Used UC Roots hydroponic mineral de scaler for years. I need a replacement or a way to make something myself

Meast21

Well-Known Member
So This shit is expensive as hell now. I need it bc I get temps in dwc above 75 degrees and it keeps my rez nice. Any replacements out there that are like cheaper and good. This shit is like $150 for a 2.5 gallon and it only lasts me a year. I like to run it through my net cups to when I'm adding water back to the rez.
 

Meast21

Well-Known Member
I use to use UC ROOTS, but its gonna expensive and hard to find. Well I can find it, but the places online I find it at it seems like they don't sell a lot of it and its been sitting on the shelves. I bought the UC Roots and would put it in all my top off buckets and when I made nutes (technaflora) bc I get high rez temps around 78 degrees and I would get bacteria, etc.... Will Hydroguard help with the high temps and stop the bad bacteria? Is it better than the UC roots?
 

Drop That Sound

Well-Known Member
You can make your own HOCI with a generator, which ends up costing pennies per gallon. They have smaller units that look like a coffee pot now, for around the same price as a gallon of the UC roots snake oil water. Basically you just add water, salt, and a little vinegar, and turn it on and wait. Might not work as effeciently or buffer the PH as well as the higher end commercial units, but should do the job..
 

xanax321

Active Member
i've been running DWC for years. Had to use great white or other beneficials to keep the slime at bay.PH wasnt as much of an issue with the bacteria.Pretty much kept it where it wanted it until time to flush with new nutes.
Transitioned to UCRoots and that worked wonders but was costly too and kept ph out of range often.
But Oh boy,... when I bought a water chiller and set the temps to 66F, right below where the krusties can live , I haven't' had to use any beneficial bacteria or run sterile since for 6 runs back to back and growth is on par with what I seen with great white and borderline high temps in DWC ( 72-75F).
Do yourself a favor and get a chiller. You'll pay for it in the first year in savings and you will wonder WTF you have been doing for years wasting time with additives,bleach,etc..
Remember K.I.S.S.
 

7CardBud

Well-Known Member
You can make your own HOCI with a generator, which ends up costing pennies per gallon. They have smaller units that look like a coffee pot now, for around the same price as a gallon of the UC roots snake oil water. Basically you just add water, salt, and a little vinegar, and turn it on and wait. Might not work as effeciently or buffer the PH as well as the higher end commercial units, but should do the job..
If I didn't buy 25# a year of cal-hypo for my pool, I would just make a cheap electrolysis machine using an old 12V PSU and a couple carbon graphite rods.
I would also use potassium or calcium chloride instead of sodium since it's going into a nutrient solution.
 

amneziaHaze

Well-Known Member
i've been running DWC for years. Had to use great white or other beneficials to keep the slime at bay.PH wasnt as much of an issue with the bacteria.Pretty much kept it where it wanted it until time to flush with new nutes.
Transitioned to UCRoots and that worked wonders but was costly too and kept ph out of range often.
But Oh boy,... when I bought a water chiller and set the temps to 66F, right below where the krusties can live , I haven't' had to use any beneficial bacteria or run sterile since for 6 runs back to back and growth is on par with what I seen with great white and borderline high temps in DWC ( 72-75F).
Do yourself a favor and get a chiller. You'll pay for it in the first year in savings and you will wonder WTF you have been doing for years wasting time with additives,bleach,etc..
Remember K.I.S.S.
soo 5$ bacteria/20$ bag of poolshock or 300$ machine with daily 200W expenses.... yeaaaa

you cant electrolosis grow water it has soo much nutes that create poison gases and turns usable nutes to unusable nutes,fucks ph.....
 

futurebanjo

Well-Known Member
soo 5$ bacteria/20$ bag of poolshock or 300$ machine with daily 200W expenses.... yeaaaa

you cant electrolosis grow water it has soo much nutes that create poison gases and turns usable nutes to unusable nutes,fucks ph.....
The chiller only runs when it detects teh water pumping through it getting too warm, so with a decent size rez, once you are down to temp, it only kicks in now and again and it only has to chill the water by about 1 degree, as say 100l of water has a lot of thermal mass, it doesnt warm up fast.

For example mine is set to 18c, and it will kick in when the flow temp reaches 19c, once it hits 18 again, it shuts down.
 
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tyler.durden

Well-Known Member
I used to run sterile flood and drain with Dutchmaster's Zone (copper sulfate), and a sterile aero cloner with pool shock. Then I started using bennies like SAGFF and Great White. I found a product last year that beats everything I've ever used. It is called Ecofix from a company called API. It is a concentrated blend of bennies meant for ponds, but it is tits in hydro. Super cheap, and I only have to reapply 5ml to my 27 gallon rezes twice per week. My roots are crazy white, even with rez temps in the mid 80s -

Amazon link


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