Browning Roots-PLEASE HELP

So this is my 1st DWC, I have 2 round Air Stones and a 71gph air pump. Using B.C. Nutrients and checking the ph every other day. Using 250 W MH and can switch to 400 W later. The air temp is 80F and the water is around 77F.

I took this plant from soil to water. It is a clone from my last batch. It did fine with the transfer and is growing a lot more roots. The water level is about an inch below the basket. No light is getting in. I changed the water after 7 days.

The first week the roots were barley in the water, I heard that could be the cause. I know I can rinse with H202, but want to correct the problem first. Thanks!!!

First of all your water (reservoir) temp should never exceed 70F! It needs to remain between 62-70

Looks like you've been slimmed time to read... https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/361430-how-breed-your-own-beneficial.html

my guesss would be to stop the nutes and flush for a few days to start with lower h20 temps

Speaking from recent personal experience Brown slime is a bitch I tried H2O2 and Sm90 neither of which worked but made the slime worse. I used the beneficial microbe tea talked about by Heisenberg in the forementioned post and it worked perfectly. The results were such that I now use beneficials as a staple in my garden completely disregarding the H2O2 I have until I harvest and then only to clean the equipment.

The things I like most about beneficials are the higher res temps you can run at.
Beneficials and roots do their best at around 70-75f, however so do the bad bacteria. BUT if running beneficials you wont have to worry about the bad bacteria. so obviously you have better root development!

this also allows a lot less stress I find it extremely easy to keep my lowes buckets between 70-75f with changing out a 20oz coke bottle once daily. I can keep it lower if I want by increasing bottles, or how many changes I make in a day. and it was much cheaper than a cooler, I think coolers are a great way to go to, just to expensive for me.

But thats it in a nutshell man, You either have to keep res temps between 68-69f NO light leaks, and run TONS of H2O2 or some other sterilizing agent.

OR read Heisenbergs beneficial microbe tea thread and fix it for good!

e2a

Also, if you have brown slime You will probably not be able to get rid of it using H2O2 or any other sterilizing product, IME using these products made it worse, as they effectively killed any naturally occuring beneficial bacteria I had, but didnt kill all the slime, leaving only the slime unchallenged to take over the res. I have read tho It can be done using Dutch master Zone. However, Making the beneficial tea is much cheaper in the long run than replacing bottles of Zone for 20-25 bucks a bottle at the hydro shop.

found this... https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/224102-roots-browning-out-fast-rep.html .... and not so worried anymore, cause the top of the plant looks fine.

I'm subscribing to this thread because of the great advice. I'm currently on my first DWC and I LOVE IT.


Good luck ray!

Brown slime does not effect the appearance of the canopy for quite some time. Not until the roots are completely strangled and pythium sets in. The tops of your roots look fine, especially the new shoots coming out. The bottoms look to be infected with the slime, very early stages. Get some bennies in there asap and you'll be just fine.

thanks heisenberg, i read your post about microbes, I think that's the way I'll go.

Looks like root rot to me.

It's not root rot. I cut a small piece of root off, ran some water over it, and the stuff washed right off no problem. Is that slime, or does it look brown from the nutrients I'm using?

BeaverHuntr has some of his roots stained from nutes maybe he will chime back in, I would start brewing the microbes and wait for responses.

rayishungry said:

It's not root rot. I cut a small piece of root off, ran some water over it, and the stuff washed right off no problem. Is that slime, or does it look brown from the nutrients I'm using?

Click to expand...

If it comes right off with water its most likely stained from whatever nutrient you are using but yours does look slimy mine wasnt slimy just stained are the bottom of your roots pretty white ?

the bottom of the roots are fully white as well as the top. The middle of the roots are browned.

rayishungry said:

the bottom of the roots are fully white as well as the top. The middle of the roots are browned.

Click to expand...

Would you say that the brown area is at the water line?

it was last week, this week the roots have about an inch before they hit the water, last week it was about 5 inches and the roots were barely in the water. I read that could cause browning.

Your plants looks pretty bad dude... Does the reservoir stink or the roots ?

Here are some pictures after I washed the brown stuff off. It just washed right off no problem. Does that mean that it's just stained?

oh and thanks for joining my DWC group. For anyone else....https://www.rollitup.org/groups/dwc.html