Cleaning Hydroton?

[blayzin4life]

I have some new unused hydroton to put into my hydro just wonderin how you all clean yours? I flushed it before in my last grow (not reusing now) and i don't think i flushed it right as my ph kept fluctuating badly. I was thinkin' of just just leavin' it in the laundry tub for 48hrs after flushing it with hot n cold water n putting it in te oven for 20mins as i heard bakin' it is a good way to sterelize? I don't want to use ne bleach this time as I think that added to my ph fluctuations last grow. Ne thoughts much appreciated. Peace. Edited September 21, 2008 by blayzin4life

[Ozzy420]

When i reuse clay balls to clean them all i do give a good wash with hot water then make up some water with a hp of around 6 and let soak over night and dump all the water and redo, and then all i do is take the clay balls out of the water as i need them and i have never had any probs cleaning them like that...

[blayzin4life]

Tnx ozy i'm kind of clueless why my ph kept fluctuating so much last two grows either but i could only say the medium or my ph and water hardness. I was using a 2 part nutes this time i'm goin to using some General Hydroponics nutes one parts this grow though Micro Hard Water // Flora Bloom, so i won't be using any ph down to adjust my water but imho i really think i needed to clean the medium for much longer then i did. Do you think a soak aswell after cleaning in the nutes which lower ph would be ok with water as it would be ok stop the crazy ph?

[bufo marinus]

Hydroton won't make your pH fluctuate. I think you'll find it's pH neutral.

What sort of water are you using? If the water is hard adding nutes can set off minor chemical reactions which will mess with the pH, amongst other things, eg root disease. There are a few ways to minimise it.

http://www.flairform.com/hints/adjusting_h...nutrient_ph.htm

Check this guy's web page out, he's a hard water specialist when it comes to nutes, very smart gardening chemist

[blayzin4life]

Tnx bufo marinus for the link it was helpful I was adjusting the Ph before adding my nutes so maybe that was the problem to start with. But will be soaking n cleanin out the hydroton well this time b4 hand I might bake it aswell. Also will if having to adjust the ph AFTER i put my nutes in my res.