white foam, gunk and trouble controlling ph in dwc

[Yukonbud]

I started on a dwc system about 3 weeks ago. I have had nothing but problems with white foam and gunk showing up in my pails each time about 2 days after changing water. Also when this happens, the ph goes up to around 8.5! After this happened 3 times and changing/cleaning the buckets, I pulled everything out of the tent and sanitized everything inside and out with bleach. All tent surfaces, all equipment, etc Fired things up again and used h2o2 at 3ml/ltr. Now 4 days later, back to white foam and high ph! I am getting very discouraged as I thought dwc was going to be easy. Here's my set up: 5gal pails with large air stones and lots of bubbles, Using GH nutrients (Flora micro, grow and bloom). Added h2o2. Pails are black and I've made sure no light is getting into pails. My water is from a deep water well. It has a ph of around 8 and fairly high total alkalinity. Have been using citric acid to adjust ph. Usually have to adjust a few times(maybe high alkalinity is buffering?) Water temps are 71 deg F. The plants seem to be doing fine. Third set of true leaves coming out on one of the plants. Two others 2nd leaf stage. I just changed the water out on one of the pails today. Washed off all this gross white slime clinging to the pail and air stone. Only 7 days to look like this. I added more h2o2 after 4 days.
I mentioned in a previous post that I can't get a hold of Hydroguard in Canada. Not from the US anyway. I did search ebay and could get some for UK. I was hoping there might be an alternative.
What am I doing wrong here?! I don't want to give up as I invested a small fortune putting this all together. I'm hoping someone has seen my problems before and knows the fix. Please help. Thank you

[vostok]

Water of a Ph of 8 is a great incentive to NOT going DWC
change your mind you can still back out perhaps returning to DWC after a break
its very its easy just include a hefty amount of perlite in your compost mix

DWC is not for the weak minded dumb poor or for those without patience

good luck

[dphipps1020]

I would suggest getting yourself some pH down and get rid of the citric acid. My guess is that may be what's causing the foam. I've never used hydrogen peroxide (h2o2) in my water, from what I hear it doesn't last long anyway. As for the hydroguard, that's what I use so I can't really say what a good substitute would be. Found this with a quick Google search https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VXQG23O..._NfzVEb8EQK2GJ
Just another note, don't let anyone discourage you. There's always a way to fix it, just have to ask and we're more than happy to help. I'm still fairly new so I don't have more answers like some of the others, but I'll try to help if I can.

[NickyChicks]

Gotta be careful with dosage for that Southern Ag, looks like it's highly concentrated compared to Hydroguard. I use Hydroguard but I just compared the labels and it's wild how concentrated SA is.

[dphipps1020]

Yeah I was reading some of the posts where I got the link. Supposedly works really well and you don't need a lot of it so it's way cheaper than Hydroguard. I may get some to try.

[alltatup]

What's your water temp?

[gbauto]

I think that most of your issues are the result of your water. Either use RO water from the store or invest in a filtration system.

[Yukonbud]

Thanks everyone for the replies. Yes been wondering about the citric acid. Also found some articles on high ph water and it being not good for hydro (as vostok so eloquently mentioned). Likely a combination of things. The amazon link you sent for the fungicide just tells me no sellers will deliver to my area (which usually means they can't ship to Canada) so that is out.
I've been looking up reverse osmosis systems for my water to get rid of TDS. I'm thinking that may be the way to go to start. Get water I can actually ph and it will stay there.
Off to the hardware store to buy a RO system. Another piece of equipment for my hobby - yeah! Will post an update on how this goes...

[alltatup]

what's water temp.

[dphipps1020]

Oh bummer, was worth a shot

[Toker1]

If you wouldn’t drink the water from your deep well, you shouldn’t use it in your plants.