Irwin the Troll wrote:The water pumps made the water too warm and she got root rot. Change to an aquarium air pump hopefully she'll recover.
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What was the deal with the pond pump? Did you have a waterfall effect inside the bucket to aerate it, or were you just using the pump to circulate water?
Aeration is obviously the key to DWC, and most people think it's the bubbles that blow through the nutrient solution that saturates the water with oxygen. But nearly all the oxygen exchange is at the surface, and happens when the bubbles burst and break the surface tension of the water, allowing the oxygen to be dissolved.
It's been a while since I did DWC, but the other trick to start new clones or seedlings – if you're not already doing it – is to keep the rockwool suspended above the waterline. If you are now using an air pump and aquarium stone, you need the rockwool cube and the basket it sits in to sit in the region just above the surface where the bubbles burst and create a fine mist of oxygenated water (like the effervescent bubbles on top of a glass of soda). That will give the roots the best start.
You also want to keep temperatues as best you can between 15C and 21C. Cold water lacks metabolic warmth which slows root growth. Warm water is less dense than cold water and does not absorb as much oxygen. The warmer the water gets, the less oxygen it dissolves and that is what leads to root rot. Pythium root rot thrives in anaerobic conditions and breeds exponentially faster in warm water. If your water is consistently above 25C, it can be a problem, but you can still manage DWC as long as you have lots of aeration to compensate.
See? It's a good thing you didn't eat me, because sometimes shrimp come in handy!

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