Who's running bene's bacteria and who's not ?

[LOC NAR on probation]

Having a bit of a bad time with cyanobacteria and biofilm. Bene's seem to be the way to go but how did we get by sooo long without them ?

Some say bene's and what you feed them clog up sprayers and drip lines and don't use them. They say to keep systems clean but don't say with what other than wash with chlorine.

Some say bene's all the way the only way. And I understand all the good things they do.

So just a poll.

What is your source water ?

What kind of bene's and how much ?

What do you feed them ?

[Daddynobucks]

Not sure if these qualify as Bene"s
but I feed Florisous plus at 1ml/gal, diamond nectar at 6ml/gal, sweet at 5ml/gal, CaMg at 4ml/gal,and liquid Karma at 3ml/gal. adding koolbloom in flower 0-10-10, and 2-45-28 late
plus good ol GH 3 part

Daddy

[Daddynobucks]

forgot the hygrozyme at 5ml/gal:rastasmoke: and city water at 60ppm

[Weezard]

Aloha Loc Nar

Since you asked.
I grow some CocoDwc girls on the lanai.

I use no benes, -zymes Rhizodahoozits, kaboomaroonis, etc. Just tap water at 120 ppm. 1/2tsp. Calmag per gallon brings it to 200ppm.
Then Dyna-gro, or Dyna-bloom at 1 tsp per G.
That sets the PH in range.
And I'm done until harvest.
Top it off with PH'd tap water.

I do not let my water sit, to "evaporate the chlorine".:wtf:
(That Chloramine may be the secret to my success.)
I make up 5 gallons at a time, pop in an airstone, and were good for about a month.
I do not change out the rez every week.
I do not change out the rez at all, for the entire bloom!:rastasmoke:

Ambient temps here are about 80 F.
Yet, I get no root problems!
No rots, slimes, critters, or molds.
And the root growth is phenomenal

Perhaps I'm just extremely fortunate.;)

Or, might be, that most hydro advice is parroted misinformation.:)

Some of that is, no doubt, deliberate.
All that "change it every week" nonsense sell a lot of nutes, yah?

Disclaimer:

I am not advising anyone to follow my sloppy lead here.
I'm just saying, being a lazy buggah is workin' out jus' fine for me so far.:D
Your milage may vary, yada yada...

Well, you asked.
Cheers
Weezard

[LOC NAR on probation]

Thanks for the answers guy's. It seems that the chlorine is a main player. I don't know what else is in the water here maybe saltpeter for the marines but if I add one gallon to 5 gallons of R/O my stuff starts to yellow in 2 days. County water. I have yet to see anyone in my county use tap other than to R/O it.

In the county's next to me I see guy's growing with pure tap water and never any real problems. When I ask about bene's they say there ain't no benefits in this kind of bussiness except smoking. They don't know what the hell a bene is.

Well maybe we will see some about systems gone bad and cleaned up.

[Daddynobucks]

]

[That Chloramine may be the secret to my success.)[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] That is what I think also
I do not change out the rez every week.
I do not change out the rez at all, for the entire bloom!:rastasmoke:

Ambient temps here are about 80 F.
Yet, I get no root problems!
No rots, slimes, critters, or molds.
And the root growth is phenomenal

Perhaps I'm just extremely fortunate.;)yes you are

Or, might be, that most hydro advice is parroted misinformation.:)

Some of that is, no doubt, deliberate.
All that "change it every week" nonsense sell a lot of nutes, yah?
now that is something entirely possible:mad:

My cuz lives in Kona, must be nice:thumbsup:

Daddy

[Weezard]

"My cuz lives in Kona, must be nice:thumbsup:"

Extremely!
No turn green, turn brown.:cool::rastasmoke:
Tell da cuz you gonna come visit.
Den no go back.:)

Permanent vacation, highly recommended.
We got choke room on Big Guy's Land.

E komo mai.

Da Weeze at ease.:jointsmile:

[LOC NAR on probation]

Well this is answering my questions.

Maybe why the confusion even with comercial setups. I don't think comercial guy's want you to know what's growing your food. Maybe not organic ?

I guess it's all about what works for you and going with it. Maybe never having to deal with a big problem so it doesn't matter.

If the bene's don't work out good I guess it's time to try UV-C and a few other chems I found to sterilize the whole thing.

Nobody actually running Great White or Myco Madness or worm casing brew ?

[caregiver99]

Local...

I had success for years without ever meeting the slime, and then one day it showed up, and has been here to stay for the last year. I read the entire ICMAG sticky on the topic (which is very good by the way), and have had success at getting rid of the slime using benes. Here's how.

I set up a five gallon bucket and made an EWC tea that I let brew for 30 hours. I added a heavy scoop of Great White powder to this tea, as well as 20 ml of Carboload to feed the benes. I had an airstone in the bucket, and I also bought a biofilter from an aquarium store for the benes to live in. The filter also keeps water moving in the bucket. If you do decide to use a biofilter, keep the earth worm castings in pantyhose tied off, or they will clog the filter. I have heard that you can also use lava rocks to house the benes, though I have not tried that myself.

