white mold in my res..HELP

[PieEyed&Giggly]

well my 1st grow didnt turn out so good, my 1st 3 plants were looking good 4 awhile considering i didnt have any nutes but in a little over a months time the never got any bigger than like 1 maybe 2 inches tall & were turning brown. finally got my nutes & brought my ppm up to 850 (didnt want to over do it with the 1st feeding) ph is now at about 5.5 & the planys have not recovered so i figured i would juststart germinating some more seeds & try again now that i have everything i need instead of before starting the grow before my nutes got here altho the asshole i ordered from didnt even mail em out til about a month & 1/2 after i ordered it.
anyway to point of my question its been about a week or so since i added my nutes & i am trying the lucas formula which he says he doesnt change the res out at all til flowering & i went to take out the mostly dead plants & seen in the water a bad white cottony like mold or something everywhere in my res all over my stone & the airline, prolly about 1 or 2 inches thick at the bottom. what the hell is this shit, how bad is & how can i prevent it from coming back?

 

[laserbrn]

well my 1st grow didnt turn out so good, my 1st 3 plants were looking good 4 awhile considering i didnt have any nutes but in a little over a months time the never got any bigger than like 1 maybe 2 inches tall & were turning brown. finally got my nutes & brought my ppm up to 850 (didnt want to over do it with the 1st feeding) ph is now at about 5.5 & the planys have not recovered so i figured i would juststart germinating some more seeds & try again now that i have everything i need instead of before starting the grow before my nutes got here altho the asshole i ordered from didnt even mail em out til about a month & 1/2 after i ordered it.
anyway to point of my question its been about a week or so since i added my nutes & i am trying the lucas formula which he says he doesnt change the res out at all til flowering & i went to take out the mostly dead plants & seen in the water a bad white cottony like mold or something everywhere in my res all over my stone & the airline, prolly about 1 or 2 inches thick at the bottom. what the hell is this shit, how bad is & how can i prevent it from coming back?

Bad news bears. Mold is the antichrist. Flush your resevoir, clean it and your trays with a solution of 10% bleach 90% hot water and a little dish soap to help it get "soapy" and clean out the nooks and crannies.

I might be going out on a limb here but you took plants that were a month old that never had any nutrients and went straight to 800ppm? Didn't you experience nutrient burn on the little fuggers? You should start much lower than that and work your way up. I start them at 50ppm then move up by 50ppm each day until I reach 250. Then I go up by 100ppm until I reach 1000ppm. Then I leave it at 1000ppm until flowering where it's upped to 1200 - 1400 - 1600 sometimes 1800 if they'll take it.

Hope everything works out for you. Some pics would be helpful and good luck.

Watch for bud rot in flowering if you already have a mold problem. It's almost certainly going to come back without a dehumidifier.

 

[Jbrowngreen]

get some strong hydrogen peroxide and mix like 2 tablespoons per gallon of water in your res. should prevent mold/algae/pathogens and add extra o2 to the water for your roots

 

[laserbrn]

Bad news bears. Mold is the antichrist. Flush your resevoir, clean it and your trays with a solution of 10% bleach 90% hot water and a little dish soap to help it get "soapy" and clean out the nooks and crannies.

I might be going out on a limb here but you took plants that were a month old that never had any nutrients and went straight to 800ppm? Didn't you experience nutrient burn on the little fuggers? You should start much lower than that and work your way up. I start them at 50ppm then move up by 50ppm each day until I reach 250. Then I go up by 100ppm until I reach 1000ppm. Then I leave it at 1000ppm until flowering where it's upped to 1200 - 1400 - 1600 sometimes 1800 if they'll take it.

Hope everything works out for you. Some pics would be helpful and good luck.

Watch for bud rot in flowering if you already have a mold problem. It's almost certainly going to come back without a dehumidifier.

I've also found that an additional pump in the resevior without a hose connected to it works well for "stirring" so you don't have a stagnant resevior.

 

[PieEyed&Giggly]

"might be going out on a limb here but you took plants that were a month old that never had any nutrients and went straight to 800ppm? Didn't you experience nutrient burn on the little fuggers? You should start much lower than that and work your way up. I start them at 50ppm then move up by 50ppm each day until I reach 250."

my water (RO) started out at like 200-250 ppm be4 adding anything. then using a lil vinager to bring my PH down btw what is the best/easiest/cheapest shit to use to lower PH? this maybe a very stupid question i would assume the answer is fuck no but i just wanna make sure...can i use PH down for swimming pools in my system?

 

[PieEyed&Giggly]

thanx for the airation & h202 info guys...i assume they make like splitters so u can run 2 hoses. & did u say to put the pump in the water? isnt that gonna fuck up the pump?

 

[laserbrn]

"might be going out on a limb here but you took plants that were a month old that never had any nutrients and went straight to 800ppm? Didn't you experience nutrient burn on the little fuggers? You should start much lower than that and work your way up. I start them at 50ppm then move up by 50ppm each day until I reach 250."

my water (RO) started out at like 200-250 ppm be4 adding anything. then using a lil vinager to bring my PH down btw what is the best/easiest/cheapest shit to use to lower PH? this maybe a very stupid question i would assume the answer is fuck no but i just wanna make sure...can i use PH down for swimming pools in my system?

