Brown Algae (snot) and GH Subculture (pics)

jestermite said:

Yeah. Glad you're along.

Man I love growin dope and like-minded people.

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valhalla88 said:

well said ! Better productivity amongst positive people . Hell yeah glad to be here!

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Yes I must agree, This is my second battle with this stuff, last forum I was on, either people wouldnt help you, or were just plain rude.. its great to be able to actually make progress on something.

MUCH props to Heisenberg, I dont think anyone in this thread who was affected would have sucessfully combated this issue had it not been for him.... props.. where props are due!

Just thought I would add, if you are using synthetic chemical nutes, as you should in a DWC, you need to make sure the company uses pharmaceutical grade chemicals. In particular, you don't want any arsenic, as it kill's off the fungi. Most big names are fine, but if you find the tea isn't working after adding nutes, better do some research.

Thanks for the props, but all I did was learn from the research of others. The slime caused me so much torment and lost yield, I am happy to help others eradicate it.

Im noticing new root growth, the fastest growing roots belong to the barneys farm blue cheese, the second are the N.Y.P.D
I sat my Ph last night between 5.5-5.65. but about ten min ago I checked the ph on all 6 ressys and the ph jumped to between 6.0-6.10
and My PPM has jumped about 40-50 points some even more. Im guessing that they are being overfed ?

On a couple of the smaller ones the ppms have jumped up 80 or so points.

this is how I do my nutes

I started with tap water that sat overnight to evap off chlorine.
The tap water had a starting PPM of 140.
I added nutes and brought each res to 540 ppm give or take 10 ppm.
then added the EWC tea and rechecked PPM still at 540 or so.
checked the ph and it read around 6.2 I let that sit for 24 hours for PH buffers to kick in.24 hours later rechecked Ph and it had dropped to 5.8-6.0 so I adjusted each ressy to between 5.5-5.62


Now I did this sunday and then the adjustments last night, Now my PH is in the 6's and my ppm have jumped 40 or so points in both my Blue Cheese and 50 ppm in my Blackberry and up to 80 ppm in my smallest NYPD.

SHould I cut back on the nutes, or is this related to recovering from the brown slime algae, or known to happen with BB's and I dont need to worry ? I havent noticed anymore of that slimey shyt from before, I do see some mud like stuff on a couple parts of the roots, but Nice new white roots growing down through that.

Thanks for any help, Happy growing!

you can back off the PPM a little, but a change of under 100 points in any direction isn't too much to worry about. Also, the PH should climb within a 24 hour period. Ideally, within 24 hours, you will want the water to go down a bit, the PH to rise a bit, and the PPM to stay the same. This is the balance you'll try to achieve. Different elements are available at different PH levels, so you want to set the PH to something like 5.5 and let it drift up to 6.3ish before adjusting it back down. Each strain is a little different of course.

As long as you see new roots among the muck, the tea is working. Seeing new root growth is awesome. It means your plants survived and are still healthy. You should expect a full recovery.

just an update, The time here is 12 am oct 7 I took these pics ten minutes ago.

I added the tea Sunday afternoon around 5pm so everything you see is 3 days 7 hours since the tea was introduced.
This is more growth than the past three weeks combined. thought I would add these pics to further doccument the treatment of this dissease so that anyone else who gets it will know exactly how to get rid of it. And what to expect while they recover.



Also, I added one cup per res today just like the recipe said, and the issues I was having with the ph and PPM being off were actually faulty pens, the Hydro shop replaced them today free of charge.

Right now my ph is between 5.5-5.6 and PPMs are around 540 total tap water with starting ppm of 140+ 400PPM nutes.
I have also added frozen coke bottles to the res now, which in concert with the duct insulation and mylar wrapped around the buckets are keep temps down. they go from ruffly 68f and rises to about 72 right before lights out.