The slime eats the carboload too, so you don't want to add this directly to your rez. You also don't want to use enzyme products like Hygrozyme, because the Hygrozyme breaks down organic material into slime food. Wait until the benes have taken hold before using the Hygro. The slime also thrives on oxygen, doesn't need light, and causes the ph to climb very quickly as soon as it takes hold. You will notice the ph climbing before the slime actually shows up. Also, it can take on different colors depending on the light it has access too. Mine was a clear snot-like color in my Power Cloner 70, and it was a brownish color in my DWC buckets that I got from Home Depot. (orange buckets)

To clean/sterilize your equipment, use Physan 20. I swear it is the ONLY thing that works on the face of this planet, because I've tried everything. You can use this stuff on roots in very small quantity to clean them. (3ml per 25 gallons for 6 hours) The slime is often mistaken for root rot, because it asphixiates the roots, and ultimately causes root rot. If you have any brown left on the roots, remove those roots or the slime will return. When you use the Physan, you should get a lot of foaming action, and you'll see a bunch of dead particles floating to the surface. This is normal.

Once roots are cleaned and sterilized, clean them thoroughly with water to remove the Physan 20. (or it will kill the benes when you add them) Next, add the benes to a fresh rez. For my 8 gallons rez in the Power Cloner 70, I added three cups of the tea. You may see a slightly different type of slime form shortly after you add this, but don't worry, it's just the benes reproducing.

I add 2 cups of the tea every 3 days to keep the slime in check, after taking 2 cups out of the rez to make room. It's necessary to continually add them to the rez, because they won't be getting any food in there, and they dies off quickly as a result. The slime is always still there, but it can't gain a foothold with the benes in control.

If you make a mistake, and add something that you shouldn't, then you can always Physan the whole thing and start over. I have heard of people running Physan continuously, but I haven't tried it.

Anyway, I have had success at keeping the slime away using benes as long as they have a place to live and food to eat. Don't overfeed them or the excess food will just feed the slime. The goal is to set up a healthy colony of benes that will out compete the slime for food.

Don't add anything that sterilizes either, or the benes will be killed off.

There was a shortage of cannabis in Holland in 2007 due to this slime, and the solution they found that works is some bacteria called Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis. The only place I know of to find this stuff here in the US is in Mosquito Dunks. Haven't tried this either.

I also read a couple success stories using UV light.

Anyway, I hope this helps some. I have a ton more info if you are interested. I have declared war on this stuff, and have been collecting info ever since. I have a whole file titled Slime Study that I'd be happy to share with anyone interested, but am hesitant to post it, as it is many pages long.

DEATH TO THE SLIME!!!!!!!!!

[caregiver99]

also, I forgot to mention source water.

I use regular tap water and bubble it for 6 hours to rid it of chlorine before brewing the ewc tea. my particular water source does not include chloramine (chlorine + ammonia) which does not bubble out easily. you can just buy distilled water to brew the tea if you have chloramine in your water. I called my water treatment plant to find out. you can also usually find a report online for your municipality.

Also, I should mention that I take advice coming from people who haven't dealt with the slime with a grain of salt. Their techniques won't work for us, because we are the select few who are blessed with the stuff. And once you get it, it never seems to go away completely. The physan kills off the bacteria, but the bacteria leave behind these primitive spores that can survive anything short of a nuclear blast. These spores (not actually what they are - can't remember what they're called anymore) are what begin the whole cycle all over again.

Ok, I'll shut up now. ;-)

[LOC NAR on probation]

also, I forgot to mention source water.

I use regular tap water and bubble it for 6 hours to rid it of chlorine before brewing the ewc tea. my particular water source does not include chloramine (chlorine + ammonia) which does not bubble out easily. you can just buy distilled water to brew the tea if you have chloramine in your water. I called my water treatment plant to find out. you can also usually find a report online for your municipality.

Also, I should mention that I take advice coming from people who haven't dealt with the slime with a grain of salt. Their techniques won't work for us, because we are the select few who are blessed with the stuff. And once you get it, it never seems to go away completely. The physan kills off the bacteria, but the bacteria leave behind these primitive spores that can survive anything short of a nuclear blast. These spores (not actually what they are - can't remember what they're called anymore) are what begin the whole cycle all over again.

Ok, I'll shut up now. ;-)

Everything you describe to a tee. From the snot in the areo cloner to the brownish slime in DWC and DRIP. Looks just like root rot and just gets worse the more you treat it like rot.

I went back and found where you talked about the physan. We have cleaned things up real well. We need to do the worm casing tea but we have the great white and for the first time in months we have some white roots going in the flower room. Just using the great white could be costly but it's working and just a wee bit of molases as I forgot the carboload.

I think your instructions should be a sticky.
Once you get this it's as bad as the two spotted spidermites from hell my bro gave me. The mites came with the slime.

I will keep reading back over this many times. Thanks.

[palerider7777]

i never change out my rez,the way i do it is i mix a 5gal bucket worth of water and i nute it to whatever stage of growth im at.then i add to the rez as needed.never had a problem yet doing this.:thumbsup:

pic taken at 6 weeks veg from cut clone.