alltatup
New member
I figured out (I hope and pray) what was making my roots brown and funky BUT with no stinky smell: I had a light leak into my reservoir. I kept reading and reading about root rot, but what I was experiencing didn't seem to fit the descriptions of what I was reading, because my leaves and buds have continued looking great all along.
I finally read this this morning: https://www.theweedblog.com/how-to-get-rid-of-algae-in-marijuana-hydroponic-systems/
It fit the bill precisely to what I was experiencing. None of the other descriptions fit!!! Then I went back over to GWE to re-read all about root rot, and saw something that had just gone straight over my head before, because I wasn't allowing it to be a possible cause: LIGHT LEAKS. So, as I wrote yesterday on my grow journal thread, I got down on hands and knees and got a good look up underneath the reservoir and sure enough, the net pot hole I thought I had thoroughly covered was leaking light like a mofo. I just had never gotten down there to take a really good look up underneath the lid over my reservoir.
The brown algae was floating around like little extraterrestrial malevolent jellies that were next to impossible to catch and drag out. I read Robert Bergman's page (above) and realized that all the Hydroguard in the world wasn't going to get rid of the problem. So before I went to work this morning, I did put in some 35% H2O2 (FOOD GRADE, I read, is what you need to use--not the stuff in the drug store). I also read what others had to say about this specific form of root rot on other forums. And then I came home (here) to share what I have learned.
So: light leak problem fixed, now a couple of days of pH water with H2O2 in it, then back to nutes. While my girls are just on this regimen, I might sneak them a chocolate or two so they don't feel deprived...
What always blows me away is how I don't learn what I need to learn until I really exhaust all the avenues, instead of assuming that, for example, I couldn't possibly have a light leak.
I finally read this this morning: https://www.theweedblog.com/how-to-get-rid-of-algae-in-marijuana-hydroponic-systems/
It fit the bill precisely to what I was experiencing. None of the other descriptions fit!!! Then I went back over to GWE to re-read all about root rot, and saw something that had just gone straight over my head before, because I wasn't allowing it to be a possible cause: LIGHT LEAKS. So, as I wrote yesterday on my grow journal thread, I got down on hands and knees and got a good look up underneath the reservoir and sure enough, the net pot hole I thought I had thoroughly covered was leaking light like a mofo. I just had never gotten down there to take a really good look up underneath the lid over my reservoir.
The brown algae was floating around like little extraterrestrial malevolent jellies that were next to impossible to catch and drag out. I read Robert Bergman's page (above) and realized that all the Hydroguard in the world wasn't going to get rid of the problem. So before I went to work this morning, I did put in some 35% H2O2 (FOOD GRADE, I read, is what you need to use--not the stuff in the drug store). I also read what others had to say about this specific form of root rot on other forums. And then I came home (here) to share what I have learned.
So: light leak problem fixed, now a couple of days of pH water with H2O2 in it, then back to nutes. While my girls are just on this regimen, I might sneak them a chocolate or two so they don't feel deprived...
What always blows me away is how I don't learn what I need to learn until I really exhaust all the avenues, instead of assuming that, for example, I couldn't possibly have a light leak.
