HELP! Algae/root rot

[Nolant1998]

I’m at a complete loss as to why after every water change my hydro system seems to explode with algae/root rot issues. I keep the water at 67 and there is plenty of aeration as well as I fully sanitized the whole system in between water changes to hopefully solve this problem to no avail. I also have gone to great lengths to make sure there is no light getting in to the system, everything is either black or white with foil wrapped around it. I use hydrogaurd as well as AN voodoo juice. I am currently running the AN master grower nutrient schedule and the plants seem to be loving the nutrients I’m just worried the roots are going to be my undoing. I’ve attatched photos of my setup as well as my temp and humidity and all those readings. Thanks in advance for any help you guys can give!!

 

[Gracey]

Otherwise those are nice looking plants.
I'm not sure about anything here. We had root rot in 2 previous grows before adding rootguard then stressed the roots in this grow (They finally look fluffy. I'm mostly here to see what others say...and maybe ask a question too, TY.

What are the suds for and do they get rinsed?
What do the algae look like?


Is rot root sometimes a symptom of another problem like mites?

 

[Nolant1998]

Hey Gracey seems we are in a similar boat. I believe the suds are a symptom of the algae in combination with my aeration. I have 2 air stones in each container with a 110 L/min air pump which I’m sure is overkill but there can never be too much aeration as far as I’m concerned. Regarding the algae I believe it is the darker brownish black stuff on the roots as well as there is a thin coating of brown slime on the whole system.

 

[alltatup]

Nolant, I had terrible root rot on my second grow, and after trying various things, adding GSE (grapefruit seed extract) to the reservoir killed it. First I had to take each plant out and rinse the roots thoroughly under running water to remove all the gunk; the roots were white underneath. After that, I had to purchase chillers to keep my reservoir temps down--same one you have.

I don't understand how you can have root rot if your water temp is 67F. Wow, that's fucked up.

 

[DW2]

Howdy Nolant1998, I try to keep my reservoir temperatures down around 65° F (but not below 62° F). If you have blocked all light intrusions like not using any clear tubing and covering the net pots (clay pebbles) with foil or something to block the light, the only thing that I am doing different, is that I am adding 1.5 ml of GH FloraShield as an inoculate. I tried using Hydro Guard, but it did not work well for me. Hydrogen peroxide added to the reservoirs will help kill off the algae, but do not use it with the Hydro Guard, as the H2O2 will kill it as well.
Do You have to open up the top of the reservoirs to drain, fill, or top off? The most difficult thing that I had to over come in the 'algae wars' was to quit opening up the reservoir to 'see how things were going'! Every time it's opened, loght and spores get inside and tyr to take over.
Good luck in the battle.

 

[Nolant1998]

Thanks alltatup I’ll definitely look into grapefruit seed extract and I have been rinsing the gunk of the roots daily to hopefully keep them alive.

in response to DW2 I do have the hydroton covered with foil to be safe and I will definitely look into GH floraguard. I will say I do have to open the containers to drain and refill so maybe this is my problem? I also will drop the temp form 67 to 65 just to be safe.

thank you for both of your input!!

 

[Gracey]

Again, I don't know how everything you're doing affects your water but those suds look wrong and I'd want to know what that's about.

Is it possible so much sterilizing is killing hydroguard or other good bios in the water? How about rinsing rinsing rinsing the setup (maybe use some of that grapefruit?)to get rid of any cleaning agents, including gently rinsing the roots then adding just light nutes and one of the agents like hydrogurad (I keep referring to hydroguard because we just started using it and it's the only one I'm familiar with...except hydrogen peroxide/h2o2 which didn't help salvage our last grow which was much worse than yours). And like you and DW2 said, leave them be to let them heal...Tom Petty said the waiting is the hardest part.

When we did have success with previous root rot the new roots grew out from around the rot and created its own system next to the bad roots. I'm ROOTing for you!

 

[alltatup]

Nolant1998 That reminds me of a practice I changed some years back. It really weakened the developing roots when I would leave the lid open for too long and try to do too much cleaning of the reservoir duing nutrient change. Now I drain and simply stick the hose under the lid to refill it, and leave everything as is inside. I noticed a significant difference in happier roots the faster and less intrusive I became.

Another little suggestion: don't cover the hydroton with foil; allow air to circulate through the net pots from above--without any light leaking, of course.

 

[Nolant1998]

alltatup I definitely think the long water changes could be a problem, previously I had been doing water changes straight from my ro filter which take hours to fill the tanks. Recently I purchased an ro tank so I should be able to fill everything up quite quickly from now on. Regarding the foil I did it early on when the plants were very small and I was worried about light getting in around the perimeter of the net pots, I guess now that the plants have covered them I have no need to keep the foil there. Hopefully I get this resolved soon because I’m about to switch them into the scrog net very soon and once I do removing the plants is almost impossible. Anyways thanks again!!