I am going to use the bennies as a foliar spray tonight once lights out comes here in about 45 min to see if it makes a noticeable diffrence in the apperance of the leaves, as some as still yellow, and on one of my NYPDs the leaves are still droopy.

temps in the tent have been staying in the high 70s to 82 max.

well thats all for tonight, happy reading, hope you enjoy the pic, happy growing.
and remember,...
Take it sleazy greazy and easy, if it's easy then take that shit TWICE!

It's been a little over two weeks since adding Sub-M and EWC tea and the results are obvious. No signs of algae just lots of new growth. I've grown hydro a few times and had some fat rootballs but I've never seen roots this intricate and hairy during veg. PPM's are good and pH is steady on a slow drift upwards. Can't wait to flower.

It seems that with benes the reservoir is going to be way more resilient to common algaes? I'm not going to go tear off the light proofing and run it at 80 degress but.. I'd guess they provide some safety from that kind of stuff?

That is correct. The bennies will discourage normal algae, but not keep it away entirely. Bennies also let you get away with water temps in the mid 70's no problem. I'm glad to hear that things improved for you. Feels good the beat the slime eh?

Hello everyone!

Got some more updates everything is comming along rather nicely, I haven't seen any sign of the slime since monday or so, Root development has busted out, and now they are showing signs of vegatative growth, the blue cheese has really exploded, and this morning I saw the root on the smallest one I have (Sativa Seedbank N.Y.P.D), I mean this one got hit with this slime when it was less than an inch tall, I dont know how she has made it this far, but seeing that root kinda tells me shes gonna do her thing. My Nirvana Blackberry Feminized has also started showing signs of vegatative growth.

I have now applied the EWC as a foliar spray every night since tuesday, and this is when I saw the most remarkable results as far as vegatative growth, ( The roots were already doing their thing ) I have also added one cup of bennies every three days today I will add one cup to each res. I am now showing signs of the water level going down which tells me they are really starting to drink again.

I have replaced both my TDS meter and PH pen, the hydro shop warrantied them out, those guys are great! and since My Ph hasnt been outta wack at all, I started them all onn PH 5.5-5.6 and each has slowlyn drifted up to around 5.8-5.85. and the PPM for the most part give or take 40PPM either way have stayed the same. I plan to up the nutes on the Blue cheese since they are about 5 inches tall and have 6 nodes. and keep the rest of them on the same 2 week formula until they show some robust signs of growth.

I have kept res temps between 60-70f lately, I know thats a big range but its the best I can do with coke bottles filled with water.

I plan on changing out the res Sunday and applying the ewc again so I'll start brewing that tonight.

However there is one odd thing going on, One of my NYPD's is acting strange, root development on her is good, but in the morning when lights first come on she is all perked up. she stays that way for quite a while, then Id say sometime between 6-9pm shes droopy my light cycle is 7am-1am So I dont understand why she is doing this, Shes done it for the last two days.

I plan on cloning these If I do that do you think the clones will have the slime because thier mother had it?

And also my last question, I know adding superthrive to a DWC res is not a good thing now, However is using this as a foliar spray a good idea? I was wondering, If spraying ewc one night, superthrive the next would be a novel Idea to encourage growth, or could that be a dissaster?

Thanks for anyone with some insight on this, and sorry for such a long post
HAPPY GROWING!

Your plant that is drooping is probably just hungry. During the dark period it stores up sugar so it's fine in the morning, but as the day goes on it uses up it's reserves and droops. Try upping the ppm's slightly.

Could also be a heat/moisture issue, which is rare in a DWC but does happen if the canopy outgrows the roots; usually corrects itself in a week or so by growing bigger roots.

I dunno if superthrive is good for foliar spray. As far as it contributing to slime, just be sure that none drips in the res when you spray. This goes for any type of spray actually. Your mother will not pass on slime to her clones, it is not a systematic infection.

If you really want to boost foliar growth and increase your plants health and vigor, get a spray called liquid light from dutch master. It works best with the saturator/penetrator additive, which is a super advanced wetting/delivery agent. Sort of an expensive buy at first but the products last forever and they absolutely do everything they claim. You can see results just a few hours after spraying, your plants will be pointing straight up as if they want to jump out of the pot and eat the light.

