Those of you who use water pipes/fence posts - how do you clean them on the inside?

[Android]

Or do you clean them at all?
I am using a brush, but it is tedious work and requires removal of caps and re-siliconing them back again. The residue is also dried up, and there is no way to soak the whole rail anywhere.

I was wondering - what if I mix the water with some cleaning agent like Star San and run it through the system after the harvest - would that do the trick, or would I still have to open them up and scrub with a brush?

How do you solve this problem, or is this a problem at all?

Here are some pics:

Thanks in advance

 

[Mr White]

Re: Those of you who use water pipes/fence posts - how do you clean them on the insid

This was Mr. Smiths advice on this subject that I cut and pasted, it served me well;

Let me take the time as to how I use the aeroflo unit. After the system was broken down and cleaned using dish detergent and bleach, sponge and brush with handle, because I didn't do a good cleaning job when I put it away. I pour straight bleach into the laser lines and let them soak then I use a pump and a bucket and run the laserjet lines in the shower for 15 minutes making sure no clogs are in the lines. I then reassemble and fill the machine all the way up with water from tap and let it run for 24 hours or more. After that, I drain the system, check and wipe the reservoir for any old roots I might of missed, then refill with water I plan to run with the clones. This extra run of water makes sure I remove or dilute any soap or bleach residues that may hamper the growing process and knock loose any solid contaminates like dried roots you might miss during the cleaning phase. After the system is running again I rotate the jets to 90degree and set the water height to the bottom of the potnet at the other end of the machine. The pot net at the front of the machine will be submerge by a 1/4 to a 1/2 inch. This gives the roots a chance to bush out from the plant and the first week I run the pump 24/7. Within 3 to 5 days I lower the height to the bottom of the potnets at the front of the machine, after a week I lower the height about a 1/2 to 1 inch from the bottom of the potnet and set the pump to run for 12 hours while the light is on and 2times for 15 minutes while lights are off. This allows the water to cool down when light is off and lets the roots develope its heavy drinkers. After the second week it depends on it I am in veg or in flower. Veg I lower another inch, flower I set the height to 1 inch from the bottom then leave alone. You can play and deviate or change the water height to your liking and the plants will grow fine except if you keep the water height up too high for too long the roots will bush under the plant and the center mass doesn't get enough oxygen and water movement and will develop slime that can cause rapid ph drop. I ran the system and played with different heights with different grows and found this out. As for going too low, it depends on the size of the plants, you can really fill these tubes up with roots. 1/2 inch is about the lowest I go but I prefer a inch with smaller plants. After the grow is done I break down and rinse the root matter out of the system, reassemble and fill halfway with water and a cup or 2 of clearing solution(flora kleen) and run for 1 to 2 hours, drain, refill and reload with the next batch of clones. As for filters, the 60 had a metal screen so I use a toothbrush. The spongy filters I clean with plain water and squeezing it repeatedly, detergents or bleach can damage these type of filters.

 

[jacksonmike]

Re: Those of you who use water pipes/fence posts - how do you clean them on the insid

Mixing water with some good cleaning agent is a good idea but do not use lime the reason being lime or any chemicals should not be used is their toxicity.