Are you serious about cloning? Keeping your system sterile is crucial for success, and establishing a 24-hour oxidizer baseline is one way to ensure that your system is free from contaminants. This involves establishing a low-dose concentration of oxidizer that isn't completely eliminated in 24 hours.
To perform this test, you'll need plain bleach and pool test strips that contain both "free" and "total" chlorine values. Here's how to establish an oxidizer baseline for your cloning system:
- Clean your cloner and PermaClone collars according to the manual and circulate 3-5 mL/gal bleach overnight.
- Dump the cloner and fill it with the water source you use for cloning. Add 0.2-0.3 mL/gal bleach and test and record the free and total chlorine levels.
- The next day, test and record again. If free chlorine went to zero, spike again with 0.2-0.3 mL/gal and repeat until you can maintain the free chlorine overnight. Test your water source separately by dumping and refilling the system and testing with the same dosage of bleach used previously.
- Once you can maintain 1-3 ppm free chlorine for 24 hours and your water supply tests negative for contamination, you can be confident that the system is free of organic matter and that you interact with the system in a clean way.
Establishing a 24-hour oxidizer baseline takes time and effort, but it's worth it to ensure the success of your cloning system.