Heisenberg said:

Your plant that is drooping is probably just hungry. During the dark period it stores up sugar so it's fine in the morning, but as the day goes on it uses up it's reserves and droops. Try upping the ppm's slightly.

Could also be a heat/moisture issue, which is rare in a DWC but does happen if the canopy outgrows the roots; usually corrects itself in a week or so by growing bigger roots.

I dunno if superthrive is good for foliar spray. As far as it contributing to slime, just be sure that none drips in the res when you spray. This goes for any type of spray actually. Your mother will not pass on slime to her clones, it is not a systematic infection.

If you really want to boost foliar growth and increase your plants health and vigor, get a spray called liquid light from dutch master. It works best with the saturator/penetrator additive, which is a super advanced wetting/delivery agent. Sort of an expensive buy at first but the products last forever and they absolutely do everything they claim. You can see results just a few hours after spraying, your plants will be pointing straight up as if they want to jump out of the pot and eat the light.

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Ok so the hydro shop didnt have liquid light, I explained to him why I wanted the liquid light and he pointed me to this product from Organicare, called seaplex ( cold processed seaweed complex ) So I mixed it in a gallon of water and put half a capful of Sm90 in it to act as a wetting agent. think this will do the job or should I just order the liquid light online?

If I were you I would use what you have for now, but as soon as you need to replace it, go with dutch master products. As far as I know, nothing compares to the liquid light. It will actually increase the amount of lumes your plants take in, making your light more efficient. It also supercharges photosynthesis which boosts growth, and more growth equals more yield in the end. You can use it up into the 4th week of flowering.

SM-90 is sort of a poor wetting agent. It just spreads out the water and prevents it from beading off the leaf. The extra exposure will hopefully encourage more absorption by the leaf. Saturator actually bonds to the elements in the spray, penetrates the leaf surface and delivers the nutrient directly to the plants cells. Saturator can be used with any type of spray, including the clone propagation spray (keeps clones growing while they root) the reverse spray (causes hermies to revert to female) and even spray from other companies like snow storm ultra, which is a spray that really increases crystal production.

The pair is about $100 in the hydro shops, cheapest I found is here online, and it's $60 for the pair. They will last for over a year, depending on your garden size, and all dutch master products have an indefinite shelf life. I see they are out of stock for now, bummer.

Thx Hiesenberg & others, this is good stuff. Personally, I've had a couple good runs w/ dwc but after maybe 3 cycles the slime moved in. I might have to give it another shot after reading this thread. Here are a few things I experienced when I was doing DWC...

Physan-20(N-Alkyl Dimethyl (ethylbenzyl/benzyl) ammonium chloride) is good stuff for sterilization but be carefull just dumping it in your reservoir. The stuff can foam up like crazy and the first time I did that it the foam bubbled up & lifted my roots out of the solution which killed the plant real quick under some hot lights. However +1 here on using it as a root dip. I also use it heavily as the last stage of my cleaning routine.

For anyone expieriencing the death slime, if your in a panic and need to buy a little time to figure out your course of action in treating this stuff; presuming your plant is still a seedling, does not have long roots, and you are pumping a sufficient volume of air into your airstone... you can try & raise the plant up a little so the roots are just above the water. When arranged like this, it works as a ghetto aeroponic setup, the exploding bubbles at the solution surface send up a fine spray which should be plenty to keep the plant alive(and thrive) and since the roots are not submerged in the solution this seems to help slow down/kill off the slime, atleast until you make a trip to the store & figure out how you are gonna treat the slime issue. I had such a good experience with this phenomenon that I setup all my bubble cloners like this & changed main setups to an aero style.

I think I'll retry this DWC thing using the info here. I've been messing around with some setups for my mom plants & DWC might fit the bill. So everyone seems to be having good luck with the SubCulture line; I've been using "Great White" BB/Fungi mix in my non DWC setups, has anyone had any experience with "Great White"?. Is it a suitable substitute for SubCulture B/M?

