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accursed green slime

Ridetsu

Gamer
Okay, so, the green slime that builds up on the soil surface is because of minerals found in the water, non?
Well i called EWEB (Eugene Water and Electric Board) and found out that the total PPM of their water supply is 54 PPM, which is really good. On top of that, i have been using an RO filter for nearly 2 weeks now.

The seeds i got from a friend of mine have only gone through one rain shower, and i have kept them watered with water from only the RO filter.
It STILL manages to get that green slime all over the surface... but its not so much slime as it is just a green coloration.
On top of that, some of my new plants, which i recently potted, are also getting green on their soil surfaces.
Is there no getting away from this stuff?!
 
Mineral content and algae growth may or may not be a myth, otherwise why does one pot get slime on top and not another when the potting mix is from the same batch and they are watered from the same can at the same time?

Life will find a way so there is no way to get away from it. The cure would be worse than the disease.
 
Actually, I would expect slime to grow more when you use cleaner water with less PPM, because tap water contains substances such as chlorine which kill off organisms. However, I'm not sure if these cancel out the minerals that algae would like.
 
Tap water often contains viable algae spores not killed by the chlorine which is part of the reason why a jar of tap water will start growing green slime once the chlorine has dissipated.
 
You should not be using chlorinated water in the first place. If your tap is chlorinated but otherwise suitable, let it out gas before you use it.

I only have a problem with slime algae when I'm in a pinch, have to leave town and use normal well water because I don't have time to make RO water. The water has zero NPK, but has a high TDS and a moderate GH, with a low KH, which leads me to believe that yes, the algae can use minerals without and macro's for growth, within reason at least.

When I resume normal RO watering (after a heavy flushing) it goes away within a short period of time by its self (about a week) then there are no more traces until I get lazy and don't make time to make RO. If you fertilize, even foliarly, I highly recommend you get in the habit of flushing the media.
 
My baby VFTs are experiencing excessive algae/mold. I do not believe it is the tap water. It's probably all the spores floating around...
 
I don't think the nutrients in the water have anything to do with it. I use distilled water and I get the green slime all the time. I don't think it hurts anything that's big enough to outgrow it..

I would suspect that the sand I use is what causes it. I don't rinse my sand because I'm too lazy and it takes like 40 rinses to get clean..
 
Something doesn't come from nothing. It's either in the water, already in the media, or an impurity leeching out from the sand.


It's nothing to worry about. It's just ugly and if you're like me, you don't want it at all.
 
well, if it has something to do with the water, i want to have my RO filter traded in, because its supposed to take out the chlorine and any other impurty, and lower the PPM of the water down to 2-5 ppm.
If its the "black gold" brand horticultural sand i'm using (not rinsing) then i want to change that as well.
Would having a top layer of sphagnum moss choke that out?
 
  • #10
Put some of your sand in water, if the water gets cloudy, there's your culprit. I've heard that a top layer of sand discourages the growth of it, but I haven't tried it out yet.

If you have an R/O filter then you should have a TDS meter to measure and see if your R/O unit is actually working properly.. before you think about trading in your R/O unit, I'd suggest that you get a TDS meter first so you don't have to go through all the trouble of trading it in if it IS working well. Also, make sure your filters don't need changed.
 
  • #11
Alright, so i tried the sand thing - filled up a cup full of RO water , poured some sand into it, mixed it up. Its been about half an hour, and its rather white and cloudy. Holding it up to a light, its got both white, yellow, and green sediment free-floating, so i guess its the sand!

I've been using "Black gold" brand sand.. guess i won't be doing that anymore. Grrr... thought it was a good thing to do. I'll look for a different sand then.. any suggestions?


Just bought a TDS meter - one didn't come with my RO unit.
 
  • #12
Silica sand from a sand blasting or pool/spa supply place or play sand from Home Depot or the like. If your Home Depot rents sand blasters they may have silica sand for them too.

You should rinse it nonetheless so you may not gain anything other than different color and size grains.
 
  • #13
green slime

You can also try using aquarium gravel on the surface of your soil. I use it on my indoor plants that don't get as much air circulation as my outdoor plants(the darker colored gravel works best). The thin layer of gravel does not retain water, therefore no mold grows on the surface. Underneath the gravel the soil stays moist, but it doesn't receive light, thus the mold doesn't grow underneath the gravel. Just remember to rinse the gravel before placing on top of the plants.
 
  • #14
Why don't you just rinse out the sand you have to clean it? If it works for peat moss it should work for sand. Many growers rinse all their medias before use for that reason.
 
  • #15
how should i go about washing the sand?
 
  • #16
Slime and unwanted mosses appear, no matter how clean the media or pure the water is. I would just rinse all media throroughly and use distilled water and when unwanted greenery eventually appear - just manually remove it.
 
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