Hydro-ton Expanded Clay Cleaning ?

[hydrodude]

OK is this stuff possible to clean? i have just spent 30min cleaning one buckets worth of the stuff and i put it in my pot hooked everything up and after 10min the resi was dirty AGAIN!!! and had sedient in the bottom. Should i keep going or should i just not worry about it?

[Guest weekprik]

easy as to clean,

 

fill your bath with water and throw the hydroton in to it, the balls float and the shit sinks,

Just use a sieve to pick up the floating balls, and your set.

also make sure you sterilise it, the best thing to use is oxyplus or similar available at your hydro supplier, you can also use oxyplus in your nutes and it will increase the available oxygen to the roots.

[hydrodude]

Is it neccasary to steralize it? And how much should i use? how much should i add to my resi? i have 50litres of water in it ;-)

 

Are there any negative side affects to using oxyplus? Anhd is there a over the counter from wollies alternative? i just made my trek to the hydro shop and it is a 2 hour round trip so i dont wanna go back .....

[Paranoid]

Hey nimer,

All i do is first tip them all in a bucket of "HOT" water and grab handfulls rubbing them togeather, Just to get everything loose, Then, Doing a bit at a time (a few hand fulls) put them in a large seive, The large ones used for pasta.

I turn the bath hot water tap to full and place the seive under while shaking, Use heaps of preasure and you will see all the brown come off, When the water is clean/clear, I'm done.

If you slowly poor these out into your now clean bucket, The plant matter should be stuck to the bottem of the seive, Repeat till all done.

I've never worried to much about getting them perfect as any small leftover bits will wash into the nutes and be thrown out at first water change.

 

Safe over the counter sterilizer would be H202 (hydrogen peroxide).

You can get this at any supermarket or chemist.

Edited May 19, 2003 by Paranoid

[Guest weekprik]

the name of the stuff i use is Xtreme oxygen, it is a sterilizer, anti-fungal(stops root rot), and a oxygenator,

but its the same as oxyplus,

 

its is 50% hydrogen peroxide, so dont know whats different to the chemist stuf???

but i wouldnt put anything not meant for hydro in my plants, just not worth the risk.

you use 2ml per 10 litres of nutrient solution, every 2 days, to avoid mould, bacteria, pythium.

for cleaning and sterilizing use at 4ml per 10 ltr,

 

hope this helps,

 

oh a 250ml bottle costs me $10-00.

Edited May 19, 2003 by weekprik