1st time DWC issues =\, root/pest

Hey there,
newbie here also first post... Having some issues with my babies roots and pest.


-Basement indoor grow
-ILGM autoflower (amnesia haze and blueberry)
-age: 4 weeks since seed was put in a water glass/paper towel
-ph after res change is 5.5 and close to 6.4 after 7+ days
- nutes: general hydroponics trio+calimagic at 1/2 dosage ( first feed was at full strength and ppm was 1100, waaaay to much, diluted with water)
- hard water ppm is 200, total ppm right now is around 650 (1.4 ec) 500 scale
- res water temps: usually around 69-72f, no chiller, insulated res and lid.
-grow tent air temp: 70f lights off, 78-81 lights on
-40w commercial air pump and air diffuser
-2x qb96 led dimmed down, 18-24 inches from plant ( used 7k lux for sprout and 20~30k for veg, no par meter atm)

to the issues

Today on my res change I noticed a brown, slimy residue floating on the water and also on a few of my roots and it seems to be spreading fast. I don't think it's root stain, I believe it is either brown algae or beginning of root rot. Also found what it appears to be dust building inside my res, I even draw an X with the dust. Don't think it's dust from hydroton since I washed it and let it soak for 3 days ( Check pictures)

Today I did a heavy cleaning on everything with soap and water, then used some h2o2 and scrubbed everything again trying to kill the bastards

My res is black and insulated on the sides and top, the lid was painted white. I do believe I had a light leak issue going through the hydrotons on my net pot, since it wasn't full to the top or had anything to block light. Today I added a light proofing disc to cover the net pot but it is too early to tell if it made any difference. I also added 5ml/liter of h2o2 inside my res water to see if it helps keep things clean/kill. I'm debating whether or not to get hydroguard, I believe the small light leak could be the culprit. I did not cleaned the roots, was scared to kill them, I did scrub some of the brown nasty thing off of one just to check it out/smell.

I also have another issue, holes in the leaf of plant 1, a pest issue. Couldn't find any bugs, magnifier is on the mail, will do a through inspection on the leaves. Probably treat it with soap/water or pesticides.

Also getting some weird round brown spots in some leaves of plant 2, this one I'm not sure at all what it is, will be opening another thread for the pest/ weird spots issues, but will post some pictures here just in case someone have a input

Ps: I can only add 10 pictures, so the rest is coming later on

Thanks guys, sorry still leaning. Lots of info out there, so much it is getting me confused.

Pictures 2: Pest/ weird spots on leaf

Hard to say with such small roots. You should be ha inf success with gh trio and CaliMagic. I'm gonna be honest here, the issue is your tapwater.
You must invest in an RO system from Amazon. 100-200. Basic 3-4 stage will do. Install that and get some kind of container. Black 55gallon drums do great, or a sturdy rugged plastic tote will work as well. But out the outlet on a float valve in the tote and install a push lever cooler spigot on the bottom of it in a corner if it's a tote and start collecting water. Buy some 5 gallon just to use for transferring water to your run and once you've got that dialed in, invest in a chiller. But you need ro.

The Micro does stain the roots brown.
Looks like you're pretty vigilant about keeping light out of the rez.
I think that either using some bennies or a sterile system would solve this.
I'm wondering if your tap water is introducing some of this???

Airwalker16 said:

Hard to say with such small roots. You should be ha inf success with gh trio and CaliMagic. I'm gonna be honest here, the issue is your tapwater.
You must invest in an RO system from Amazon. 100-200. Basic 3-4 stage will do. Install that and get some kind of container. Black 55gallon drums do great, or a sturdy rugged plastic tote will work as well. But out the outlet on a float valve in the tote and install a push lever cooler spigot on the bottom of it in a corner if it's a tote and start collecting water. Buy some 5 gallon just to use for transferring water to your run and once you've got that dialed in, invest in a chiller. But you need ro.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply =], and yes I definitely need a ro system, water here is nasty. Found this cheap 4 stage one, maybe too cheap?



Not sure I can use image from other websites, so I hid their name to be safe.
I did like your idea, ro water take sooooo long, never thought about a water reservoir with a float, genius. That was in my plan for the next grow, rdwc with ro water. Was trying to use dwc to get my feet wet in hydros, but its kicking my @ss

For one.
Buy some damn gloves and stop touching them.

GBAUTO said:

The Micro does stain the roots brown.
Looks like you're pretty vigilant about keeping light out of the rez.
I think that either using some bennies or a sterile system would solve this.
I'm wondering if your tap water is introducing some of this???

Click to expand...

The only weird thing, the roots getting stained are the ones not submersed in the water, maybe the bubbles are making the nutes reach the roots in the air gap between water/netpot.

I have some hydroguard coming tomorrow just to be safe, heard lots of good things about it.

And yes, my water is nasty, not supposed to have chlorides only chlorine, but the picture of my faucet tells me something different =x. It actually look better in the picture because of the flash compared to real life

fragileassassin said:

For one.
Buy some damn gloves and stop touching them.

Click to expand...

My bad, was just trying to feel if it was slimey or stained from nutes. Gloves would take my dexterity. It definitely doesn't smell bad. Maybe I caught it right in the begging, because it wasn't there 3 days ago.

Or do you mean, do not touch the leafs at all?

