Pesky water contamination - milky and oily. How to combat?

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Help! I can't get rid of the some milky contamination in the water.
It came out of nowhere. I usually check the res water daily
When I checked the rez on Wednesday - it was like milk with tiny patches of oil floating on top, I was like oh shit.
It turns out that the UV sterilizer bulb fell out of the socket and wasn't on for these 2 weeks.
On Thursday, I replaced the water from the system, soaked what I could with Star San, scrubbed all I could, replaced the water and left the sterilizer on without the timer. I came back home the same night - and the shit was all over the place again. WTF? I need to think of something. Right now I am thinking of removing the plants temporarily and pouring some bleach straight in the res and running the system for a while. Does it sound like a good idea? Or should I try it with StarSan or peroxide instead? Help

Pics

Before the water change:


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After:


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Please help ASAP.
I am going to the gym to play some ball and think about this situation
Hope someone chimes in on this mess when I come back
:thanks:
 
Here is what I did in a meanwhile - took four identical glasses and filled them with contaminated water.
One got treated with peroxide, other with bleach, third with star san, and fourth with Pond Clear.
Now I sit and wait what happens:

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Update: added three more glasses: one with iodine, one with dishwashing liquid, and one with lime
No clearing in any of the glasses so far...


Here is what I've found on the internets:

"Bacteria slime and cloudy reservoirs

Bacteria can make the water cloudy, but tend to produce more of a slime or jellylike, smelly mass in the system.If you have it, you will notice slimy reservoir walls and perhaps an oily slick on the water. Another symptom can be a foamy buildup in the reservoir. If left to their own devices, these bacterial growths will smother the roots, depriving them of oxygen. Some species of anaerobic bacteria thrive in an environment deprived of oxygen and can produce chemical metabolites, such as alcohols, aldehydes, phenols and ethylene, that are toxic to plant roots and to other microorganisms.

Other symptoms of bacterial infections can be fuzzy, cotton like growths, or the growth of fur. Just in case you are wondering, that white fuzzy growth you see at the tip of your roots is desireable. That is not bacteria - That is the good stuff - you should see tiny fine white hairs at thje roots.

All of these nasties require organic matter to feed on. They may be there as the result of a buildup of dead roots and leaves in the root zone, but usually they are the result of adding an organic product to the reservoir. If the conditions are just right, the bacteria will begin to thrive.

One option is to use no organic additives at all and to rely strictly on chemical nutrients based on fertilizer salts. We think a better choice is to continue using organic material, but also using an enzymatic addtive like Hygrozyme that will break down the unwanted organic matter in the reservoir . If you would like to use additives such as bat guano, compost or fish-based products, you might consider run to waste instead of a recirculating system.

What to do if you have a bacterial or fungal infection

You will want to completely clean out your system - if you can, you should remove each plant, rinse it off, perhaps even dip it in an H202 solution. You should trim off any dead roots. you should then clean your entire system using a strong bleach or h202 solution. We suggest soaking everything in bleach for a few hours. You will definately want to soak your pump and any tubing in bleach. Make sure you rinse everything very well before putting the plants back in ."
 
The results are in 7 hours later
And they are not encouraging

First pic was taken with the flash on and the second with flash off:

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Nothing worked so far.
Do I pour like a gallon of bleach in the system to clean it out? I mean I could do that. But I am not sure if this is the answer.
I would have to flush it many times with star san or just plain tap water
 
I tried 100ml of concentrated H2O2- the milky slime still bounces back literally in a few hours.

I am also going to run all my lines (except for the rails with plants) and equipment with bleach again and then with the star san.

And then I am going to try the last resort - take out the sterilizer from the system and try adding lots of hydrozyme and/or mycorizzae and see if they prevent the rebound. Or try whatever else advise I might get at the hydro store, where I am going right now....

Fuck!

:confused::surrender:
 
What are your water temps? You dont mention, that I saw, what kind of grow this is. Is it DWC?

My way of ridding the slime:

completely drain system and refill with tap water, no nutrients. Wipe everything down with a rubbing alcohol rag or white vinegar. Both evaporate quickly.

Take each plant out and with a spray bottle, spray the hell out of the roots. I found laying the roots suspended across the back of my hand helps to act as a spray board that makes pythium and slime drain off easily.

If this system is really holding 40g of water, then I would say you probably need to add 2400ml of 3% peroxide. Hell maybe even more. run this peroxide/tap water solution with the girls for 6 hours.

Drain, wipe down everything again, spray the girls roots again, refill with nutrient solution. You can add some h202 into the nutrient. I forget the proper mix amount. I'll try to find it. But I suggest not using hygrozyme if you use it, until after 3 days.

Get those water temps to 68f or lower. Ever since adding a chiller I have zero slimy issues.
 
This is in my aero system (I should have told that)

Looks like I'm losing the battle.
The only thing I've done wrong was not checking the sterilizer, otherwise there would be no contamination.
My res temps are ~80F. Are ebay 1/10hp chillers Current/Prime any good? How do I choose the chiller?

The first time around I tried using bleach and then H2O2 - the slime came back right away
The second time I tried using Physan 20 (which was supposed to kill everything) and more H2O2
I did not wash every plant by hand, but let the system spray overnight before changing water.
Even with 150ml of Physan 20 and 350ml of H2O2 30% and Hygrozyme in the system, the slime is taking hold again. I mixed all the nutes in this time. The only hope I have left is that that slime will come and go after some time. If not - I will salvage the cuttings into clones and call it quits until next time.
 
80f temps are SICKLY too high! I set my chiller to 64f and by the time it all mixes in the res it's 68-69f and perfect. You'll never win with temps that high imo.

I got a 1/10hp sun leaves aqua chill from my hydro store about 1 year ago for $225 tax incl. I'm really happy with it.
 
I have 2 objections about water temps being a major factor in aero:
1) I just harvested a jungle of pot grown in 80F water which remained crystal clear all the way through this time.
2) When I was flushing chlorine and bactericide out of the system, I used tap water which was somewhat cold - the bacteria seemed to thrive in the cold water nevertheless.

I am not saying that chiller is a bad investment, I am just trying to point out that it wasn't equipment error - it was operator error - if I did everything like I should had - none of this would have ever happened. I should have checked if UV sterilizer was operational or not after hearing the rattling inside and ignoring it, I wouldn't end up like this.

The timeline of the tragic event and its containment efforts:
(follow the timestamps for understanding):

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This last post was the first time you mentioned aero. Important.

I don't do aeroponics and can't comment much at all on it really. What I can say about water temp and bacteria comes from the owner of Blue Planet Nutrients. And basically it's that the bad shit can't grow in sub 68f water. With my DWC and RDWC I keep the temps cool and I haven't had a single problem since. I don't need to add peroxide, or bleach at any time.

Again, aero is not my thing and I can't really make an educated comment on that.
 
The problem is unless you dry the plugs and roots and wash them really well in something thermonuclear, slime bounces back like crazy. There is no way to get rid of it without getting rid of the plugs and all. Bacteria just reached the infestation size and keeps multiplying like nothing you have ever seen. If even very dangerous chemicals like Physan 20 can't deal with it - nothing can.

Water source is out of question. I used tap water instead to make sure it wasn't that. I also have the same RO/DI filter supply water to 4 different sites in my house (2 of which are reses). The other res had the same water source, but never got contaminated. UV sterilizer work quite well in preventing disease, but not for containing it.
 
I figured out what the problem was.
The pump went kaput at some point of time
It was leaking lubricants in the water all the time since that happened....
...until it filled up with water and quit working altogether.
The puzzle pieces fell into their places all of the sudden...
 
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