PH Down for pools is exactly what you need. AFTER you RO your water it comes out to 200-250ppm? Your water supply must be NASTY. I get my water from my RO at about 50ppm. If you aren't geting nute burn I guess it's not a problem, I just don't like the setbacks that nute burn cause and I guess I go a little on the cautious side after some setback in the past caused by nute burn. I've nute burned plants by trying to start them at 250ppm (clones of course).

 

[herbose]

Better check your RO unit. I've never heard of anything like 200ppm coming out. Mine goes in around 200 and comes out under 20ppm.

 

[PieEyed&Giggly]

well we got nasty ass well water the ol rotten egg water be4 going thru whole house filtration then RO. ok i just dbbl checked to make sure i wasnt misleading u all....the water coming from our tap thru the whole house filtration system is 1090ppm & thru the RO it is 129ppm so maybe i just had a fucked up reading i took be4 adding the nutes or maybe the vinager i added to bring down the PH raised it a lil.

 

[laserbrn]

well we got nasty ass well water the ol rotten egg water be4 going thru whole house filtration then RO. ok i just dbbl checked to make sure i wasnt misleading u all....the water coming from our tap thru the whole house filtration system is 1090ppm & thru the RO it is 129ppm so maybe i just had a fucked up reading i took be4 adding the nutes or maybe the vinager i added to bring down the PH raised it a lil.

Wow, what a commercial for RO huh? Considering your water source and your current mold problem, i would definitely invest in a strong pump to put into your res to "stir" the water and keep it moving. Seems to help with the formation of bacteria. Also keep flushing your res every other week. If that's not often enough, do it every week. Unfortunatly some situations are cause for a little more work to make it happen.

 

[AeroKing]

I've heard that some RO filters have to go through a "break-in" period before they will produce low ppm water.

 

[PieEyed&Giggly]

ye appearntly my RO system is working just fine...lol...i have a minor delemma with changing out my res weekly or 2 weeks whatever....the RO unit we have is a small under the sink modle that only holds like 4 gallon er something at a time & takes a few hours to resupply itself & i put like 6 er 7 gallons in my res ( i got a 10 gallon tote) so i cant refill it all the way in 1 shot plus the RO water comes out the unit rather slow...takes about 3-5 mins to fill a gallon jug to put in the res times say 6 1/2 gallons of water it takes me about 30 mins to fill it if it was constant it took me about 8 hrs to fill it be4...so what do with the plants while im going thru this process on say a weekly basis?

 

[PieEyed&Giggly]

I've heard that some RO filters have to go through a "break-in" period before they will produce low ppm water.

we have had our RO system for like 6 yrs i think its broke in...lol...besides i would say reducing the ppm from 1090ppm to 129ppm its doing its job its just has a difficult job to do...lol

 

[AeroKing]

Have you changed your membrane lately? I don't think it should even be that high.

 

[PieEyed&Giggly]

Have you changed your membrane lately? I don't think it should even be that high.

membrane? u mean the filter?...lol...the filter was changed either last yr or the yr be4 & they say its supposed to be good for like 5 yrs er something if i remember right

 

[PieEyed&Giggly]

oh btw i just dumped it & got it soaking in hot bleach water right now & the net pots er whatever didnt have any of the mold or whatever it is on them u think i should still wash them with the bleach water too & what about the hydroton is that trash now or can that be cleaned? & my "stone" is made of like crushed rock or something u know its not like your typical plastic stone u see at walmart er whatever should i just soak it in the bleach water too?

 

[AeroKing]

I'd use hydrogen peroxide rather than bleach. If your stone is a micro-pore diffuser, than you can use muriatic acid to clean it.

 

[PieEyed&Giggly]

what is muriatic acid...im out in the sticks & there is no hydro stores anywhere near here...is there a common substitute i can use, something i can get at like walmart er menards? [edit] i just read about muriatic acid could i use Phosphoric acid instead with good results?

& yea my bad about the membrane part i just talked to my water guy & told him about the ppm & he said the membrane is about due to be changed, so ill prolly be doing that in the next week er 2...

 

[PieEyed&Giggly]

ok can any1 tell me y i got all this white mold? i didnt change my water for a lil over a month (no nutes) & the water stayed crystal clear, i add nutes & like a week to a week & 1/2 later i get a ton of this shit! what can i do to prevent it from happening again asside from the weekly or every other week flushing? & i was trying to do the lucas formula & he says he only changes his water when he goes into flowering...how does he do it or what did i do to fuck up so bad?

 

[laserbrn]

ok can any1 tell me y i got all this white mold? i didnt change my water for a lil over a month (no nutes) & the water stayed crystal clear, i add nutes & like a week to a week & 1/2 later i get a ton of this shit! what can i do to prevent it from happening again asside from the weekly or every other week flushing? & i was trying to do the lucas formula & he says he only changes his water when he goes into flowering...how does he do it or what did i do to fuck up so bad?

Don't worry, bleach is fine as long as you did what I said and only put about 10% bleach in it. And make sure to rinse everything out real good when you're done. I wouldn't probably bleach the netpots if you have them or anything.

As far as WHY you got mold...mold grows like all other things. Now you're providing it with nutrients just like algae to keep growing and get stronger. In some environments you can keep your resevoir for a month, some you can't. Depends on your overall humidity, whether or not you already have a mold problem etc.

You never did post any pics of this "mold" to confirm what it is, so it's possible we aren't really talking about mold either.