Thankx for all the good info evryone

After checking out the label on my can of Great White it appears that it contains everything in the Aquashield & ZHO Powder mentioned in the Breed your own microbes thread. So I picked up some ancient forest & I'm gonna give this tea thing a shot... My first attempt at this will include the following...

5 Gal. Distilled H2O
2 "Scoops" of Great White (As per the label; actually thats slightly less than specified for 5Gal)
2 Handfulls Ancient Forest (in a sock contraption)
30 mL "Sugar Daddy" (Technaflora's carb product)
+some thrive alive Green (the organic one) for good measure.

Great white and ancient forest should do the trick quite nicely. Great white is superior to the sub-m/b, it's super stuff, but when you need to replace it, just go with the ZHO powder and aquashield. They do a great job and cost a fraction of the price. The important things here are trichoderma and bacillis.

Recipe looks good for 5 gal, good luck!

hey glad to hear you guys have beaten the slime. Great job ! I will be using this thread when my beans are ready for the bucket!

hey I think the slime is comming back, my airstone feels slimey to the touch, and my ph has jumped from 5.5 to 7.2 in less than 24 hours.

I made the tea exactly the same as last time So I dont know whats wrong.

After the last batch of tea I made I cleaned the bucket and airstones i use for the tea with bleach and water, then rinsed for a day and then they air dryed, could this be where the problem lies? if that is the problem would it have rendered this new batch of tea useless? It foamed up like last time I thought that meant the microbes were awake.

IM sure its something Ive done since last innoculation as the tea worked a charm.
also Im using the tea and seaweed as a foliar spray. could this be the issue?

Here is a pic of the airstone and the root mass

Just keep an eye on the roots. The tea makes my airstones slimy. It's not a thick mucas slime, but it made me nervous at first too.

If you do have the slime again, you have to start over and try again. As far as im aware, the tea has never failed to rid the slime, sometimes it takes a little practice.

Heisenberg said:

Just keep an eye on the roots. The tea makes my airstones somewhat slimy.

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ok will do,

In that pic did the roots look ok? they had black crud all in them, and my ph has jumped from 5.5 to 7.2 in less than 24 hours, im wondering should I make another batch of tea and new nutes etc etc.

I was thinking and at the time I posted today I didnt mention it cause I didnt see how it could have made a diffrence, However, one thing I did do was lowered the water level from what it was 3 1/2 gallons to what it is now, 2 gallons, I did this because 2 gallons is where the tips of the roots come to, could this be something that if tghe slime is comming back, could have caused that to happen?

Im brewing another batch of the ewc tea to make sure it wasnt something I did with the brewing of the tea. IM sure the tea works cause it worked before and cleared everything up, so it must be something I have done.

Any help is greatly appreciated I do need it tbh.

Sorry to be such a bother. HAPPY GROWING!

Slime loves roots that are constantly in water, so lowering the water level should have helped. However you don't want to lower the water as the roots grow, it should be an inch or so below the net pot.

So looking at the pic I assume that the black gunk starts at the water level, which is why the upper roots look ok? I thought it was jsut left over from the previous infection, but it just showed up? The gunk certainly isn't natural, but it also doesn't look like the slime exactly. It looks like there are new white shoots coming out of the gunk, and that is a good thing. Slime halts almost all root production, so what your looking at may be harmless.

I don't think this is the case, but sometimes you can add too much molasses to the tea, it doesn't all get eaten in 48 hours, and once in the res it feeds the slime. Also if you add too much fungi you can get a similar slime. If you use any sprays be sure they don't drip into the res. If they are organic they will feed the slime, if they are pesitcides they will kill the bennies.

I use a clean contianer for each batch. I go buy the 2.5 gallon plastic jugs of water with a built in spout. When each batch is done, the container gets tossed. Bleaching your bucket isn't nessesary, dawn antibacterial dish soap is fine and rinses away better. Bleach does leave residue but also breaks down pretty quickly, seems unlikely to be the problem but maybe.