I agree with trying to keep the water clean! I can’t remember if your water source is rain water or do you make RO? Is the sterilizer before the storage tank or is it after tank? With a decent sized greenhouse you must have a water storage tank.Yes, i have 4 fans in my gh, but it can not give solution in cold winter when just the stagnant inner air volume runs up and down within the gh. For that reason I made an air exchanging system, it runs 15 min in every 2 hours. with that i can exchange the total volume of my gh every day. If i set it on bigger volume exchange i would have to pay too much for heating.
The peroxide product Terry mentioned is intended for horticultural use.
Thank you for comment. This device get contact only the water, that is why there is no ozone production, at all.
As Ray indicated (and I got on to Zerotol through him), the peroxyacetic acid may be the more dominant part of the product. The peroxide is low concentration and stabilized. I think you would add it to your tank and a periodic basis. You would not put it in the line going directly to your plants. You would need to see if Zerotol if available where you are and what it costs. The company makes it in various sizes because it used by very large horticultural growers. Here is the link to the product in the Biosafe website:
I must have an accident waiting to happen with my water, as I draw 3 gallons of R/O at a time in a bucket. Since I use 6-10 gallons a day, I draw 3-4 buckets in a 24 hr period that I then put into 2 10 gallon plastic garbage cans and add fertilizer. ½ teas/gal in one and ¼ teas/gal in the other. I don’t worry about using it all up that day, and if any is left I just add more water & fertilizer to it the next day. About once a week (or before if I notice contamination), I wash out the plastic cans with detergent and water. The only exception is when I use KelpPac or the probiotic from Ray. Then I try to use it all up each day. Am I crazy to not be more concerned with the cleanliness of my water? I’ve never had any kind of rot, etc.
Don’t you see growth of the blue/green “algae” (really cyanobacteria) in your 10 gallon garbage cans? I always did in my 4 gallon container. Once fertilizer is in the water and it is exposed to air and light, things grow. I think that RO water that is freshly stored in opaque, sealed gallon containers without fertilizer stays pretty clean. Yet, I would get some growth of blue or black microorganisms around the lid or on the bottom of the gallon container. I now put a bit of the Zerotol periodically into my gallon storage containers as the RO water goes into them. I also put a bit in the bottom of my 4 gallon container holding the watering pump even though I pump everything out and there is only a small amount of fluid in there. I also don’t have any rot, but I don’t want even blue green cyanobacteria growing in pots. I am likely over concerned, but my fix is so fast and cheap it is hard not to do it. There is a remarkable difference in the appearance of my 4 gallon pumping container and the water as I am ready to apply it to the plants is now crystal clear, which it never was before.
The Zerotol literature does not suggest it would be wiping everything out. I am also using a modest concentration at the time of RO collection and the activity is most likely worn off by the time the water is applied. I worry a little less about beneficial organisms in my root zone because I am growing in 100% LECA (Hydroton) in a way that is pretty close to semi-hydroponic (intermittent fertigation but daily heavy misting to each pot) and I am not sure the beneficial organisms in the root zone function the same in these environments.
I occasionally see some algae in my clear pots but not in my watering containers. Except that is, for my 15 gallon huge container that I daily dip my one Vanda in. But, that one gets cleaned and refilled when I see a slight green film begin to show, which honestly is about once a month. Even when I was diligent and cleaned my containers more frequently, algae grew in my clear pots.
Always important to remember the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” aphorism. You might not need to change anything. Istvan and I thought we had something that needed fixing. The link to the Biosafe website section on Zerotol HC is up above in a reply I made to Istvan. The fresh RO water is not a problem, it is when it is stored in a container. I think you are putting the fresh RO directly in your large containers. Zerotol would get added as you put the new RO into the container. The goal isn’t sterile water, it is to keep the innoculum size of organisms low in the water you apply to your plants. Fertilizer in the water probably enhances organism growth so if you could wait on adding the fertilizer to the containers until soon before use it might be better.
