Res Filter good/bad idea?

I saw an old OG faq for a DIY slow sand or rockwool filter to keep the floaties out of your res.. but the article didnt come up..

Would it be a decent idea to put some sort of aquarium proteine skimmer or some sort of filter to keep the nastyness down in resivoirs? I saw an old OG faq for a DIY slow sand or rockwool filter to keep the floaties out of your res.. but the article wouldnâ??t come up..

Would it be a decent idea to put some sort of aquarium protein skimmer or some sort of filter to keep the nastiness down in reservoirs? I went 10 days between res changeouts and the water looked and smelled horrible.

use a plastic/fiberglass window screen on the intake and or the outlet ,,,,, remember bigger is better, so its a long time between cleaning.
Now if you water smell bad its a another porblem, bugs, alge, etc.
You might want to bleach you system out, and use a little hydrogenpoxide to kill the smeller grower.
I have large tanks and never had that problem.
You might want to say clean the living shit out of you tanks and system.

They get cleaned like crazy every two weeks.. its the 35 gallon res that gets stinky as hell and it gets that way on day 2 after res change.. i think its the beneficials coming to life though.. which also means icsnay on the H2O2... but if I go aeroponic Im gunna love me up some h2o2.. cuz beneficials that live in grow media arent needed when you dont use grow media :)

well, having beneficials is always better then not having them in any system. They are the most efficient method of turning nutrients into a conveniently absorbable method for the plants. They also stabilize the rez against all kinds of bad things that can happen.

Beneficials, in all my experience, do not cause a stinky res. I have run aero systems with 100 gallon res and only changed the res out once every 2 months. Just topped the res and did a little ppm adjustments. Water temp was even 76 Deg F. If the res ever smells bad I consider it a problem.

I never used H2O2 as i don't believe in killing the bacteria. But i had a lot of water movement and that may account for the healthy environment.

Aaron I must get more info about bennificials not being need in an mediumless environment. Can you be specific on the types? I am in the process of building a new mediumless aero pipe setup and need to work out the details before I finish construction. I was contemplating running h2o2 and a uv sterilizer and no bennificials but was not encourage by many. Why do you say they dont work unless there is a medium? For example, would hygrozyme not work with out a medium? Seems like the stuff would do its job just fine just by hitting the root zone.

Just want some more info if possible man!! Looking back I relize my grow was doing pretty well with out bennificials or organics in the past but i dont know. Also does h2o2 kill all organic products, like botanicare stuff?

Thanks guys
payn

Well.. I said: "beneficials that live in grow media arent needed when you dont use grow media"

where the key is "live in grow media" like subculture by GH

I have looked at your system and it appears to recirc so Hygrozyme will help break down the protienes the plants put into the water.. I guess I would only say hygrozyme is a true waste if you use something that is drip or feed to a drain and the soulution is not reused.

H202 will kill any microorganism based product. Im not sure if everything from botanicare is microorganism based but if there is any question call their tech support.. dont ever be afraid to call their tech support.. do it from a pay phone if you want.. but if their tech support sounds lame or stupid to the use of their products take it as a SIGN.. hehe

What beneficials are you looking at using? Make sure you figure out if they work in a mediumless lightless environment or you will be wasteing your money! Hygrozyme is a simple enzyme.. nonliving.. just a catalist that I do like so far (just been using it for a few weeks tho.. but Im seeing some fenominal growth affects).. Probably wont ever grow without it again but who knows.. depends on if I can afford it I guess.. it is SUPER expensive. You use like 10-15ml/gal in the res and it costs $135 for a 1 gal bottle. Hygrozyme will do just fine in mediumless.

For you I would reccomend nutrients and hygrozyme only plus maybe something like liquid karma and a bud additive.. I like the knowms concept of keeping it simple.. but of course I didnt listen and Im sure you and everyone else like us wont either.. and fill the res full of 100 different kinds of miricle juice.. and the plants will probably still do just fine. It just costs more and takes more time.

Personally I am currently running GH nutes by the lucas formula (even for veggies.. yes) with CalMag Plus (because I use R.O. water at 0ppm to start) and hygrozyme and Florolicious Plus (which includes beneficials) and I am lovin it.. I really havent seen much difference in either of my systems with the florolicious plus though.. not nearly even close to the difference I saw with hygrozyme. When the florolicious plus runs out Im going to not use it any more unless I notice a downward trend after I quit using it.

One of the ways I determin effectiveness of these additives is by growing veggies indoors (in hydro setup) and outdoors in high quality soil. Then its pretty much a race to see which does better with what additives and what nutrients formula gave the best results. I would test all the latest and greatest miracle juices out on the veggies before they ever even came close to a cash crop. Plus groing veggies indoors was a great excuse if I accedently left a bottle of gh bloom on the counter or something.

If you want to keep it simple like the knowm would probably reccomend.. you just use nutes and H2O2 if you want.. which if your streched for cash and time will do just fine. My stratigy was to use everything I could find and then when it ran out to stop using it and see if I saw quality decrease at all. I dont think im going to let the hygrozyme run out though. I just hope somebody comes along and makes a knockoff of it that works and costs less.