noob to dwc... ppms steadily rising and a faint dirty fishtank smell.

im completely new to the world of dwc and hydroponics in general so keep that in mind... tonight i walk into my room to check on the grow and i notice a faint dirty fishtank smell, ive noticed that my ppms have been very steadily rising, thinking obviously that the plants are drinking up water i topped up my res but my ppms were still registering higher than usual (not very, they started at 440-450 and rose to 490 at the highest. 470 after topping up) ph is steady at 6.0 res temp is 29*c 84* or so fahrenheit room temp is in the mid 80's to low 90's during the hottest part of the day. the plants are healthy looking no root slime or anything the res water is slightly cloudy but i think thats due to not properly washing my hydroton (im thinking this might explain the ppm rise) what bothers me is the smell... its very faint and i only smelt it after leaving the room closed for a few hours and coming back... any ideas on what is going on or is it completely normal and im just over reacting?

these plants were transferred from soil two days ago if that might have something to do with it...

dude you are begging for, and probably have the start of, root rot. smell, cloudy, 84* res. if you dont keep your res below 70f or 21c, especially in dwc, you can have problems. above 74-75f and you will have problems. change the res, flush with h2o2(i hardly ever say that), and start a new res with a beneficial additive like greatwhite or pondzyme. and frozen water bottles to keep temps down. dont wait any longer.

added h2o2 to act as a band aid until tomorrow when im going to change the res. cant smell the fishtank smell anymore but im not taking any chances. can i run beneficial's with synthetic nutes? also the res temp is usually alot cooler, temp was taken during the hottest part of the day and im thinking the cloudiness may be because of the hydroton having a shitty rinse. either way im not taking chances....


frozen water bottles in the res wont put my plants into shock? and should i flush my roots with a weak h2o2 solution?

also... any tips on rigging my res to stay cool? will reflective tape lower temps? or just stop light? did i screw myself by using plants that were in soil?

If you have no money get sow frozen bottles in there ASAP.

You can wrap them with insulation but ultimately you need a chiller or the frozen bottles.

I grew year or so battling roots before I understood temps have a lot to do with root health. Get handle on it quick, with proper benes res temps can safely climb into mid 70s but yours are too high for sure.

Bottles in water touching roots do not hurt them, at least what I have seen.

sounds like the conditions I found myself in the first grow, h2o2 on a regular basis and co2 supplemented got me thru that , 4 plants in homer bucket dwc yielded very very nicely, never been able to do it again since addressing all issues.

added some h2o2 and put some frozen bottles in the res last night temps are more acceptable now, the smell has vanished.. ive tried showing my brother and he thinks im tripping. even with the res lid off there is no smell, the cloudiness is going away and now i see a brownish red dust forming on the sides of the res (im defiantly thinking hydroton dust) ppms have stopped rising, and roots are showing growth... still white color no slime.


im still doing a res change today, going to clean and bleach it and wash my roots with a diluted h2o2 solution.


it sounds to me like this isnt a certian death type deal but more of a pain in the ass that you have to keep in check

it could have been certain death had it not been caught. as long as you keep res temps in check you will be okay.

Starrider56 here, Hey Superstoner is that u?

That frozen bottled water trick sounds cool. No pun. Is there any risk that the change is res temp from the bottle placed in ther res could cause shock to the plant?

nameno said:

Starrider56 here, Hey Superstoner is that u?

Click to expand...

yes.......

The Real Slim Shady said:

That frozen bottled water trick sounds cool. No pun. Is there any risk that the change is res temp from the bottle placed in ther res could cause shock to the plant?

Click to expand...

no. but without it the rot will shock the plant.

changed the res, bleached and cleaned EVERYTHING and dipped all the roots in a h2o2 mixture a few times after rinsing the hydroton a few dozen times... roots are white with no slime and showing lots of new growth that i hadn't noticed before the res change. there was alot of hydroton dust on the sides of the res and on the air tubes.

keeping 7 or so bottles of water frozen in the freezer at all times, im starting to keep the temps down to below 70 but i have to switch bottles out every 20-30 minuets because they melt FAST

upped my ppms a little because my longest roots are over 1 and a 1/2 feet long and i was still feeding them cutting/seedling strength nutes

things look good for now...

Mine goes from 68 to mid 70s and back down. One pop bottle every twenty four hours.

yeah, dont work yourself to death. the key is not an extended period of high temps. break the cycle. a bottle 2-3x a day should work.

ive noticed since lowering the temps that my plants are absorb alot more nutes

I'm growing in a 20 gallon rubbermaid tote and I'm thinking about getting 4 gallons of distilled water from the store, and every day take 2 from the freezer and put them in the res, and put the 2 melted ones in the res back in the freezer.

See how that goes.

2 liter soda bottles work great

Imo...fix ur environment. U will have way less issues instead of chasing them. I use aqua shield 1st week of flower to 7.and it works great. Issues after 7th week use h2o2 till harvest. Good luck