bigunyun
Well-Known Member
good idea thanks
Reservoir mold
- Thread starter bigunyun
- Start date
detgreenthumb
Well-Known Member
Also if you don't have the ability to keep your reservoir under 68 degrees consistently you may want to consider going completely sterile with a hypochlorous acid (UC Roots or Watermax are good and basically the same) and either eliminating any biological additives or adding them by hand and not mixing them with the sterile solution
detgreenthumb
Well-Known Member
I run chillers on all of my reservoirs and set the temps to 62. I realize it's cost prohibitive for a lot of people to do this so you'll need to go sterile if the temps get above 68 or you'll see more mold, bacteria and the like rear their ugly head due to not only the higher temp, but the lower amount of Dissolved Oxygen in your solution
bigunyun
Well-Known Member
wow great advice, thanks! Can you recommend a good chiller?
detgreenthumb
Well-Known Member
It's all going to depend on what size reservoir you have, but a 1/10 hp active aqua chiller works just fine for a standard 55 gallon drum style reservoir. I always keep my nutrient solution/root zone temps in UC's at 60-62 degrees
detgreenthumb
Well-Known Member
Also regardless of temps I run completely sterile in Undercurrent/Rdwc systems. If you're feeding coco/peat/soil or any other wild-type media forget the sterile comment and utilize as much beneficial fungi, bacteria and mycelium available to you
detgreenthumb
Well-Known Member
aaaaand I just remembered I'm in a hydro/aeroponic room, hahahahahaha. Which means all chelated synthetics for nutrients and stay far away from any organic/natural additives They just lead to issues with cleanliness and sterility as time goes on and the system sees more and more cycles and cleanings. Plus, all of these organic additives are there to help break down organic nutrients to more bioavailable forms for the plants. If you're dealing with fully chelated mineral derived nutrients your plants don't need any help to make those nutrients you're feeding them usable
detgreenthumb
Well-Known Member
Did you end up getting this handled?
bigunyun
Well-Known Member
What you told me has been sooo helpful... I ordered a 1/10 hp chiller and it just arrived today, will have that running tonight. Got rid of those organic nutes and used just general hydroponics at around 800 ppm. Put a timer on the circulating pump and that's running fine. I did keep a lid on the res cuz i didn't want it all evaporating and concentrating the nutes. So far I've had no mold regrowth in the reservoir thankfully.
I just switched the light cycle over to run at night hoping that everything will be cooler and that's helping some. Got an air conditioner with the output going directly into each of two tents and got the temp down to 75 in there, but the RH is still 75!! Sounds scary. I ordered two Vivosun tent dehumidifiers and I'll put one in each tent hope to get that down to.... ?40...?
Question is, I still have plants in the tent where the infected plants were.... they're much younger tho, just started to flower 10 days or so ago...
So I'm hoping IF i can get the RH down.... and keep the temps down... then maybe the rot won't affect these plants?? Or do I need to do a complete chop and burn and decontaminate?
what do you think about what I've done so far? THANKS SO MUCH!
detgreenthumb
Well-Known Member
Now that you have a chiller you won't have to worry about that other pump as you'll be constantly recirculating the water in your reservoir while also chilling your water.
When you say "infected" are you talking about root rot or PM because of the lower temps and higher humidity? If you're getting root rot you'll need to do some work. You'll need a strong root drench of hydrogen peroxide (several times for 2-3 minutes each per day while manually agitating the roots) for 2 days and also clean the entire system with the same strength solution and then run UC roots at 10 ml per gallon after you flush the system of your peroxide solution and get fresh water in there. If you're talking PM a nice daily foliar treatment of Plant Therapy/Bio Green Cleaner/Regalia will handle that for you. Full strength daily for at least 3-5 days straight and kept on an IPM schedule being sprayed every 3 afterwards. I would say a temp of 78-80 in early flower with humidity around 55-60% is proper. Once you start to get more dense flower production dropping the temperature to 74-76 and humidity between 45-50% is where you'll want to be. If you have the ability to control day/night temps it's always best to drop your night time temps 8-12 degrees. You'll see more trichome production as well as more color from the plants.
