Rinsing HYDROTON: most effective method/tricks...?

[HellaFella420]

I been washing hydroton for years on and off, not just the initial rinse to get the clay dust out, but reusing it and having to get little leaf crumbles and root hairs out the mix....


The best I have managed to come up with is a trash can with a 1inch "bulkhead fitting" and valve near the bottom


Fill the slut up with water and swirl it around real good, then open the valve and let it all flow out.... it works real well except for the floaty stuff [tends to be the shit im trying to remove dammit] which just gets caught up in the rocks when the water drains...

The only "better" thing I can think of would be to make an archeology style sift-box with like 1/2" screen to screen it over [this would also then fulfill my want/need to seperate the different sizes of hydroton from eachother]

gawd I wish HYDROTON sold it in a "large size" and "small size" not just the comingled version..



ANY TIPS TRICKS OR IDEAS MUCH APPRECIATED!

 

[HellaFella420]

Nothing?

 

[ljjr]

although i don't use near as many, i take mine and put them in those laundry garment bags and let them go thru each cycle twice. i haven't had any problems yet.

 

[HellaFella420]

Interesting, I would think agitation like that would make them chip/crumble new detrius as much as rinse out the old?

 

[ogatec]

thats actually a good contraption you got there....i dont think you can really do much better...

edit- using an enzyme product will help with all the little floaty root hairs & stuff. aftr that i think its really nitpicking to try & get it much cleaner.

 

[one Q]

Dump into washing machine. Fill with plain HOT water.
When full, SKIP to spin. NO Agitation.

How many times depends on how much you have. Supposedly 1 cycle per 5gallon bucket full.

 

[gus738]

so put the water on hot and when washer full of water make it go to spin ?