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. ;-)