Reverend Budbreath
Red-eyed and mystified
Hey again guys. I have a 55-gallon water barrel that I'm using in my garage next to my tent grow as a reservoir to pull water for feedings from. I don't add nutes or anything to it, it's just there so I don't have to be seen hauling a bucket of water into the garage whenever I need to water.
However, since I only use 3 gallons at a time about 4 days apart and then quickly add back water to the barrel, you could say there's about 35 gallons of water in there that has been in there a month. I have it circulating strongly, and warmed to 68°F, but I don't have an air pump and air stone going in it.
My question is this: though the water is still quite clear and fresh-smelling, I'm aware that there is a very thin layer of bacterial slime/biofilm that's clinging to the inside of the barrel, and is bound to increase. Considering that I'm in soil and not hydro, is this something I need to worry about as I use the water for fertigations? Can it throw off the biology in the soil, or will the soil microherd just attack and make short work of it? Can it breed pythium? If I end up deciding that the barrel needs to be pumped out and cleaned regularly, I'll probably just quit using it because pumping it out will be less discreet than bringing in a bucket and sort of negates its purpose.
Which leads me to my next question—how long does it take for hydrogen peroxide to dissociate in water? I might like to just add some H2O2 regularly to knock down any biofilm, but not if it will linger long enough to harm the microherd in the soil. I can't recall from my hydro days how long it is before H2O2 just breaks down into water and would be no threat to friendly microbes. If it's just a day or two, no problem, but if it gets close to the watering interval of four days, it might prove inconvenient.
I was thinking a Bacillus amyloliquefaciens product like Hydroguard or Defguard might be a good solution for this too, but I'm guessing it's way more expensive than using H2O2... haven't done the math yet. Might turn out that it's actually H2O2 that's the more expensive way.
What say ye, friends? And Merry Xmas!
However, since I only use 3 gallons at a time about 4 days apart and then quickly add back water to the barrel, you could say there's about 35 gallons of water in there that has been in there a month. I have it circulating strongly, and warmed to 68°F, but I don't have an air pump and air stone going in it.
My question is this: though the water is still quite clear and fresh-smelling, I'm aware that there is a very thin layer of bacterial slime/biofilm that's clinging to the inside of the barrel, and is bound to increase. Considering that I'm in soil and not hydro, is this something I need to worry about as I use the water for fertigations? Can it throw off the biology in the soil, or will the soil microherd just attack and make short work of it? Can it breed pythium? If I end up deciding that the barrel needs to be pumped out and cleaned regularly, I'll probably just quit using it because pumping it out will be less discreet than bringing in a bucket and sort of negates its purpose.
Which leads me to my next question—how long does it take for hydrogen peroxide to dissociate in water? I might like to just add some H2O2 regularly to knock down any biofilm, but not if it will linger long enough to harm the microherd in the soil. I can't recall from my hydro days how long it is before H2O2 just breaks down into water and would be no threat to friendly microbes. If it's just a day or two, no problem, but if it gets close to the watering interval of four days, it might prove inconvenient.
I was thinking a Bacillus amyloliquefaciens product like Hydroguard or Defguard might be a good solution for this too, but I'm guessing it's way more expensive than using H2O2... haven't done the math yet. Might turn out that it's actually H2O2 that's the more expensive way.
What say ye, friends? And Merry Xmas!
