You are very right on that. Working sterile is key in aero cloning.
My collars here come from Ali Express and are very cheap (they did raise prices to last year but still cheap)
Boiled water, the moment it leaves the boiling point, contamination begins allready.
Sterile scalpel cutter, new blade each time. While taking cuts, putting the scalpel in a glass of iso each time.
Aero Cloner itself, i let it run for some hours, where the collars are floating in the rez with hot tapwater and half a cup of bleach.
After sterilisation, i just dump the rez and only spray out very minimal with tapwater.
Nitrile gloves, always when handling aero.
Everything you touch around you, every bit of gear you use must be sterile.
After sterilisation and lil flushing out the bleach, that first refill allready need instant rezcleaner or collodial silver. After the clones are made and the aero is ready to startup, more rezcleaner or collodial silver.
The more products you add, the higher the risk for contamination.
Organic nutrients for aero is not ok.
GHE Micro and Bloom work very good, ive used it often and still do. (but i also tested other flowering nutes, it works)
First 7 days, hormone concentrate or rootstim in the rez
(Never use clonex gel or any powder rooting agents, this is big troubles)
Dump
Refill with this
5ml/gallon GHE bloom
2,5ml/gallon GHE micro
NO more rootstims or hormones
Before you see roots, its not needed to set the PH, but it can be done to.
Make your own hormex and rezcleaner. Easy to DIY.
People who buy an aero cloner or build one, the first run is most of the times succesfully. But then the runs after this first are harder because of the contamination.
An error i see allot is that people clean their aero cloner with to rough sponges. They create rougher surfaces where bacteria like to live and hide. The reservoir must stay smooth, handled with care and the sterelisation should come from an oxidiser and not from rubbing.
Ive learned my lessons the hard way.
Everything I said to do worked to get it back.
