Question about roots plugging drain

[gr865]

I run the Active Aqua 5 gallon Gro and Flo and have heard I need to be concerned with roots plugging my drains. Was recommended I use copper screen in the bottom of my outer bucket and that the roots won't grow thru them. Is this fact? Will it hurt the plants?
Here are the roots of my current grow, 6 - 5 gallon buckets. Pics of three of the roots.

 

[OldMedUser]

You will definitely need something to keep the drain clear but I'd be wary of copper in an acidic solution of nutrients. It's easy to hit toxic levels of copper compared to toxicity from other elements and copper will dissolve easily in the nutes.

You should be able to find SS screens at dollar stores or even a hardware store that are made to put in sink or bathtub drains. We can get a pack of 3 different sizes here for about $2.50 and the local bargain store and sure helps keep the drains clear. Depending on the size of your drain hole you should be able to put a small one in the hole and a larger one turned over on top of that to make it easy to clear any roots that cover it too much. The roots could even grow thru the mesh as they are very fine at the tips.

Root can get pretty massive in DWC but I always grew in tubs so didn't have drains to deal with, just had to cover the intake for my little pond pump I used for my DIY chiller made from an old water cooler.

Believe it or not all those roots only displaced 2L of water out of 50L of nutes in that tub. 16 plants in that one.

 

[SmokingWings]

Was recommended I use copper screen in the bottom of my outer bucket and that the roots won't grow thru them. Is this fact? Will it hurt the plants?

Was it a fact? Unlikely. It sounds like whoever suggested this is confusing a copper screen, which some might use in a hash pipe, with the use of copper sulfate crystals in sewer pipes.

When the copper sulfate flows through the sewer pipe it will be absorbed by the root tips coming through small cracks and kills the first inch or two of the root. The plant that produced the roots is not killed since it seems that the roots have died before the copper has had a chance to move up the root system.

A quality copper screen would not give off loose copper chemical so it would not have the effect you want. Plus the very tip of a root would grow through any opening and slowly get larger. Sort of like the way a tree branch growing through an opening in a fence keeps getting larger until it actually makes the fence opening larger and larger.

Just want to mention, Stay away from Copper Sulfate. Using it in any hydro or open water system is a lot different than a sewer pipe. The stuff will kill all the roots and the plants.

 

[gr865]

Would not use Copper Sulfate at all, used to use it in golf course ponds for algae control. But not a lake that was used for irrigation.