waterfarm & grow rocks don't use bleach

[bitpoop21]

I think I figured it out. I used bleach to clean my grow rocks and flushed them well. I have the 8 pack water farm GN.
my plants are sick and they do not match anything on the nutrients problem solver page. I thought it was ph but now I think it is the bleach I used to clean.
I put two plants in bubbler and 8 in the waterfarm.
the plants in the bubbler are kicking ass the ph I just checked was 7.0
the waterfarm never went above 6.8 and are sick upward cupped leaves/burnt
so Im sure its the bleach.

[Power13]

I've heard that if you use bleach you need to let your rocks sit in plain water, so that the bleach leaches out of the rocks. Not sure on time-frame, but I would think at least 24 hours, flushing the water out several times.

[FreezerBoy]

May I asked the strength of your solution? I use a 3-5% solution (and a DAMN good rinse) for all my sterilizing needs and have never experienced your problems.

[bitpoop21]

I used like two cups of bleach per 3 gal of water.
I flushed them good then I let them sit in a nutrient mix for 24 hours.
then flushed again.
I could not smell bleach. I am using canna aqua veg at 500 ppm
it must be the bleach because the bubbler has no problems the same mix went into both. I pumped the nutrient mix over the grow rocks that are in the waterfarm. It is helping and I got new growth that looks good.
I wanted to flower at 1 foot but I gess two feet now.
the bubbler 5 gal bucket with a Styrofoam top I used 5'' net pots.
the bubbler has the best plants big dark green leaves.
I have done ebb and flow,dirt, waterfarm, but the bubbler is the best.

[uncle_shorty]

Its not the bleach.

My plants LOVE bleach, at least clorox I know for sure.

Ive let hydroton sit in a full gallon of bleach with about 9 gallons of water for weeks then I rinsed, I could still smell bleach, bleach had to be all up inside the rocks and my plants in the water farms LOVE it. come to think of it that was the best gro Ive ever had.

Well it wasnt exactly hydroton, it was Jong Grond dutch rock but those are just more edgy hydroton, not round perfect balls.

[bitpoop21]

ill have to post photos if its bleach burn the photo needs to go under plant
problems. I posted pic before with the same problem with no response.

[krustytheclown]

I have been using WaterFarm's and Hydroton for years. All you need to do with new Hydroton is:

1) Fill up a large bucket or a sink with water
2) Fill bucket/sink with the Hydroton
3) Swish the Hydroton around until it is all saturated and agitated. You can let it sit for a few minutes, too if you like.
4) Scoop up the Hydroton, let it drip for a moment to get the excess water off
5) Put it in a bucket or straight into your WaterFarm
6) Let the Hydroton air dry overnight
7) Use

If you are referring to re-using Hydroton from an old grow, I suggest you don't. Hydroton is inexpensive and you'll spend as much time, if not more, trying to recycle it. If you *have* to use recycle it, perhaps Hydrogen Peroxide would do the trick. I don't have any practical experience with this, so if someone does, please chime in.

[Grand Funk]

If you are referring to re-using Hydroton from an old grow, I suggest you don't. Hydroton is inexpensive and you'll spend as much time, if not more, trying to recycle it. If you *have* to use recycle it, perhaps Hydrogen Peroxide would do the trick. I don't have any practical experience with this, so if someone does, please chime in.
Yeah man, hydroton is made to be re-used. Most of us don't wanna lug the 30L bags of the shit up into our homes. Safer, and cheaper to rinse the salts off and recycle. It is afterall an inert medium. 3 cups for 3 gallons is a BIT much though. Try and cut that back to 1 cup/5 gallon tub. Soak for a few hrs, then rinse the shit outta them.

Perhaps your plants don't like your 6.8-7.0 ph brother? Drop that shit down to 5.6-6.0 and see how they love it. Your numbers aren't even good for a soil grow. Just my :2cents:

[iamgrowerman]

It doesn't sound like you were using grow rocks to me. More like hydroton. Grow rocks shouldn't really retain anything, bleach or nutrients.

Even porous lava rock rinses pretty easily. Maybe sandstone would be tough, but that doesn't make good grow rocks. Whatever the case you can just soak the grow rocks in water for awhile to leach out the bleach (or nutrients) like they've suggested here.

Anything that can get soaked into anything can be soaked right back out of it. It doesn't matter if it's grow rocks, a sponge, or your living room carpet. The reason some things, like stains, don't seem to come out is because something in them bonds to what they've soaked into. If it's really bonded into the grow rocks it isn't a problem because it wouldn't come back out and hurt the plants, but it might react with nutrients. That's why everyone stresses using proper quality nutrients so much - cut-rate fertilizers don't stay dissolved as easily and can start to form more complex and insoluble substances. Getting all that crud into porous grow rocks can make your nutrients less effective or even eventually harmful.

[JackKerouac]

Bleach is nasty stuff. I use h2o2 and hygrozyme and have never had any problems.

I would suggest a tapwater tupperware leach adjusted to 5.8 ph for your woes.