How to reuse expanded clay balls

Does anyone know a good way of cleaning expanded clay balls. Please help

Ok, it's actually a lot easier than you would think. You start by getting a large, 45 gallon trash can. Then pour all your used hydroton/expanded clay aggregate into it. Now the tricky part...Take the trashcan, and put it on the corner on trash day...Then head to the hydro store and pick up a couple new 50l bags of hydroton.

But in all seriousness...Soak in h202 water or bleach water, try to manually separate s many roots as possible, and thoroughly rinse like 3 times. There's no easy way to do it, really.

Bucket of hot water and a cup(125ml) of household bleach will kill any bacteria and fungi spores

vostok said:

Bucket of hot water and a cup(125ml) of household bleach will kill any bacteria and fungi spores

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Bucket? Haha...I guess we're working on different scales. I need a couple 30 gallon totes...

I like to build a simple rocker table with a fine screen stapled to the bottom. I dump my hydroton into the table getting the big stuff out by hand. I let it dry well with a fan blowing on it then i will rock/shake the table which lets the loose dry plant matter fall through or collect on the bottom. I take my screened hydroton dump it back into a 55 gallon trash can and then add hot water and about 3 cups bleach and stir it up washing it. I then after few hours dump it back onto the screen table thats been cleaned off and rinse it with a hose.. i dont know how much your talking about but I usually have few hundred pounds of it to do after a grow so you can scale it down if need be.

I put mine in a 5 gallon bucket with a bit of water, add a little AquaShield, forget about it for awhile and let the bacteria go to town on the old root bits. Then I soak in a weak bleach solution for a day or two before I rinse and reuse. Guess you could upscale it using a trash can or large tote or something. But the bacteria do a good job breaking down the leftover organic stuff. Comes out really clean.

Dry sift out roots on windy day with dust mask. Then soak in a bleach solution then rinse all dust.

Throw it away.

FilthyFletch *LIKE*
I don't like bleach though. I use a "strong" H2O2 solution I mix from 40% H2O2 I get from Beauty supply stores for about $5 a qrt.

Both Bleach and H202 will work. Bleach costs about $1.00 a gallon and is just as safe as H202 just cleans a bit better then H202.

adower said:

Throw it away.

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The thing is for me, it's actually more work to prepare and rinse new hydroton as it comes out of the bag. After cleaning and rinsing it for use once, it's cleaner/faster/easier to re-use it the next time. But hydroton dust in reservoirs is a pet peeve of mine - probably doesn't bother other people as much.

SableZen said:

The thing is for me, it's actually more work to prepare and rinse new hydroton as it comes out of the bag. After cleaning and rinsing it for use once, it's cleaner/faster/easier to re-use it the next time. But hydroton dust in reservoirs is a pet peeve of mine - probably doesn't bother other people as much.

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I've reused hydroton for as long as eight years. At 7 x 40L bags per 4x8 tray times 6 trays (just an example I ran for the 8 years) equals 42 bags times 6 runs a year equals over 250 bags / yr. Times 8 years equals 2000 bags. I'll let you do the cost analysis. Lazy don't get paid.

One thing that works great is to leave it outside in the sun. Nothing better then sun and drying to clean and sterilize. Root fragments simply blow away once theyj're dried. But that presupposes a private area and some trays to dry it in...
JD

Pour them from the netcups into a bucket, then put them back in the netcups. Bang on the roots to get all the balls loose.

Done. No muss, no fuss.

SnapsProvolone said:

I've reused hydroton for as long as eight years. At 7 x 40L bags per 4x8 tray times 6 trays (just an example I ran for the 8 years) equals 42 bags times 6 runs a year equals over 250 bags / yr. Times 8 years equals 2000 bags. I'll let you do the cost analysis. Lazy don't get paid.

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I agree with you there - the cost savings isn't to be ignored either. There's so many other ways I'd rather spend my money on this hobby than unnecessarily throwing away something that's fully reusable with no real drawback. And as far as I'm concerned it's more work to throw it out anyway. One of the few places in growing where I can both be lazy and save money.

Wow. Thanks everyone, I've only got the 4 pot so not as big as some of you. Thanks everyone that contributed, it really helped

SableZen said:

I agree with you there - the cost savings isn't to be ignored either. There's so many other ways I'd rather spend my money on this hobby than unnecessarily throwing away something that's fully reusable with no real drawback. And as far as I'm concerned it's more work to throw it out anyway. One of the few places in growing where I can both be lazy and save money.

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Not to mention, if not in a legal state, you eliminate another risky trip to the grow store and no need to dispose of old rox.