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Best way to clean hydroton?

Jedi

Jedi

"Madam, Miss Otis regrets, she's unable to lunch t
ICMag Donor
Oggy said:
toss yer balls in a pressure cooker for 45 mins at 15lbs... no chemicals... and the shit comes out completely sterile...
Click to expand...

Top Tip man !
shot for sharing !


I,ll have mine in a huge bucket filled with water and let it sit there for a few days.

Scoop the balls with one of these things to make sure i leave most of the old roots and dust behind
6731244599538693754225.jpg


Do 3-4 flushed if i feel i need to.

Also add some H2O2 or bleach for good measure !!!
 
samba

samba

Active member
Just a tought...
What about popping the hydroton in the oven and fry the shit out of it. Wouldn't the roots just burn to ash and then be very easy to wash off?
Never tried it, don't even use hydroton, because of the washing aspect...
 
Jedi

Jedi

"Madam, Miss Otis regrets, she's unable to lunch t
ICMag Donor
samba said:
Just a tought...
What about popping the hydroton in the oven and fry the shit out of it. Wouldn't the roots just burn to ash and then be very easy to wash off?
Never tried it, don't even use hydroton, because of the washing aspect...
Click to expand...

I love the ideas us growers come up with !

Sweet idea !
 
D

_Dude

Member
I have a bunch of net pot lids sitting around from a DWC grow when I didn't know better than to use that overcomplicated shit. They're basically just big net pots (2 gallon I guess) built into a lid designed to fit a 5 gallon bucket. I have bunches of 5 gallon buckets with holes in the bottom from the same DWC clusterfuck. So I go outside with my bucket, lid, hydroton, and an extra 5 gallon bucket with no holes, and plunk it all down near the garden hose. Oh yeah, and a third bucket to plunk down upside down so I have a place to park my butt.

Fill net pot lid about halfway with 'ton, rinse, agitate (bounce it on one side up and down) and rinse. Just a couple of minutes. Dump the 'ton in the second bucket. Repeat until bucket is full, carry it inside, dump it, repeat until all 'ton is clean.

Really simple. To clean roots and such is even easier. You can do this indoors. Just wait until the root-infested 'ton is dry enough that the roots break up easily. Maybe a month. Do the same thing as above, except it's all agitation and no water. Works like magic, all the dusty root mater ends up in the bottom of your bucket and you have nice tidy 'ton. You have to pick out the occasional bit that's too big to fall through, but it's not too bad. Then you can take it outside and wash it if you want.

Same methods work for red lava rock, but it takes a bit longer because it's so dirty out of the bag.

I am a lazy bitch and this method is no big deal to me at all. I spend maybe 2 to 4 hours a month cleaning my media (from 2 1k SOGs mind you, which means a shitload of media), and I'm sitting on my ass the whole time. My biggest problem is storage space for all that shit. I need to buy a bunch of 5 gallon buckets. Too many of mine have holes in them, lol.
 
R

Rowdy420

Member
I do a 25 gallon tub of em in the washing machine and my clean up is rinsing the inside of the washing machine down so the Old lady don't chew my ass for leaving debris behind. I've been doing this for quite a while ( over 12 years) and my Maytag still runs like a champ. If you want to get that "acid wash" look of the 90's back throw your jeans in with a batch of hydroton, lol.

Good luck, Peace
 
Greenwich Pope

Greenwich Pope

Member
Rowdy420 said:
One again I share the one thing most households have and use to clean any way is the washing machine. You throw it in put a doseage of Hydrogen peroxide, put the machine to its longest agitation cycle. Sit back and share a bowl wait till its done spinning and scoop out the pellets. Good as new and not too labor intensive. You will have to give the tub a rinse before another load of clothes. By the way I use a top load washing machine not sure if the new front loaders would work. Good luck, peace.
Click to expand...

What about a laundry bag, like they use at 'Ma's House'?
Seems like it would work :ying:
 
R

Rowdy420

Member
That sure-to-fail stuff is crap! I totally agree with SoCo, if your not reusing the hydroton your a complete idiot.

