DWC water turning foggy and smelly

I am using a 5 gallon DWC 3 Mendo Cheese plants 3rd week of veg. One of the buckets all of a sudden got foggy and smelly. I have changed the water out even swapped buckets twice and this foggy water problem keeps coming back daily. I use the GH. Flora series on all 5 of my plants they are all in the tent the temps are all the same PH is being managed at 5.5-5.8 yet only 1 plant (the middle one in back row) is having this problem.

How long in between changes? You should be swapping buckets every change and really cleaning them out. Check your netpot to sounds like something is still lingering there.

What are the water temps at and are you using big enough pumps in each bucket so the roots are getting enough oxygen?

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Do you have enough air coming in? Seal up the holes to so no light penetrates. Do you use Hydroguard or something for res?

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Fogging and smelly…anaerobic bacterial bloom. Have you used any organics or sugars in the bucket. Do you have enough air bubbling through the bucket?

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Ill check the temps tonight they may be too high I have a commercial 6 outlet pump there are just as many bubbles as the non foggy ones i do not have hydroguard right now but I suppose I should get some. What should mt water temps be? I just use tge GH flora series during veg should I get something in addition to the trio?

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Hmm :man_shrugging: Flora trio is all. Strange. Shouldn’t turn that fast with just the chems in Flora. Maybe a blockage in the air tube to this bucket? In hope you dumped and refilled with new nutes.

Hydro Guard will be you’re savior no jokes. Also get some microbes in there to eat the dead stuff.

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@Hydrogrower if it’s coming back in the span of a day it’s fast growing microorganisms. If it gets the other ones you might really have a problem. Should you amputate to save the rest is the real question? You might can save stinky but you might end up with a whole bunch of them. It’s a tough decision. It’s hard to get the :poop: back in the horse! I’d probably isolate stinky from the others while it’s growing, clean good with peroxide and then add Hydroguard. After the grow is complete and she has been cut down throw it in the garbage and replace everything associated with it. Just saying

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Wouldnt soaking it in acidic water also kill alot of the microbes. So u dont have to throw everything out associated with it.

The peroxide will kill any bad organisms but also any good ones. If its really nasty I would trash it but I’ve saved plants from this before. You don’t have to throw your buckets away lol. I use advanced nutrients so you need to refer to GH beneficial microbes that they have in there line and use those with the hydro guard. Also I would clean up that tent up. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: Best of luck to you though!

If it was me I’d throw the nasty stuff out after the grow. You might can clean it but there’s no guarantee. I have a background in microbiology and some organisms are resilient little mofo’s. The cost of a bucket and other stuff is probably less than a few dollars and the stinch is gone once and for all. I’ve tried to save a couple of dollars like that before and I equate it to shoveling :poop: against the tide. Live and learn though Lmmfao Just saying

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I found a couple of dead ants in the water. I pulled the plant and rinsed off the roots gently then swapped buckets and this morning and no fog no stinch.

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Just bleach your equipment afterwards. An ounce of bleach per 5 gal for 1 hr will kill just about everything. You might even consider scrubbing the walls of the bucket with comet/Ajax to get off any biofilm. Make sure you rinse throughly. I do agree with @Stonedagain2 that some bacteria are hard to kill but bleach solutions are often used in clean room environments.

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Not necessarily. It needs to be the right type of acid at the right concentration. Think about the organisms that create vinegar. Those organisms are fat and happy in vinegar. High pH above 11.5 on the other hand is very effective.

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I would not use bleach… it leaves behind crap that you can’t clean…
I clean all of my stuff with straight 3% hydrogen peroxide and elbow grease and a little green scrubber pad…
and then rinse with hot water…
nothing else and I never have issues…
More then likely your water temps are too high…
but you also need to make sure that all of your air lines are the same length from the manifold… :wink:
Hydrogard is highly recommended by me as well… :+1:

:v::sunglasses:

Bleach breaks down to salt even if it isn’t completely clean. Peroxide isn’t strong enough to sanitize as it’s effect isn’t long enough. You need a strong oxidizer that has some stability in water. Peroxide is just temporary.

Now is the time to use peroxide; before you introduce Hydroguard. You need to jump on this ASAP as it will kill a plant in hours. Use straight 3% and really spray everything down. Do a flush with a product like Florakleen. Get your rez temps down under 70F. Make sure of plenty of air. How far below the net pots is your solution? It should be 1 to 2 inches below.

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I put 4 gallons of water per 5 gallon bucket which puts the water touching the bottom of the nets.

What did you use for your seed starters?