Tons of brown junk in my res

So I did the first res change of the grow on wednesday, and today when I opened my res, there was a crapload of little brown things floating around in the res (kinda looked like dead skin cells everywhere). And brownish slimey stuff on the walls and covering my water pump and air pump hose. I added hygrozyme to the my res for the first time on wednesday after the res change, could this possibly be gunk that is getting cleaned out? A good thing? Or what the hell is this? Thanks in advance guys.

I have it too. Doesnt seem to cause an issue though. You can add H202 @ 7ml per gal and that will keep bacteria levels down. I dont think the gunk is necessarily a bad bacteria though. Post pics if you can

Forgot to mention, the res also smells really foul. Doing a res change now, be back soon. Thanks!

Also, my ph was 5.9 when I checked it yesterday afternoon, and in a little over 24 hours it jumped to 7.2 when I just now checked it.

Do you use any nutes that can spoil? I was using bad nutes at one point because I didnt realize they should have been refridgerated.

I'm using fox farm grow big and big bloom; as far as I know, they don't say anything about them being perishable. Although, before my nutes go into the reservoir, I have them sitting in a clear water bottle in my kitchen for a couple days, makes it easier to measure than pouring out the giant spout of the 2.5L container. Could the small amount of light getting to them be bad? Or on a side note, does this brown stuff have anything to do with the newly added Hygrozyme?

I thought the same thing. I made sure no light at all was getting to it and it still persists. You may be on the right track though thinking its just a reaction between the ingredients. Funny thing is that Im using completely different nutes and have the same problem. so maybe it is a reaction between the basic chemicals.

I should also point out again that it is not necessarily a problem. I grew some of the best buds I have ever grown using that system and the plants were healthy and happy the whole time. The res stunk like crap though. Here are the buds that I grew.

The Fox Farm BB leaves behind a lot of sediment. That's normal. A lot of people say it clogs their pumps though. It also stains roots brown making it hard to spot root rot. What worries me is the smell you say you are getting.

How do your roots look, and what is your reservoir temp?

It's plant poo

Hi Farmer!
What you're experiencing is NOT NORMAL!
DO NOT use H202 as mentioned, because you will kill all the beneficial bacteria, you definitely need them!
This is exactly how everything started in my system, I had the same thought, ohhh maybe the ph was low, was the water, ohh maybe is leaking light, let's flush again, 3 days after, fuck, they're back! Flush again, and there is the nasty shit again, roots started to get a little brown and then...Root rot. I had to fight this damn thing for weeks, using H202 every single day and almost half strength, so desperate I was at the end, that I actually dip the roots into half strength of H202. I could see the fuckers being fried, roots were being burned at the same time but I didn't give a fuck, or was the plants dying cause by root rot or by the h202. The only thing able to save my plants were Roots Excelurator together with Great White, I highly recommend.
Here is picture before, and a week after.
Hope it help you.

HAs same thing in my rez and drip lines clogging occasionally- mine was dead algae fromlight leaks- my roots are fine- I do use some HOOH and my nutes have microbes in them... Clogging the driplines is the biggest bitxch- have to keep flushing them even with filter on pump.

Wow so I didn't have to freak out and do an emergency res change last night? Lol.

Thanks micmart, you've been very helpful. I'm glad your res smells like a sewer too . Your buds look fantastic so maybe we've found the secret.

Dee, it's not Big Bloom sediment, I know what that looks like, but this brown stuff looks like little hairs growing all over the walls. Its not too clear but check out the second pic I posted.
I don't have a thermometer for my res, but the water I put into the res is about 60 degrees I'd say, but after that I don't monitor the temp.

Try icing down your res with a bottle of frozen water and see if that does the trick.. it almost sounds like brown algae.... If it is, throw a stone in your reservoir after you eliminate it. Adding any of the stuff listed in this thread will cause brown algae to bloom up strong overnight...

http://www.thcfarmer.com/forums/f57/brown-algae-uc-rdwc-mpbs-27523/

I don't see how they can be getting root rot, when they're only 9 days old, and getting watered once a day only. I just checked the roots, they look whiter than casper.

It's brown algae....

Thanks Serapis. Someone in that thread you linked to said oxygenated water is bad, and he doesn't use air stones. I'm using 2 medium-sized ones running full-blast in there...

And what did you mean by "throwing a stone in there"?

sexbobomb said:

Wow so I didn't have to freak out and do an emergency res change last night? Lol.

Thanks micmart, you've been very helpful. I'm glad your res smells like a sewer too . Your buds look fantastic so maybe we've found the secret.

Dee, it's not Big Bloom sediment, I know what that looks like, but this brown stuff looks like little hairs growing all over the walls. Its not too clear but check out the second pic I posted.
I don't have a thermometer for my res, but the water I put into the res is about 60 degrees I'd say, but after that I don't monitor the temp.

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I'm no expert, but hairy stuff + bad smell doesn't sound good. I would check daytime res temps. I started my DWC grow with Fox Farm trio but switched to Canna because it was too hard for me to tell if my roots were healthy between all the staining and sediment from the Big Bloom. Now my reservoir is 100% clear, and if I ever get any cloudiness/discoloration I know 100% that it's an issue. To each their own, but I'm a pothead and unless I keep things as simple as possible I have a way of turning them into a clusterfuck.

micmart3000 said:

I have it too. Doesnt seem to cause an issue though. You can add H202 @ 7ml per gal and that will keep bacteria levels down. I dont think the gunk is necessarily a bad bacteria though. Post pics if you can

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H2O2 is incompatible with organic nutes like Fox Farm. It is meant to be used only with inorganic hydroponic systems. Organic hydroponic systems require the use of beneficial bacteria to keep harmful organisms at bay. With inorganic systems you can add sterilizing agents such as H2O2 or chlorine. The second reason I switched to Canna nutes is so I could run H2O2 in my system.

If you stick with organic methods, check out this thread on Bennies. Heisenberg knows his shit. https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/361430-how-breed-your-own-beneficial.html

If you decide to ditch the organics down the line, all the threads by Al B. Fuct were super helpful in dialing my DWC system in. The dude has a killer op and knows his stuff. He runs Canna and H2O2. https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/94811-al-b-faqt.html

Brown algae is usually found in water with low levels of oxygen, or I read that backwards.... I would research brown algae, because it isn't root rot, like you said, your roots look fine... That is why I suspect algae... I have algae killer for fish tanks that I add in my 10 gallon flood res once in awhile... It only takes like 10 drops and it prevents algae and is safe for fish and plants. It's amazing the beneficial stuff you can find for a reservoir at Wal*Marts pet department near the fish tanks.

sexbobomb said:

Thanks Serapis. Someone in that thread you linked to said oxygenated water is bad, and he doesn't use air stones. I'm using 2 medium-sized ones running full-blast in there...

And what did you mean by "throwing a stone in there"?

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sexbobomb said:

I don't see how they can be getting root rot, when they're only 9 days old, and getting watered once a day only. I just checked the roots, they look whiter than casper.

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Ah, I didn't realize they were that young. Best get the gunk in check before it gets on the roots. I've seen some gnarly pics on here of slimy snotty roots from algae.