Carloza said:

The only weird thing, the roots getting stained are the ones not submersed in the water, maybe the bubbles are making the nutes reach the roots in the air gap between water/netpot.

I have some hydroguard coming tomorrow just to be safe, heard lots of good things about it.

And yes, my water is nasty, not supposed to have chlorides only chlorine, but the picture of my faucet tells me something different =x. It actually look better in the picture because of the flash compared to real life

Click to expand...

The dust is dry salts, the brown is dry biofilm or skinning I’m guessing, clearish snot would be brown algae, feels like hair gel in my experience.

J232 said:

The dust is dry salts, the brown is dry biofilm or skinning I’m guessing, clearish snot would be brown algae, feels like hair gel in my experience.

Click to expand...

Hmmm, it's funny you said that. Check this out


Not sure if you will be able to tell, it's a bad picture. This is the water I used to increase humidity inside the tent, it had some weird stuff inside, like someone dropped egg whites inside or spit. it was clear water 8 days ago. Maybe my water is much worse than I thought

Carloza said:

Hmmm, it's funny you said that. Check this out
View attachment 4596722

Not sure if you will be able to tell, it's a bad picture. This is the water I used to increase humidity inside the tent, it had some weird stuff inside, like someone dropped egg whites inside or spit. it was clear water 8 days ago. Maybe my water is much worse than I thought

Click to expand...

Yeah I’m not sure what that is, maybe the container was contaminated with last weeks spaghetti lol. But the side of your res where you drew an X, is just from your nute bubble mist drying. Or something from your water like calcium but that would have to be pretty rough water.

J232 said:

Yeah I’m not sure what that is, maybe the container was contaminated with last weeks spaghetti lol. But the side of your res where you drew an X, is just from your nute bubble mist drying. Or something from your water like calcium but that would have to be pretty rough water.

Click to expand...

LMAO , that makes sense, probably some fat being released. My bad, that was a noob one.

People here drink water straight from the faucets so it can't be that bad. The house I'm living now was built 80 years ago, so who knows what's inside those pipes.

Thanks for the dust explanation, makes all the sense. My air pump is definitely overkill for only 2 totes, the whole bottom of the lid gets covered in water droplets. Living and learning, thank you.

Carloza said:

LMAO , that makes sense, probably some fat being released. My bad, that was a noob one.

People here drink water straight from the faucets so it can't be that bad. The house I'm living now was built 80 years ago, so who knows what's inside those pipes.

Thanks for the dust explanation, makes all the sense. My air pump is definitely overkill for only 2 totes, the whole bottom of the lid gets covered in water droplets. Living and learning, thank you.

Click to expand...

Hahaha, just my experience with Tupperware, if you look close at your lid, it might even look like little crystals, that white dust.

Carloza said:

Thanks for the reply =], and yes I definitely need a ro system, water here is nasty. Found this cheap 4 stage one, maybe too cheap?

View attachment 4596714

Not sure I can use image from other websites, so I hid their name to be safe.
I did like your idea, ro water take sooooo long, never thought about a water reservoir with a float, genius. That was in my plan for the next grow, rdwc with ro water. Was trying to use dwc to get my feet wet in hydros, but its kicking my @ss

Click to expand...

One of the biggest factors is how much replacement filters will cost. I recommend buying them at the time of getting the system itself. APEC has a lot of listings on Amazon and the filters seem like they're pretty generic. But like I said, look I to getting your system and replacement filters all at once so you can gauge your cost for the next 2-3yrs. You won't need to worry about buying anything more for it til then AT LEAST.

J232 said:

Hahaha, just my experience with Tupperware, if you look close at your lid, it might even look like little crystals, that white dust.

Click to expand...

Nah, that's definitely residue left from the tap. RO leaves zero trace when it evaporates out.

Airwalker16 said:

Nah, that's definitely residue left from the tap. RO leaves zero trace when it evaporates out.

Click to expand...

I use 4ppm RO, but 1200ppm solution leaves residue. Without stones, you wouldn’t see it I’m guessing. Just like running a mister with tap water. Mine did the same thing when I had stones in it. I blame it on the bloom, spill some and you get a crusty white salt.

J232 said:

I use 4ppm RO, but 1200ppm solution leaves residue. Without stones, you wouldn’t see it I’m guessing. Just like running a mister with tap water. Mine did the same thing when I had stones in it. I blame it on the bloom, spill some and you get a crusty white salt.

Click to expand...

They all crystallize if spilled.

Airwalker16 said:

They all crystallize if spilled.

Click to expand...

Yeah, same thing as evaporated in ro water, but micro doesn’t, it just kinda drys sticky. Can call it tap water, I don’t care same shit, minerals..

J232 said:

Yeah, same thing as evaporated in ro water, but micro doesn’t, it just kinda drys sticky. Can call it tap water, I don’t care same shit, minerals..

Click to expand...

Ya all I'm saying though is water through an RO filter if left in a bowl to evaporate away, will leave no residue or film behind. That's all the chloramine, minerals, fluoride, and whatever else they're putting in our fucking water.

Airwalker16 said:

Ya all I'm saying though is water through an RO filter if left in a bowl to evaporate away, will leave no residue or film behind. That's all the chloramine, minerals, fluoride, and whatever else they're putting in our fucking water.

Click to expand...

Oh for sure man, I won’t drink my tap water here, it smells like a swimming pool, prob has pool shock in it too.