When hooking up the chillers to my reservoirs I typically drill the reservoirs for the proper sized grommets (1/10 HP is typically 1/2") and connect everything into the reservoir through the grommets and plastic barbed connectors and tighten everything down with hose clamps. That way you can guarantee no leaks and control the circulation, taking the water from the pump and running it out the bottom while returning the water from the chiller through the top of the reservoir.
I've built dozens upon dozens if not over a hundred of these systems so I've had the opportunity to play around with all kinds of variables.
Don't forget to set the chiller to 61°
bigunyun
Well-Known Member
Sorry... mixed up two threads... mold in my reservoir AND BUD ROT on some of my juiciest buds right before harvest... at least that's when I discovered it... I think both problems are related because it's so damn hot and humid in my tents and grow room.... so I got the chiller for the reservoir... and thanks for the hose clamp idea. chiller to 61.
do I need to chop and start again (have 3 plants going) and decontaminate or can I try to get down to 75/45 and pray they don't get rot...?
do I need to chop and start again (have 3 plants going) and decontaminate or can I try to get down to 75/45 and pray they don't get rot...?
Merkn4aSquirtn
Well-Known Member
Do you use led?
Do you have a good source of air circulating in the tent (i.e fan)
Is your water/nute reservoir light proof?
Do you use a fan and filter for exhaust?
bigunyun
Well-Known Member
Yes my lighting is LED - California Lightworks SolarXtreme 1000... it's a good light and has fans, but it does get warm... I have a 6-inch inline Cloudline fan... it's pretty strong, but I am also adding just another rotary 6" fan... my nute reservoir is NOT light proof... it's translucent... does it need to be opaque? I use just the Cloudline fan - it's in the tent... and it does exhaust out thru a carbon filter... I've added an air conditioner outside the tents blowing in thru 6" ducts into the intake in both tents, and just added small dehumidifiers (the Vivosun mini ones)... what do you think?
rkymtnman
Well-Known Member
fix that ASAP
Merkn4aSquirtn
Well-Known Member
Im running 345w of leds. Temps get up to 82 with lights on. 73 lights off.
Humidity is running low 60s high 50s lights on. Low 70s lights off. (I'm on the verge of pwm or mold but i make it work) 3 plants in flower. 2 of which will be getting harvested in a week or two.
I've been under the impression that when running leds, you want a low 80 temp to supply the canopy with heat that leds lack.
A higher temp would lower your humidity as well.
Cover your reservoir up. You don't want any light getting inside. Light = algae and other bacterias will form. Airstones work wonders too. Your local pet store or Walmart has them cheap.
Damprid products help with moisture control too.
If you can. Try connecting your inline fan and carbon filter to ducting that exhausts outta the top of the tent. To get air inside, just open a couple of the tent vent flaps at the bottom and that will allow the best airflow. An oscillating fan inside the tent too.
As far as tossing everything.. i would just cut off the affected areas that have mold and continue checking on them periodically.
Clean the inside of your tent after every watering with 1 part vinegar and 10 part water to keep it nice and sterilized.
bigunyun
Well-Known Member
I'll def. switch the reservoir to opaque, thanks.... I think my light is rated at 800w. I find I have to raise it up to nearly the top of the tent to keep it as cool inside as possible. Not sure if that's correct... my inline fans/filters are already ejecting out the top... I've got a 6inch duct sucking in at the bottom that's coming from an 8000 BTU air conditioner - running my lights at night, now and off during the day; my temps are down to 78 to 82 now and so far that's as good as I've gotten. But RH is still up over 70. That worries me cuz of the bud rot. I just got two mini dehumidifiers inside the tents but idk if they're strong enough to do much. I cut down the entire plants that showed mold... there are still two young plants in that tent that are a couple weeks into flower after a 6-week veg. I'm feeding them now with Blumats and they really look great; would hate to chop those. I guess I'll just watch 'em but I really NEED to get the RH down I think
rkymtnman
Well-Known Member
i missed this part. i would cut every moldy bud off ASAP too and toss them.
rkymtnman
Well-Known Member
70%RH is pretty high but i would try adding more fans blowing around in the tents. lack of air movement is more of a problem than slightly high RH IMO.
bigunyun
Well-Known Member
awesome i hope that's true!
bigunyun
Well-Known Member
Are you sure about this? Usually mold like dark, warm places... wouldn't light help prevent it? As long as I can keep it cool...?