Hi all. Has anyone experience this. I have a 35 gal pail i use for filling my res. Its ph’ed only
But it’s starting to smell bad Should i dump it? @Myfriendis410
is there a reason why you are hesitating to do this?
2 Likes
Only reason is i don’t want to waste it till i hear from one who knows. You think I should just dump it. When in doubt chuck it out kinda thing.
If this is just your plain water with no nutrients…the smell is more than likely mold growing…it will grow in tap, distilled and RO water under the right conditions…yes dump it, scrub your reservoir good …that is what I would do…
1 Like
@Bobboo why not just use it on all of your plants and then clean it out if the algae small is bothering you? No sense wasting it-I promise you this - plants don’t mind drinking out of a mud puddle lol.
2 Likes
Thanks @Retiredoldguy i do appreciate the input I’ll dump it now. I was keeping the cover on the pail with 4 air stones in it, I cleaned it before use with peroxide. What can i do so it doesn’t happen again?
now you have me stumped, once you mentioned the air stones running in it …that normally will help keep water fresh for days…Peroxide is a good cleaner and one I would use if needed.
Is it warm maybe that is the reason it got messed up, I forgot to ask that question
1 Like
I’m in hydroponics so I don’t want to introduce any bad stuff to the res that supplies the plant.
Its my first time and so far it’s going pretty good. Change to flower next week.
1 Like
Temp stays @70 degrees
I would agree with you…and it could cause root rot
1 Like
ok… I am back to stumped as to why your reservoir smells bad…did you get COVID maybe and your smell is off…ahahahahahaah
2 Likes
Cool I’m gonna drain clean and refill today. Thanks for your input guys
Got nothing but time im retired disabled as well.
Have a great day.
1 Like
No no covid knock on wood. (Hitting my head)
1 Like
enjoy, I think it is the safest thing to do …
1 Like
I just remembered something…If you are reusing air stones they can cause algae to form when used again…I never experienced it because I always use new air stones but another hydro grower told me never reuse the stones because this happened to him
1 Like
They were new air stones but i will clean them before putting them back in. I read somewhere here you can clean them with alcohol. I’ll look it up now.
Thanks for helping me.
If new then that wasn’t the problem…the issue I remember is related to letting the stones sit out of water for a time period before putting them back into the water to use again…I have seen the ways people are cleaning them…IMHO a new stone is so cheap compared to what I might introduce to my grow after trying to clean them… 
1 Like
How to clean stones. Thanks @peachfuzz
peachfuzzRegular
I never let them dry before I get a chance to clean them…
So if I pull them out of the system they go directly into a little bucket of water until I can get to them…
Once I get to them I fill a bucket with super hot water and let them soak for about 30 minutes and then i take a spray nozzle that’s attached to my 150 psi air compressor with a little peice of the same tubing that i run them on and blow all of the crap out of them , smells like the nastiest swamp that you could ever imagine…
I repeat that step 3 times…
Then i do the same thing but this time I use just 3% hydrogen peroxide to soak in and repeat 3 times and then I do the same thing 3 times with good 0 ppm ro water…
Never have any issues and I’ve been using these stones for almost 7 years now…
If for some reason they still smell a little swampy after the 3rd dip in the hydrogen peroxide when blowing the high air pressure through them , let them soak overnight in the hydrogen peroxide and then continue with the rest of the steps…
I would bet that the main problem is letting them dry out with all of the gunk in them before getting a chance to clean them…
Unless they have been cleaned , don’t let them dry out…
@Covertgrower
1 Like
If you have algae challenges add 2ml per gallon barley straw extract. My grow is in the basement, and my back yard is literally forest with a creek in the south. Preventing whatever from landing in the res and growing is an unrealistic expectation without a ton of countermeasures. I use Dr. Tims Waste Away bacteria for fresh water aquariums + muck away bacteria for ponds in my mix. These work to keep stuff clean, and are not beneficial to roots directly, use whatever accordingly for that. Additionally if you can manage to filter it mechanically then that helps a ton also…For context i can go an entitre flower cycle with one res, and never clean.it, or change it.
1 Like