply in stringy
clumps in water, and use iron dissolved
in water as part of their metabolism. In
the presence of the bacteria, the dissolved
iron reacts with the oxygen from the air
forming rust colored iron oxides. These
oxides do not dissolve in water and either
settle to the bottom or are stored in the
slimy jelly like material that surrounds the
iron bacteria’s cells





How can we identify iron bacteria
oange or brown slime (precipitate) and
oily sheens are often the first indication
that iron bacteria are present. Unlike
sheens caused by petroleum products,
the iron bacteria sheens break apart when
they are disturbed. To make sure the sheen
is not petroleum, do the “stick or rock
test.” Touch the slick with a stick or throw
something in the water. If you observe a
smooth ripple effect, it is probably oil.
If the slick breaks into pieces, then it is
very likely to have been created by the
decomposing bacteria cells.

http://www.kitsapgov.com/sswm/pdf/sswm_1802.pdf


DP- I took that cup with my "pathogen" in it that you said looked like shreaded toiled paper. I placed 3x drops of HG roots excel in there and swirled it around a bit. Im gunna LITFA and see WTF happens


IMHO, Unless I can find some eradication suggestions for iron bactera, I am going to have to alter my hydroponics garden around it. Unless I can figure out a way to eradicate it at the water source OR pre treat my water before it enters my house. There spores will be every where just waiting for oxygen. On everything, tools I wash between rooms, water used to wash hydroton, water used to wash buckets, water used for everything minus feed water (which is RO filtered), This is IMO still allowing spores through. You NEED to add excess iron for your plants and this is directly its food. As the article states, I can also have more mico nute style feed bacteria from ground water. This could atribute to all my micro defs AND hopefully the cause of the reasons I thought I had a mosiac virus. I really dont want mosiac. That would suck. The thing that is hopeful, is that all the nute defs I have are what these bacteria feed on. If there taking my nutes from the source, my plants will suffer from lack of that paticular micro nute.

A few reasons that could have skewed my theories over time is build up on my sediment filter in my RO unit. I inspected it a little while ago and it wasnt too bad, Just checked and DAMN ill be buying another tomorrow!! Its covered in the shit. I also checked my toilet tanks and there is one small growth of the same reddish/orangish filiment/hair like stringy things that grow off the roots. Since Ive been vegging my replacement 6 veg plants in RW in a tray, ive just bee LITFA in veg. I now notice the growths on the bottom, floating around the water and trying to stick to the slick walls but failing.


Any suggestions on eradication or comments on my hypothesis? Enough for tonight..... BED.

My updated recipe:

1 tsp mycogrow per gallon
1 tsp of ZHO per gallon
3/4 tbs molasses per gallon
1 handful ancient forest per 2 gallon

I have decided to add ZHO to ensure plenty of mycos in the res. After reading what LF reported I realized that the lab which makes mycogrow intends for you to use quite a bit in your application. This isn't much concern as far as bacteria because they multiply, but does bring into question just how many myco spores we get in a teaspoon. Since mycos do not multiply in the tea we can ensure there presents by adding ZHO. You can add ZHO directly to the res, and should add it to clone water, but adding them to the tea first will increase germination rate.

Dp- im not saying the RE in the dish of pathogen will work. But its not hurting anything by trying.

I figured why stop there. If I already have issues with my current plants in veg AND plan to wipe and replenish with the plants in vegging in RW. Then I may as well have some fun with the slime diseased veg plants. I labeled each bucket with type of inoculate used, I did NOT clean anything from the buckets/rootzone, I added full strength inoculate in each bucky as follows. 2x buckets with full strength Zho+aquashield, 2x buckets with subculture b+m,1x buckets with HG RE and 1x bucket with a new version of my tea that consisted of small amounts of all these brewed together for 48 hours.
Im going to take photos and see what each one do. If I have this orange slime+ iron bacteria, I have to do my own research and what may Work for me might not work for others, vise versa.

As for the thread, haven't read it, priories. If I have time.

As for shrooms, hallucinogens used to be my choose drug. I used to love the way it changes my perception, the way I think, ect. I was also told that too much will make u weird. When I quit taking them, I stayed weird. I also created this uncontrollable OCD for perfection. But im still weird. Oh well...

Hey Dustybowlz,

After doing some research, it appears that a bleach soak should kill off the iron bacteria, if that is indeed what you have. Sounds like nasty stuff! Once your system is sterile from the bleach, rinse with 'clean' water, then refill your system with 'clean' water. 'clean' water would be water not infected with this iron bacteria. Could be store purchased or perhaps your RO unit has an optional UV sterilizer that can be connected. Anyway once youre back to a 'clean' state, you could go the sterile route using a product like DM Zone or you could go back to square one and try the bennies route. The idea being that if the iron bacteria isn't in there to begin with, brewing a tea or using beneficial inoculants would allow the bennies to thrive in the environment formerly populated by the iron bacteria. Ideally, as long as you keep that beneficial populace alive and kicking, that should hopefully prevent the return of the iron bacteria. Of course going forward you'll need to be careful about your system maintenance. You wouldn't want to top off with water from a source with the iron bacteria for example, just as a precaution. Although a healthy bennie system might allow you to add small amounts of tap/well water without re-contaminating the rez.

It's cool that you are trying different solutions in your different buckets. I'm curious of the results. Let us know...

cheers,
mr.bond

I'm about 24-48 hours out on giving up on DWC for now at least. New tub, new brew that looked to be nice and foamy. Cleaned the roots as best I could with out taking too much of them off and after about 12 hours my ph went down in the tub, 18 hrs it went up. My water is smelling a little foul but I'm not sure if that is just the nasty roots stinking up the air space in the tub. I don't know how the hell to keep my tubs from being infected with this plague. Even the tea doesn't seem to be helping. I'm only about 18 hours in of the new brew so I'm gonna give it 24 more hours to do it's thing but it doesn't seem to be looking up.

Bond- Thanks for the reply. Its spot on with my quslestions and concerns. When moving to this place I thought, well water+hydroponic+RO= much $savings. I know currently my RO sediment filter needs replaced. I am going to buy another one and price a uv filter. I am going to do a lot of looking into filtration. IMHO, knowing what im up against will allow ne to gain the knowledge of best plan of attack. Like u said, anything using contaminated water chances reinfection.

I don't like the idea of showering in it, running it through my expensive washer/dryer/fridge or my brand new house. Let alone life expectancy of my well and sump pumps. Knowledge is power. Time for more researching

Will update with experiment at the 24hr mark.

(Edit- If you can't tell, im fighting to not have to buy and transport water. We did this the first months because we didn't have meters yet. I told myself right then and there, if I have to buy water, im not growing in hydro.)