Grow Mediums Res smells like piss

[NorthernLights_420]

My dwc res randomly started to smell like cat piss or ammonia or something like that. It's nasty. Did a res change. Rinsed roots with water then rinsed roots with real growers recharge . Fresh bucket. What was that smell and why? I accidently left lid open for a few hours a few days back. Only thing I can think of? Light leak? Only bucket that smells was the one with the light leak cuz I forgot to put the damn lid back on. I threw the airstone away and same with air tubing that was in the bucket and gave it new stone and tubing and cleaned bucket with Physan 20

 

[EvilScotsman]

Gotta use sm90 or hydroguard in the res to stop nasty stuff growing mate. There's other products you can use but that's the only 2 I'd recommend. Personally I use sm90. It's about £10 a litre and you only need 0.3ml/L most of the time so it lasts quite a while. The roots love it, bugs hate it, allows the plants to absorb nutrients more easily and most importantly keeps the res fresh as a daisy. I run mine at 27-29*c most of the time and still never had any issues.
Best of gear.

 

[NorthernLights_420]

Gotta use sm90 or hydroguard in the res to stop nasty stuff growing mate. There's other products you can use but that's the only 2 I'd recommend. Personally I use sm90. It's about £10 a litre and you only need 0.3ml/L most of the time so it lasts quite a while. The roots love it, bugs hate it, allows the plants to absorb nutrients more easily and most importantly keeps the res fresh as a daisy. I run mine at 27-29*c most of the time and still never had any issues.
Best of gear.

I use hydroguard religiously. And I clean everything with physan 20 religiously. What is sm90? Can't find anything called that on Amazon. Who is it made by? My room temps and water temps are always between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Water temps aren't an issue. I cleaned res, new nutes n water and it don't smell no more.

 

[EvilScotsman]

Hmm... Hydroguard should be doing the job mate. Never used it but many pros whom I'd trust with everything recommend it.
I have read somewhere that one of the 2 is for a sterile res and the other is for an active bacteria res. I certainly have no active bacteria in mine so perhaps you'd be best finding someone who fully knows what Hydroguard is and how to use it. I'll tag your thread in live stones and see if anyone knows.

Oh actually, before I do, what is physan 20 and what are you cleaning with it?

I might know once I know that.

 

[NorthernLights_420]

Hmm... Hydroguard should be doing the job mate. Never used it but many pros whom I'd trust with everything recommend it.
I have read somewhere that one of the 2 is for a sterile res and the other is for an active bacteria res. I certainly have no active bacteria in mine so perhaps you'd be best finding someone who fully knows what Hydroguard is and how to use it. I'll tag your thread in live stones and see if anyone knows.

Oh actually, before I do, what is physan 20 and what are you cleaning with it?

I might know once I know that.

I use it at 2ml per gallon. But recently discovered southern ag garden friendly fungicide which is same thing as hydroguard but more stronger concentrated and cheaper. Might try that instead from now on

 

[NorthernLights_420]

Hmm... Hydroguard should be doing the job mate. Never used it but many pros whom I'd trust with everything recommend it.
I have read somewhere that one of the 2 is for a sterile res and the other is for an active bacteria res. I certainly have no active bacteria in mine so perhaps you'd be best finding someone who fully knows what Hydroguard is and how to use it. I'll tag your thread in live stones and see if anyone knows.

Oh actually, before I do, what is physan 20 and what are you cleaning with it?

I might know once I know that.

Physan 20 is a powerful cleaner. Use it to clean buckets, grow medium hydroton, lids, airstones, air tubing, growing tools like scissors, ph and ec probes. It kills all bacteria and fungi and everything bad. It's really strong shit. But does a good job in between runs. Then I use h202 and bubble the red for a day before I use it after cleaning with physan 20 to completely remove it before I use my stuff again. I don't run sterile. Just keep it clean between runs. I use bennies instead. Just started using real growers recharge. Testing on a couple buckets now

 

[NorthernLights_420]

Might brew a tea with ewc or ancient forest soil and great white myco and hydroguard and a little molasses if this real growers recharge don't work.

 

[Muddy]

Short answer, stop pissing in your res! Seriously, that smell would likely be from something rotting. Possibly leaving the lid off caused some algae growth. I suggest using UC Roots by Cultured Solutions. 3ml per gallon once a week is a good maintenance level. Up to 5ml per gallon to address an issue. It's a steralizing agent and isn't compatible with anything organic as it will kill it. But if you've got a rot issue, that's what you want to do. Sterilize it to kill it off. Also, what's your water source? Even treated city water can still contain certain pathogens.

 

[NorthernLights_420]

My tap reads 150ppm. Filter it with 5 stage ro without uv sterilizer unfortunately. I fixed it with real growers recharge. Bennie's healed her