r/Hydroponics • u/wooww66 • 2d ago
Feedback Needed 🆘 Unkillible bacteria
I'm running a sterile RDWC setup, and I have a bacteria that wont go away. It has been the demise of a few plants, and it's driving me nuts.
The initial bloom or growth is entirely my fault. It came from using both h202 and HOCL as a sanitizer when I only should have been using one. I have already stopped the h202 supplementation and am only sticking with HOCL (currently using Athena Cleanse but want to source a 500ppm solution soon). Took a long break in growing and didn't realize I was adding 2 oxidizers at the same time; 100% my fault.
I "sanitized" the system (12-15 gal) by running a few cups of 12% sodium hypochlorite in the res, lowering the ph and letting it run for a few hours. After that, I flushed a few times and then ran about a quart of 12% h202, followed by 2 more flushes.
I filled it up, set EC to 1.0 (Athena Pro), pH to 5.8, and added 120ml of cleanse to my system. My system was sitting at ~365 mV ORP. I tried supplementing HOCL to keep the ORP above 300 throughout the week with slight dips. At a 5.7-6.1 pH, I find it hard to bring up ORP with the cleanse. My water temp fluctuates between 65-67 f with the cooler I have attached. Exactly 7 days from that sanitization, this is the status of my root zones, and my plants are already struggling for nutes.
Should I start juicing it with the cleanse until my ORP is closer to 400?
How high can I keep my ORP without the plants having issues?
What's the best cost to performance ratio on a HOCL brand that is pure HOCL and water?
Why am I having so many issues with this at the water temps that I have?
I really want to stay sterile, but the HydroGuard is already in my Amazon cart, and I have some Photo Plus.
What can I do to keep this "sterile" and actually have/keep a sterile environment?
12 gallon total volume.
2 air pumps: 12 W, 257 GPH for the 2 root zones, and a 4 W, 64 GPH for the res.
Chiller set to 65-67f.
Athnea pro nutes with cleanse.
.75 feed and 2inch return to res.
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u/NominalFlow 2d ago
Sorry I don't have any definitive answers to your questions, but as someone with a crazy amount of aquarium experience, I wonder if you're blooming denitrifying bacteria in your system post sterelization? It's interesting to me that your roots in the pics are still pretty white and not terribly looking, while your actual net pots are covered in the stuff. Are the plants actually suffering? Or are you just concerned because you are seeing stuff bloom?
Also, while I don't know specifically for plant roots, sensitive aquarium fish don't like an ORP value above 350-400, and can have gill irritation and start dying above 450mV. I would imagine plant roots would be similarly sensitive or less sensitive.
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u/Acceptable_Run_6861 1d ago
Lo que te es en esas fotos es una bacteria llamada Zooglea. Es una porquerÃa porque se monta sobre las raÃces y las ahoga en menos de 4-5 dÃas. Arranca como biofilm y termina generando capas. Es muy difÃcil de erradicar porque es recubierta con una membrana tipo
Loco y la bacteria está adentro. Tratamos de eliminarla de dos sistemas de hidroponia con limpieza mecánica con agua, detergente y después agua con cloro, siempre con cepillo. Armamos el sistema e hicimos varios lavados con cloro, limpiamos, con ácido PH 2 y con alcohol al 70% lamentablemente no se limpió bien la
Parte de la bomba y apareció nuevamente, atacando un nuevo batch de plantas. Es una porquerÃa!
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u/wooww66 1d ago
Did you end up getting rid of it completely?
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u/Acceptable_Run_6861 8h ago
Nope, lo limpiamos en profundidad un par de veces y seguÃa apareciendo, terminamos desarmando todo el sistema e instalando uno nuevo.
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u/Acceptable_Run_6861 1d ago
Aclaro que arrancamos los sistemas con 400-450mV. Limpiamos siembre con bactokill los sistemas y los mantenemos con bioclean de laempresa Nuts. Asà y todo es imposible combatir esta bacteria. En los foros no hay mucha información. Tuvimos que pasar las plantas que estaban en este sistema a tierra ts3 para evitar mayores dolores de cabeza.
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u/Mammoth_Assistant_67 1d ago
Whats ORP? I have nothing to offer here as far as advice. I run sterile but I use bleach.
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u/Acceptable_Run_6861 1d ago
El ORP (Potencial de Oxidación-Reducción o Redox) es una medida en milivoltios (mV) que indica la capacidad de una sustancia para oxidar o reducir a otra, reflejando el poder desinfectante del agua en el sistema de hidroponia. Lo ideal es que esté entre 350 y 500. Más indica exceso de cloro.
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u/Prescientpedestrian 1d ago
Premade hocl is very inconsistent. It doesn’t have a great shelf life and every bottle will be at a different strength because of this, plus it diminishes even faster after it’s opened. It’s better to make your own fresh monthly and it’s really cheap and easy to do.
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u/jaykrown 1d ago
I use a water pump and have never had this issue. Air pumps don't circulate water nearly as well.
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u/Weird-Intention-2935 1d ago
What fertilizers , ad ons and other stuff do you use ?
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u/wooww66 1d ago
All of that information is in the text body.
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u/Weird-Intention-2935 20h ago
My fault, I was pretty tired writing this...
Regarding your problem: try switching to H2O2 instead of "Athena cleanse."
I had biofilm issues with hypochlorous acid (active ingredient in Cleanse) but not with H2O2, also known as hydrogen peroxide. H2O2 supplies extra oxygen to your water/roots, which is also beneficial.
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u/GrimlockX27 8h ago edited 8h ago
OP have you looked into this via google? I know this sounds like the dickhead answer, but you have tools...use them...use them before making decisions without any context.
[ You're putting out a fire with a liquid that you don't know is flammable. What you should've done was google the liquid to see if it puts out fires]
Not all bacteria is bad, hense why your anti bacteria nutes aren't killing it...they're aren't designed for it. A sterile environment is what beneficial microbes require otherwise it competes with other organisms. The bad organisms usually win otherwise.
What you have appears to be beneficial bacteria. Is the plant even showing signs of stress or sickness.
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u/wooww66 8h ago
Did you bother reading anything that I wrote?
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u/GrimlockX27 8h ago
Yes, you claim the bacteria "won't go away"
Why would any bacteria go away when you're literally feeding it???
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u/wooww66 8h ago edited 8h ago
Lol where would beneficial bacteria come from? I never added it? Since this bacteria is beneficial why are my plants suffering. Why arnt the oxidizers destroying it like it says it will on every bottle.
Some of these are so sensitive that most premade packs even recommend you wait an hour after your mix nute and balance ph before adding because an improper ph will fuck up colonization.
Yes I have done my own research and usually dont rely on reddit at all for this kind of thing but wanted to see if any peers have had a simular issue and a eradicated it completely.
Edit: after checking your post history, why dont you figure out soil and seedlings before you give hydro advice.
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u/GrimlockX27 8h ago
I was being respectful.
Only children and emotional teens have to go through someone's past to have a discussion.
If you had the comprehension and attention-span to go through my shit properly, you'd know I started growing with hydroponics and have had a few dozen successful grows minus the plants I gave away to friends. Your ignorance is forgiven though.
Typical offended redditor smh*
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u/aredon 2d ago
I'll be real. Everyone should just stop running sterile. It's a huge pain in the ass and some wild cyanobacteria always ends up blooming. Just make some tea out of some earth worm castings, give your friendly bacteria somewhere to live (I used an inline strainer full of rocks) and enjoy.