How to clean/sterilize hydroton for reuse

[Alaskan1]

So first things first. Do you reuse your hydroton but cleaning it is just a PITA???
I have a solution to get it clean and any bad bacteria or bugs done killed!

Items you will need
1. Bleach
2. H202 ( depending on how much hydroton you may need a few gallons)
3. 5 gallon buckets
4. Large spoon
5. Cheap cement mixer
6. Thin metal grating used for rabbit/chicken pens
7. 3 clamps

First thing I do is get a 5 gallon bucket and fill it 3/4 full with the old hydroton. I then add ONE cup of H202 and then fill with water. Get ready to watch the fizz! I have a metal spoon that I stir it all up with. The old roots will start to float to the top. I go back every hour for the first few hours and give it a stir. After 24 hours I skim the top of the water to get rid of the roots that have floated to the top.

Now it's ready to go into the cement mixer. easily had for around 140 bucks.

I found the screen at home depot and form fitted it to fit the lip of the mixer and as you can see it's held in place by the clamps. After the hydroton is in and the screen is on I fill it with one cup bleach and then turn it on and filler up!! Your're going to have to move the mixer pod down until water just starts to splash out of the pod. This is when most of the roots will surface.

You can see the foamin action!

I let it run for a good 5 minutes and then start to lower the bucket as I keep putting the water in. I can see the old roots sticking to the screen. I remove the screen at least once and I rinse off the screen getting rid of the roots that are sticking to it. As you can see there ARE roots stuck to the screen.

Once I think I've gotten all the roots and have rinsed it well enough I stop and let everything drain. Then into the bucket it goes

And there you have it. Now you have nice clean sterilized hydroton. One thing I still do though is once the hydroton is in the system and before I've put my clones in is that I use a very HEAVY dose of DM Zone in the res and let that run (flood and drain) for 24 hours and then flush the system out twice before I put my clones in. Using this system of cleaning I have never had root rot issues ever appear.

Hope this helps some people!

 

[GigaGrew]

super idea with the screen over the mixer. that will come in handy when i want to mix my soil, i can let it pour out through the mesh and it will hold back the lumpy bits for a better soil =D

 

[SmokzAlot]

It's not all about growing... there is work to do

 

[GigaGrew]

haha MY work is to make work feel less like work

 

[Alaskan1]

super idea with the screen over the mixer. that will come in handy when i want to mix my soil, i can let it pour out through the mesh and it will hold back the lumpy bits for a better soil =D

lol not what I had in mind but glad it gave you an idea

 

[Alaskan1]

It's not all about growing... there is work to do

Right now I have about 250 pounds to clean. I have it all backed up in my garage waiting for a warmer day to do it.

 

[GigaGrew]

thats a lotta work!
thos to be fair im working pretty hard right now myself..its actually no fun at all making hundreds of little holes in 2l bottles...i want to grow hundreds of plants..i need a new plan for air pots lol

 

[BigIrishDoode]

isnt there a enzymatic cleaner you ca soak the hydroton in that dissolves the roots? then you just sterilize?

 

[GigaGrew]

no idea, but my most recent chat with fuzzy duck has been a revelation.
i did plan on filling a swimming pool with the stuff, but looking at genuine air pots, i dont think i need any hydroton to clean...ever =D

smartpots, mud, water pool and seeds...sow,grow and go...no work needed between seeding and harvest

 

[jandre2k3]

Yup, I'll go right out and get a cement mixer.

Just funnin'

Well done, if a little on the commercial construction side.

 

[GigaGrew]

i know it sounds a bit too obvious or something, but whats wrong with just having a res of the 30 odd% h2o2 to soak them in, wouldnt that pretty much annihilate anything organic given enough time.
just reuse the same h2o2 for all dunking almost like a chip shop fryer till its no longer viable.

 

[SmokzAlot]

I am afraid re-using H2o2 is not feasible. It begins to decompose once exposed to light, any contamination also further degrades its shelf life. Hence the reason it is best stored sealed in a cool dark place, and not sold in clear containers..

 

[GigaGrew]

I am afraid re-using H2o2 is not feasible. It begins to decompose once exposed to light, any contamination also further degrades its shelf life. Hence the reason it is best stored sealed in a cool dark place, and not sold in clear containers..

cool thats ok, im sure that if we think more like a dishwasher then and recirculate the h2o2 for the wash cycle and just work out what volume of hydroton it could clean before becoming useless.....the efficiency thing could be worked on, but would it do the job?

 

[SmokzAlot]

I believe you would get longer service from readily available chlorine, achieving the same result. A good final rinse and let dry in the sun, then its golden.

 

[Alaskan1]

As Smokz said the stuff is pretty much useless once it's been out for 3 or 4 days and the reason for the cement mixer is with the water running into the mixer it helps push all the old roots out of the hydroton. Beats the living shit out of either buying new hydroton or trying to clean that shit in your bathtub.

 

[GigaGrew]

so i was down the shops yesterday shopping for bits. i got a new air pump that cost nearly £30 quid....holy shit, its suspended in the air to prevent vibrations but the bloody bubbles are happening so hard that its vibrating the house! i can feel my bubbler going and im sat in the lounge below my grow room

anyways point being, while there i saw these 'filter balls' not sure what they do, but they look like state of the art plastic hydroton or something, lol. just wondered if anyone had played with these things?

 

[Hiker]

so i was down the shops yesterday shopping for bits. i got a new air pump that cost nearly £30 quid....holy shit, its suspended in the air to prevent vibrations but the bloody bubbles are happening so hard that its vibrating the house! i can feel my bubbler going and im sat in the lounge below my grow room

anyways point being, while there i saw these 'filter balls' not sure what they do, but they look like state of the art plastic hydroton or something, lol. just wondered if anyone had played with these things?

Maybe they are a media for a water filter for aquariums? I think I recall seeing something like that when I used to keep fish. I think they are used in de-ionizer filters, but don't take my word for it. Perhaps a search along those lines might help you identify what you saw?

 

[Alaskan1]

New twist to the cleaning procedure. DO NOT USE BLEACH. Corey from BPN said It's not needed. YaY!

 

[Hiker]

New twist to the cleaning procedure. DO NOT USE BLEACH. Corey from BPN said It's not needed. YaY!

Is it a case of "can't hurt, might help" though? Does using the bleach make the cleaning process more difficult?

I'm going to have a hard time not using the bleach. Strong H2O2 is too expensive to use on bathtubs full of rock, IMHO. I always used to soak my rock in the tub for 30+ minutes to make sure everything was dead. I would run a fairly strong H2O2 solution through the system before adding plants though. Of course I may add DM Zone to my mix this time. I really like this stuff. Thanks again

 

[FrankFoster]

My buddy uses a 15 gallon pot and boils all of his his stuff in his back-yard on his out-door cooker. He is absolutely adamant that things be cleaned to the max, because he is not wasting his time fighting problems for weeks that he could have resolved in a few hours at the start. He even wipes his lights down with a bleach rag and after he cleans his pots and containers and trays, he puts it all int he dishwasher, no heat with a bactal agent soap.

Before he uses soil, or even brings it into his area he bakes it himself in his backyard pizza oven and his entry to the room has a place to strip down. You don't even go in there if you aren't willing to strip down naked. And BTW, he has gone for years without problems... discipline is key.