automated hydroton washing

[yamaha_1fan]

Every three weeks I got alot of hydroton to wash. The old method wasnt too bad. Pull it out of the table and vacuum it through a net pot as I emptied the filter. Then clean the table, fill back with hydroton, bleach and rinse. This was about a 4day event as I only can work 4-5 hours per day.

Now I am going to have extra hydroton as I move from beds to pots. So I can now clean the hydroton at my leisure. With one extra load of hydroton, I can have it cleaned and sterilized. Then I just need to empty the table, clean, bleach and rinse, which can be done in one day.

I have several garbage cans to store excess hydroton and one 55 gallon drum. My idea is to put a drain in the 55 gallon drum. Fill it with hydroton and water, then use a pump with filter to recirculate the water. All the loose roots would get trapped in the filter. I was thinking of having a screen covering the barrel, and the water coming from the drain, up and dumping onto the screen. Or having a screen in the bottom.

The real question is will all the roots float to the top or sink? Should I pull from the bottom of the drum and dump into the top? Or pull from the top and pump into the bottom?

[DangerP]

Personally I would pull from the bottom and feed the top. That way you'll get a current going in your drum. At least for me all the crap from the dirty hydroton sinks towards the bottom anyway. If you do get a lot of stuff on the top, make sure the hydroton is mostly below the water level and you can skim it off.

It might also be that you can automate most of the process but not all of it. If you can run it through the system your talking about for a day or two and then put another couple of hours in yourself on the far end that's still a big savings, seems to me. Then you can do the last few things by hand.

I'd also see about putting some kind of cleaner in the drum with the water. Whatever you usually use to clean and sterilize the hydroton normally.

Edited to add: you'll want to agitate the hydroton while it's getting washed. That's probably easiest to do by hand when you're in the room doing other things, but I can see rigging up some kind of mixer that would do it continuously.

[killedkilleryo]

i wonder if you could just rig up an old dishwasher to clean it .that would be the shit.

[yamaha_1fan]

Doesnt seem to be working too well. I have a fitting in the bottom and a pump outside. It draws water up through a tube and back into the top of the drum. It flows onto a screen covering the top of the drum.

I ran it overnight and nothing was caught on the screen.

Tonight I filled the drum all way, lowered the screen, and put the lid on. Since I now have the lid on, I turned the pump on all the way. Before it was splashing too much.


I think the biggest problem was no agitation

[messn'n'gommin']

Please for give my impudence as I have zero experience with using, let alone washing, hydroton, but, I was wondering if putting a large or many air stones at the bottom of the barrel, aerating the water, and letting any beneficial's do the rest?

Namaste, mess

[00420]

toss it in the wood's............switch to perlite...... buy new bag's each run ( twice as much per bag 1/2 the price)...... put old shit to a compost pile.............. use around the yard...... hahaha 5-6hr's @ 10 n hr = $50-60 why waste time :P

i hate washing hydroton.......so much that all never use it again.

[DangerP]

Personally I wouldn't compost perlite. Perlite is glass, so it actually won't decompose like compost does. You'll end up with compost with perlite in it. That isn't the end of the world, but I use my compost on my vegetable garden. If I kept adding perlite to my compost and then putting the compost on my garden the perlite would just keep accumulating, since the plants would use up the compost and leave the perlite behind.

I really like hydroton. It does suck to clean, but I think it's the best of the reusable mediums. I don't like to throw things out after a single use; the less I buy and have to haul into my grow the less chance someone will notice I keep buying shit at the hydro store and hauling it to my grow.

Back on topic, yamaha_1fan, do you think that agitating it periodically would help? Obviously agitating it constantly would be best, but if you stirred it around whenever you were in the room it might improve things somewhat.

[vigilo]

i've read that you dont need to wash out dead roots, just get enzymes to break them down for you. so simple and ur plants will love u for it, hygrozyme

[00420]

Typical analysis of perlite

* 70-75% silicon dioxide: SiO2
* 12-15% aluminium oxide: Al2O3
* 3-4% sodium oxide: Na2O
* 3-5% potassium oxide: K2O
* 0.5-2% iron oxide: Fe2O3
* 0.2-0.7% magnesium oxide: MgO
* 0.5-1.5% calcium oxide: CaO
* 3-5% loss on ignition (chemical / combined water)

DangerP perlite has been used in vegetable garden sence be for you where born..... your right it dont brake down the root's do and the perlite is just a additive to your soil and being reused ...

back on topic... i wonder if one of them sideways washer machine that you see at a laundreymat would work...... hahahahhaa.... do 5 or so gallons at a time.... then vac it out to a bucket? ........lmao

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS169

[DEDHEDFRED]

I`ve been using an old cement mixer with holes drilled in it for cleanin roots outta lava goin on 13 yrs. 00420.........It holds 35 gals of lava and roots per session and takes about an hour and a half to clean up 2 flip rooms worth outta 70 buckets once a month...........

Yamaha.........I think soaking the hydroton in "zymes" as stated above and then draining and run through a solution of bleach first and then H202 would be proper sterilization for re-use after 3 weeks soak and rinse cuz hydroton like lava holds onto residual shit inside from being porous and it needsta be leached out after each grow..........

I soak my coco in zymes between runs getting ready to re-run it and the roots pretty much dissolve to mush and drain out but I rinse repeatedly while allowing the medium to dry out between processes before being put back in the rotations........

Good luck on using containers instead of filling the tables.....I think you`ll be happier with not having to worry about how much solution is left sitting on the bottom due to sagging weight below overflow and drain level while proper drainage control can be maintained......The square pots are the shit for ebb and flow tables.......

Take care and good luck..........DHF............. :joint: ...........