Sterile vs bennies in warmer temps

5BY5LEC

5BY5LEC

Well-Known Member
Huktonponics said:
Forgot to add, I cringe at the thought of running bene's in hydro. Ive been left with some right messes attempting to do so. I like my nute solution clean and clear, ill rarely get a bit of bio film from my silica that i add if it falls out of solution.
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Done right, your water will stay crystal clear with very little to no buildup on the sides of the buckets.
Sterile will do you just as well too though, although I think sterile works much better if your water has very little organic/bacteria load to begin with IE Distilled Water or RO.
 
Johnny Lawrence

Johnny Lawrence

Well-Known Member
Huktonponics said:
Forgot to add, I cringe at the thought of running bene's in hydro. Ive been left with some right messes attempting to do so. I like my nute solution clean and clear, ill rarely get a bit of bio film from my silica that i add if it falls out of solution.
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I just looked it up. You're supposed to use .5ml per litre of water. The 1 litre bottle of this stuff is close to $40, which means Hydroguard, as overpriced as it is, still comes in at around 1/3 of the price.
 
H

Huktonponics

Well-Known Member
Johnny Lawrence said:
I just looked it up. You're supposed to use .5ml per litre of water. The 1 litre bottle of this stuff is close to $40, which means Hydroguard, as overpriced as it is, still comes in at around 1/3 of the price.
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Isn't hydroguard some sort of beneficial ? 2 different types of product.

Silver Bullet and Endosan stay active for up to 6 weeks aswell.
 
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Huktonponics

Well-Known Member
5BY5LEC said:
Done right, your water will stay crystal clear with very little to no buildup on the sides of the buckets.
Sterile will do you just as well too though, although I think sterile works much better if your water has very little organic/bacteria load to begin with IE Distilled Water or RO.
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All water has bacteria in I think, even if filtered. Check your shower head, rub your finger under the outlet of your tap, check your water tank. Even chlorine / chloramine and fluoride only keep them at bay in till they find something to feed off.

I'm not saying benes don't work in hydro, but if you want more of a set it & forget it, I'd go sterile and find a product that works for you to keep it sterile, especially now we're approaching or in the hotter months. I use great white, tnc bactorr and tnc mycorr on my mother plants that are hand watered in coco, they work great, lots of diversity of benes, and I use the insect frass from my bearded dragons live food as a top dress aswell, but in my recirculating flood & drain 100% sterile without a chiller ( even though I have a hailea hc500 ) it just dumps too much heat.
 
Johnny Lawrence

Johnny Lawrence

Well-Known Member
Huktonponics said:
Isn't hydroguard some sort of beneficial ? 2 different types of product.

Silver Bullet and Endosan stay active for up to 6 weeks aswell.
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I understand that, but as expensive as it is, Hydroguard works. The product you referenced(I understand that it utilizes silver) is over 3 times the cost. And I never go longer than 10 days(usually 7) between rez changes, so I don't need something that lasts for a month and a half.

Southern AG is even cheaper. I was simply using Hydroguard as an example.
 
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Huktonponics

Well-Known Member
Johnny Lawrence said:
I understand that, but as expensive as it is, Hydroguard works. The product you referenced(I understand that it utilizes silver) is over 3 times the cost. And I never go longer than 10 days(usually 7) between rez changes, so I don't need something that lasts for a month and a half.

Southern AG is even cheaper. I was simply using Hydroguard as an example.
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That Endosan which someone on here pointed out to me as I didn't know about it, is even cheaper, and comes in a 3% and a 5% too. Swapping over to that when I've finished my gallon of the overpriced horticulture stuff ( yes I know, it's stupid expensive ) but still works out cheaper than straight h2o2 if going sterile.
 
Lurker500

Lurker500

Active Member
Just done a water change. Tap water. Roots look fine. Leafs look fine. I'll continue to use endosan at 5ml per 10 Litres. 230 litres in my setup.
 
GrowRijt

GrowRijt

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the heads up on the southern Ag tip guys. I almost pulled the trigger on hydro guard. I’m back to ebb and flow after a very long break in soil. Love both ways of growing and looking forward to getting back to hydro and some nice automation.
 
fragileassassin

fragileassassin

Well-Known Member
GrowRijt said:
Thanks for the heads up on the southern Ag tip guys. I almost pulled the trigger on hydro guard. I’m back to ebb and flow after a very long break in soil. Love both ways of growing and looking forward to getting back to hydro and some nice automation.
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1ml per 5gal as a starter dose
1ml per 10gal as a weekly maintenance dose if you dont change water.
This is how ive used it and have been very very happy with it.
 
Offmymeds

Offmymeds

Well-Known Member
Thundercat said:
I switched to sterile in my flood and drain system many years ago, and never looked back it worked great.

I like pool shock over bleach, chlorine is actually a natural building block for plants. I mixed a 1/2 tsp of shock granules into 1 gallon of water to make a solution. Then add 1ounce of that solution per gallon in the res about every 3-4 days. Everything will stay clean and healthy.
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You sold me. I'm sick of root rot. I'm ordering HTH Super Shock today. I hope the mix ratio is the same.

You must clean your system with it between runs. Do you simply run a stronger solution through then flush it?
 
Offmymeds

Offmymeds

Well-Known Member
Advice please. I put HTH Super Shock in my Amazon cart bc it's $3.92\lb. Then I see HTH Ultimate Shock for $17.14/lb. Is there any significant difference? conentration?
 
rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
Offmymeds said:
Got it. I found the plain old Shock. 1.5lbs for $21.97 on Amazon. That's a lifetime supply for me. Thank you.
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if you don't have one, i'd advise you to buy a digi scale accurate to 0.01 grams. i got mine off ebay for like $25. you'll want to be very precise measuring it out.
 
Thundercat

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
Offmymeds said:
You sold me. I'm sick of root rot. I'm ordering HTH Super Shock today. I hope the mix ratio is the same.

You must clean your system with it between runs. Do you simply run a stronger solution through then flush it?
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I didn’t clean my system with it between runs, just used it in the reservoir. Between runs the only thing I specifically cleaned was my pots. Periodically I’d take all my plants out and clean the trays too, but I just used water and a scrub brush for that. Same for res changes, water and a little scrub down and it was ready for fresh nutes.
 
Offmymeds

Offmymeds

Well-Known Member
Thundercat said:
I didn’t clean my system with it between runs, just used it in the reservoir. Between runs the only thing I specifically cleaned was my pots. Periodically I’d take all my plants out and clean the trays too, but I just used water and a scrub brush for that. Same for res changes, water and a little scrub down and it was ready for fresh nutes.
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This keeps getting better. Thanks again.
 
Offmymeds

Offmymeds

Well-Known Member
rkymtnman said:
if you don't have one, i'd advise you to buy a digi scale accurate to 0.01 grams. i got mine off ebay for like $25. you'll want to be very precise measuring it out.
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Do you use the same mix as Thundercat? Here is the mix he posted:
"I mixed a 1/2 tsp of shock granules into 1 gallon of water to make a solution. Then add 1ounce of that solution per gallon in the res about every 3-4 days."
1/2 tsp is 2.13 grams
 
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