Yo, Greenwich Pope I'm sure the bag would work out good! Hell you might even be able to use a front loader?
 
paladin420

paladin420

FACILITATOR
Veteran
Hey all. I started with actual pea stone 30 years ago. So I gotta just say,man the fuk up!!!
Cleanin is hard wwaaa wwwaaa... Sorry I'm still in love with hydroton (so r my gurls BTW)
I multi tub now with a big ass plaster drill added for agitation. Will b upgradeing to Brother Rowdy's machine method soon with 1 addon. A clean dedicated shop vac to suck the little bastards out.good luck
 
R

Rowdy420

Member
^^ damn good idea, way to take it a little farther with the vacuum. Seriously scoping them out is the only real work in this method and with a vacuum you've taken all the work out, brilliant!
 
A

abuldur

Member
Washing machine sounds like a bad idea the red dust is created because of the agitation/friction.

I run aquafarms and the amount of hydrothon i have to deal with is overwhelming.

Best solution so far is: manufacturing some sort of filter you can put on your bathtub's drain fill the tub with hydrothon, water(ph 5,8) and a bottle of food grade 30% peroxide hydrogen (oxyboost) let it sit for the night and then open the drain.Hydrogen peroxide (food grade) is safe (well it dissolves proteins so you better have gloves and glasses when using it ) and will be completely gone within 24 hours.Do not panic the shit will start making all sorts of noises and bubbles when you will poor it in.

Et voilà ,sterile as can be non toxic and easy.All you will have to do is scoop up the mud(water/dust vacuum cleaner) from the bottom of your tub and thats it.

If you do not want to skip a bath it also works in large trash cans but you will have to drill a hole in the bottom (it is important that the water comes out by the bottom of your container taking the mud away.)
I just skip a bath but i am French .We hardly ever wash .

peace
 
R

Rowdy420

Member
"it is important that the water comes out by the bottom of your container taking the mud away."

WOW, wouldn't the washing machine do this? That's what they are designed for, bring in clean water from the top, agitate and get rid of the dirt(red dust) out the bottom. If you've NEVER tried it, why knock it? "Sounds like a bad idea", sounds like to me you have never tried, maybe you should try; it won't ruin your washer in one run (I haven't had any issues and I wouldn't put bad information out to ruin your washer's) and you can be the judge. Heck your clothes in the washer put more stress on it than running a batch of hydroton, the red dust just gets pumped out to your drain.

This method is for peeps doing more than a bucket full of hydroton.

Can't believe people will come on here and discredit something with out trying it, I'm not gaining anything with sharing this information other than helping make others life easier!

Good luck, Peace
 
S

Scotsman

Ive only done it the once,however all I done was peirce the bottom of a 50litre bag with a screwdriver a good few times,open up the bag and place it it the bath with the cold water tap (more pressure) on full till all the red dyes running clear.

Simples!
 
B

burny downz

Member
as the starter of this thread I must say I have learned some new practices as to cleaning of this stuff, definetly some things I willl try. However even in my doing a general agitation, bleaching and drying of the rock (as I normally did) I still find some pieces with a white salt build-up left on them.....could it be from the bleach or is it holding some sort of nutrient residue?? Should I be wary of using those frosted pieces?? Thanx....BD
 
Pseudo

Pseudo

just do it
Veteran
get 2- 5 gallon buckets, drill about 100 7/16" holes evenly all over first bucket, bottom, sides etc.. place that bucket in undrilled bucket, fill 2/3 the way up with hydroton, add water, mix, pull drilled bucket out of undrilled bucket quickly while lightly shaking, this will get most of the dead roots off the hydroton, the water will be brown and nasty with tons of dead roots, the reason this works waaaay better than a couple holes in the bottom is the speed in which the water exits the drilled bucket, the roots dont have time to re attach to the hydroton, you can use 2 undrilled buckets if you want them really clean, good luck
 
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