yooooo!!! seriously had to ROFLMAO at this one,cause be damned if i aint in the same friggin boat right along with you!!! lmaosome of you guys are going to way to much trouble with the hydroton. I bought a 50lb sack back in 2007 thinking I would need to keep replacing after each grow. Still have 40 lbs unused and stashed in the attic from 5 years ago.
I rinsed the original 10lbs, plugged into my rdwc baskets and have been using the same hydroton for the last 20 grows or so. When a grow finishes, I dump the hydroton into 5 gallon bucket, fill with tap water, fish net any remaining plant matter floating off the top, drain and start the next grow.
no washing, sterilizing etc. I haven't had one problem doing it this way and my hydroton looks just like it did 5 years ago when I first started using it.
rinse the dust off the new and get to growing.
was gonna run my 3gl grow bags with dripper rings filled with hydroton, decided that DWC was a better way to go and now i have a tripled/3ml/contractor bag filled 3/4 the way of hydroton.
with the way i have my system set up now i keep a old 2gl bucket filled with hydroton off to the side to use as i need it Or when its time to transplant cuts from the cups to the cloner and i have barely began to make a dent in that 2gl bucket of hydroton.
i use sucha small amount of hydroton at a time that all i have to do is(once a grow is done) keep a 16oz cup of water close by and dump the hydroton in it and let it soak. i use 1.5" net cups so i can dump about 4-5 netcups worth of hydroton in one 16oz cup and not worry about it until im ready to use it.
ROFLMAO, i thought i was the only dick on here that had shitloads of this stuff layin around with no real use for all of it.