Sterile Reservoirs

G

Greenwright906

Member
Hello all! I am new to this group but not new to growing. I have been growing in hydro for 3 years on a small scale. My backup reservoir was a large garbage that was emptied completely and sterilized often. I am now growing on a much larger scale and my reservoirs are now 7-55 gallon drums connected together. The bottoms are not flat so there is some amount of water that never gets fully drained. I understand anaerobic and aerobic bacteria and while I have no serious slime, I know my reservoirs are not sterile. I have heard of people using bleach or chlorine HTH pool shock. How much should I use? I currently add Watermax to my hydro systems every other day to combat my stagnant water situation. I used to use it every 5 days. Do I need to continue using Watermax at all if my RO water already has chlorine or bleach in it? Any help would be appreciated.
 
rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
with that much water, HTH pool shock is the only thing i'd think about using.

0.10 grams per 10 gallons is 1ppm chlorine. up to 5ppm is safe

could you elevate the barrels and install a drain at the bottom? or a wet/dry vac?
 
Roy O'Bannon

Roy O'Bannon

Well-Known Member
I looked into this for my "dwc grow" 50ppm of chlorine is what you want basically, you have to add it each day, like .8ml bleach per gallon.
I used it like that in a tomato dwc, plant did zip... bad lights tbh.

Then I went a bought some hydroguard:)
 
G

Greenwright906

Member
Roy O'Bannon said:
I looked into this for my "dwc grow" 50ppm of chlorine is what you want basically, you have to add it each day, like .8ml bleach per gallon.
I used it like that in a tomato dwc, plant did zip... bad lights tbh.

Then I went a bought some hydroguard:)
Click to expand...
We run sterile. We tried hydroguard, teas and bennies years ago when running organic nutes. I prefer sterile. So much cleaner.
 
Roy O'Bannon

Roy O'Bannon

Well-Known Member
The 50ppm was safe for plants, but unsafe for bacteria. It dissolves or dissipates in a day though and you have to re-add it. It's safe to drink or whatever if you needed to. You can make water safe to use for emergency's this way.
I did it to a tomato plant with a cheap led light on it, looked fine foliage-wise but I think the light led strip was way too weak to bloom well.

I wasn't running a sterile rez with my weed plant either, had flp and florablend in it, bleach didn't seem like the best thing.
I'm new to growing anyway, but I did have those numbers in my head.
 
rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
Roy O'Bannon said:
The 50ppm was safe for plants, but unsafe for bacteria. It dissolves or dissipates in a day though and you have to re-add it. It's safe to drink or whatever if you needed to. You can make water safe to use for emergency's this way.
I did it to a tomato plant with a cheap led light on it, looked fine foliage-wise but I think the light led strip was way too weak to bloom well.

I wasn't running a sterile rez with my weed plant either, had flp and florablend in it, bleach didn't seem like the best thing.
I'm new to growing anyway, but I did have those numbers in my head.
Click to expand...
your math is way off dude.

the World Health Organization Recommendation of less than 5 ppm for plants
 
Roy O'Bannon

Roy O'Bannon

Well-Known Member
rkymtnman said:
your math is way off dude.

the World Health Organization Recommendation of less than 5 ppm for plants
Click to expand...
Yeah, you right. That was a tough tomato plant I guess? Glad I didn't try that in my medicinal dwc :)
Here I found this.

"The equation is 1 mL of Clorox Bleach / 44 Gallons to reach a bleach solution of 0.50 PPM ( I base this off of the chlorine that is already in my water to come up with 50 gallons.). You never want to put more than 1.0 PPM of Chlorine for large healthy plants. I would advise to keep a residual level of 0.50 PPM Chlorine at all times as a preventative measure against plant pathogens and future root problems. Be sure to add you bleach before nutrients because the ammonia in base nutrients and GH's pH down cause the bleach to immediately evaporate as Cl2 gas. Chlorine naturally disappears in 3-4 days so add in your Chlorine every 4 days as a preventative measure against future root and pathogen problems."
 
Cabrone

Cabrone

Well-Known Member
Bleach has sodium chloride. BAD. Cause lock out. Do this.

Make $2200 worth of "Clear Rez" for $4 !!!

That is correct. Same EXACT ingredient as EZ Clone Clear Rez that sells for $20 a QT. Get your self a 1 lb bag of HTH Pool shock non PH buffered available online and most hardware stores (bought mine from Ace). Mix 1 GRAM (450 in the bag) per gallon of solution. Will make the SAME EXACT...
www.rollitup.org
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top