How do you clean your hydro rocks?

[OMountainMix]

I rinse, cook at 500 degrees for a few hours, rinse, cook, rinse, cook, until there is no plant detritus when I rinse. I've refined my process a bit lately. I use a collander to remove the rocks from the bathtub after a rinse, and I'm rinsing the collander between each scoop. Also, I"m cleaning the bathtub good after each rinse. I also rinse before I cook, which I have only been doing for the last 2 rounds.

 

[danimal7]

man , i've seen guy go 4 grows with the same rock and it worked just fine..... I boiled mine in a 5gal steel pot over a campfire and noticed a white ring left behind on the pot ,SALT I assumes ...so I guess cooking prob the best...
hydrogen peroxide or any other solution maybe not so safe...no matter how week,

 

[mrwags]

I used to clean mine every gorw but with a bunch of buckets its a birtch. I found that pulling the inner bucket after cutting I would let it set a day or so to dry out. I then grap the cutoff root and pull out the rootball clean as could be. I've tried this when they were wet and had to dig and dig so the extra day imo was worth it.

I've used these balls for a year now and the girls keep going and going and going.


Have A Great Day
Mr.Wags

 

[CovertCrops]

Laundry sink, high pressure hose, and a screen. 5 gal buckets can be used to soak hydroton in if nessecary. This method is super fast and works great.

 

[Bud-Boy]

soak in hygrozyme in the sun in a dark container to heat up
rise repeatedly

 

[OMountainMix]

so many different ideas! i have found that if i wash the rocks as each plant is done, it's not that big of a deal. it's a matter of just doing it. and of course one thing i'm working with has 4 turbogardens and those are sweet, b/c there just aren't that many rocks. although we almost lost 2 of them this week, b/c all we did was rinse the rocks. never had ANY problem with rinsing and baking. plus it's just using water, so there isn't any other kind of residue.

my husband says the salts can poison a plant if the rocks are cleaned. i don't know b/c we haven't been willing to take the chance. he also says that the red residue from them can choke a plant, like when buying new rocks. so we always rinse new ones. in fact, i think dust/salts are what upset our plants this week. we pumped everything out of the res, wiped it down, flushed the pumps, and then ran them with clean water, hydrobact, and hygrozyme. they recovered. start feeding cycle again in a couple more days . . . .

i don't have room in my home for a laundry sink, but i think that would be a good way to do it.

 

[memyselfandi]

I tried numerous methods, and found a "perfect" one for me.

I use a fruit crate (plastic one) as a screen dump a bucket into it and rise in high pressure.

http://images2.justlanded.com/class...crate-bottle-crate-storage-box-204667-5so.jpg

Then use ph 4 water solution in the system to wash any leftovers of nutrient for 3 days then add peroxide for 1 day, flush the system.

New water then add aquarium water to get the good bacterias starting.

 

[FreezerBoy]

I soak in a 5% bleach solution followed by a long rinse. Been using the same rocks for a couple of years.

 

[magicmaker]

I soak in a 5% bleach solution followed by a long rinse. Been using the same rocks for a couple of years.

same here.

I wash the rocks in their respective netpots to get as much root material gone as possible from the previous grow before i put them in my 35 gallon reservoir with bleach/water solution and then after a soak and drain, I rinse, rinse, rinse. Hell i even run bleach through my system to clean it out and steralize it then rinse it a couple of times as well. Every grow cycle i have been doing this and never been a victim of root rot or had nasty bacterial growth in my res; knock on wood tho.

 

[OMountainMix]

i want to know if baking them in a gas-powered oven is a bad idea or whether it even matters? my partner has gas at his spot, so right now, since we're not sure, we're cooking all the rocks at my house. . . . better safe than sorry.