Brown Snot Sludge

The title of this thread describes what I found in my res and sliming up my roots tonight. I have no idea what happened. Everything looked normal this morning, but I came home tonight and there were huge worms of brown snot like slime floating around in the bins were the roots are. I have noticed somewhat of a film on the bottom of the bins since, as some of you may know, my roots are constantly sitting in a 3/4" of water (bad, I know), but this was almost like a slimy worm or something; like a thick snot I could pick up with my hands.

I immediately took the lid of the bin containing the plants and placed it over a different bin while I took the entire system apart and cleaned all the tubing and bins while my partner scrubbed the pump, air stones, and heater. There was some snot stuff stuck on some of the roots, so I took the lids and hosed the roots down with cool water. Once I got all the crap off, the roots didn't appear to be discolored or damaged, so that is a plus. I then changed the res strictly to pHed water and Hydroguard only. The slime appears to be gone, for now....

My question is, what was this crap? I am guessing the culprit is bad nutes, as my nutes are organic and I got them second hand and there is no date on them. Anyone here ever had anything like this happen?

Anyone have any ideas?

Did my proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation scare everyone away? :)

No but your description of the problem sure did. :D You got me on that Deja.....no clue and afraid to even guess. You could certainly be right about the nutes I suppose.
What is hydrogard?

Never mind....I just looked it up. Did you happen to add that hydrogard and some H202 together?

I did actually. I always add the hydroguard when I change the res to keep algae from growing, and I added the H2O2 two or three days before I found the snot. Perhaps that is the cause? I went ahead and bought a new gallon of nutes just to be safe anyways.

Also, I recently started flowering and started using Liquid Karma and it turns my res black and leaves a black slime on some of the roots. Is this normal?

I'm wondering if it is.....the hydroguard is some sort of bacteria I believe that assists with the roots or soil? I've heard of that bacteria but cannot remember what for....perhaps a fungicide?

Anyway....I think your H202 blasted out your bacteria and that's what you found when you got back. Just a guess but I like it.....;)

Hydroguard is supposed to get rid of/protect against algae. I put it in every res change and haven't had any problems with it until then. It was also the first time I added full strength nutes.

Also, I've since switched to flowering nutes (Pure Blend Pro 2.5-2-5) at half strength along with the Hydroguard, Hygrozyme, SuperThrive and Liquid Karma. The LK turned my res black as soon as I put it in, and it seems to leave a gritty looking residue on my roots and it settles on the bottom of the bins and the res. Is this normal?

DJ - I've read about organic nutes sticking to roots and turning them brown.:wtf:

In the Outdoor section there is an Organics subsection. Maybe you should browse around in there and see if you can find some answers to your questions.

PC :smokin:

wow, thanks for the vote of confidence Pc, I really appreciate that.

Hydroguard Bio-Fungicide Is this what we are talking about?

DJ - I have a DWC using the same nutes that you are. Here is what i have seen first hand, at first i was using the Pure Blend Pro Grow (which is very dark straight from the bottle and kinda gritty), during the veg stage you are using around 1oz per gal of water, the same company makes what is called Triflex. The difference between the two is pretty simple, the Pure Blend Pro Grow is a One part nute and the triflex is a 3-part nute mix. When i use the Pure Blend Pro Grow in my DWC the roots on the all the plants will get this brown, slimy, stuff hanging on to it, you can simply spray the roots to clean them, but what your doing is simply removing the nutes that were in the solution to begin with. When using the triflex there is no buildup like that, and your res will stay clean. Now the only thing i dont know is if you keep using the Pure Blend Pro Grow in your Hydro if it will hurt the plant and equipment or not. I did notice that the plant roots are darker than what they use to be since i put that into the DWC.

With all that being said, what i have decided to do is use the Pure Blend Pro Grow for my soil plants and the triflex for my hydro plants. Since i have been using the triflex line i havent had that build up on the roots or any problems.

Hope that helps.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Weedhound

wow, thanks for the vote of confidence Pc, I really appreciate that.

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I'm not quite sure how to take this, Weedhound.

I hope you know that I would never intentionally do anything to disparage you.

PC :smokin:

Then my mistake PC and I apologize.....I did indeed take it that way. Perhaps my pms got the best of me. :(

Again...apologies....and if you were here I'd offer you this. :jointsmile:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Weedhound

Hydroguard Bio-Fungicide Is this what we are talking about?

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Yep, that's the stuff. I thought it was to kill algae and stuff, or at least that's what the dude told me that I got it from. I found a craigslist deal where I found a former grower that was selling a lot of his equipment and he had some nutes, pH up, and the Hydroguard that he gave me. I haven't used the H2O2 since I got the Hygrozyme. Could the hygrozyme potentially cause the same problem? Should I stop using the hydroguard?

Whatsthatsmell, thanks for the info. I thought PBP was a 3 part nute (hence the 2.5-2-5)??? Or maybe I don't know what constitutes a 3 part nute. It hasn't ruined my pump or anything yet, and every res change my partner cleans the res equipment while I clean the bins and stuff, so it get cleaned out every two weeks. Its not really gritty, its just like light floating pieces that end up settling on the bottom unless you stir them up. Idk what the deal is, but since I dropped $50 on the new gallon of PBP, I'll just stick with it for now and look into the Triflex when I run out. This is my first grow, so I'm just kind of testing the waters so to speak as far as nutes and supplements go.
As always, thanks for all the help everyone!

Ok....I just called my hydro guy....that's what I do when I want THE REAL SCOOP. You may NOT use H202 with Hydroguard so most likely that is what happened. As for hygrozyme he says you CAN use H202 with it......but that it is the only "ZYME" product you can use with peroxide.

The ingedients in the hydroguard are bacillus (bacteria) I think you committed mass bacill-icide and discovered the corpses post mortem.

MURDERER!!!!!! :eek:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Weedhound

Ok....I just called my hydro guy....that's what I do when I want THE REAL SCOOP. You may NOT use H202 with Hydroguard so most likely that is what happened. As for hygrozyme he says you CAN use H202 with it......but that it is the only "ZYME" product you can use with peroxide.

The ingedients in the hydroguard are bacillus (bacteria) I think you committed mass bacill-icide and discovered the corpses post mortem.

MURDERER!!!!!! :eek:

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Yep ,
What she said . H2O2 is undoing / killing the goodies in the hydroguard . That may not be the slime on roots deal though . I use Liquid Karma too and it's organic and leaves slimey funk on my roots .
Peace
Crispi :stoned:

You guys are unbelievably helpful. I have been trying to wipe the slime off the roots thinking its root rot or going to cause root rot, but I'll leave them alone from now on. The slime in the bins was a lot different than the slime I have been seeing since the last res change as it doesn't float around in the water and just stays on the roots. Thanks everyone!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Weedhound

Then my mistake PC and I apologize.....I did indeed take it that way. Perhaps my pms got the best of me. :(

Again...apologies....and if you were here I'd offer you this. :jointsmile:

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No apology necessary, Dear!

...and, for future reference, you are one of my favorite people on this forum, so please ignore my knack for sometimes putting my foot in my mouth.

PC :smokin:

Well I would have something to say about that PC but I am afraid I am having the same issue at the moment. :D :thumbsup:

I just got the same identical 'brown snot' almost overnite, after adding Earth Juice Catalyst (organic), no doubt in my mind, the organic additive is what caused it ... and I don't use HydroGuard ... :jointsmile: