Quick Couple Hydro(Ebb n. Flow) Qustions

Alright so my grow area is split up between a grow room with two flood trays and two reservoirs (soon to be 3 and 3) with 3 HID 600's above them. My other room is the vegroom and uses 2 flood trays powered by one reservoir under t5 fixtures. Both rooms add up to around 15sq ft.

Now my questions have to to with the cleaning process in between grows. We just pulled the plants yesterday and need to get everything ready for the next cycle. One of the major problems we ran into was a spider mite infestation... for the second time in a row... so this cleaning job needs to be focused around never getting spider mites in that room again.

What is the best way to clean your hydroton for reuse? I think I remember seeing somewhere that hydrogen inside a bathtub and stirring them works but what do you guys think?

What is the best way to clean all the flood trays and reservoirs? This needs to be done so that all the algae and shit gets off the trays without damaging the next grow.

What is the best way to clean/spray your room so that no spider mites will enter? This is probably the most important question.

Sorry if I went over everything real quick if you have any questions ill make sure to answer them quickly and thanks for the help! Again this is for spider mite prevention and ensuring that this grow goes better than the last

Stay green , + rep for help

Let me see if I can help.

I clean used hydroton in a 32 gallon trash can. I have a hose attached to a faucet in my basement so I can really blast any root matter loose. I have a stick I can use to stir with. Your bathtub will need cleaning if you use it for hydroton and It might get scratched up too, making it more difficult to clean in the future. I don't use H202 or try to sterilize my 'ton in any way. If you don't have a pathogen problem in your trays or media you don't need to think sterilizing.

Cleaning trays. I prop them on top of the same trash can so the fittings drain into it and blast that out with the hose. I have a scrub brush to remove any algae or nutrient film that has accumulated. Again, I don't generally use a sterilizing agent (maybe a few mls of bleach, if I think things are particularly gooey (they rarely are in my op).

Mite abatement; remove every single thing from your room. vaccuum every nook and cranny. When mites aren't on your plants they are hunkering down in dust and decaying matter. If, like me, you can hose your space, do so and let it dry thoroughly. A hand-pump pressure sprayer filled with ISO alcohol can be used to spray every wall and surface until soaking wet. This will clean mites, but it is unpleasant; Use eye protection and a respirator.

Recontamination is an issue. I have used every product except neem oil to combat mites. I've never had any real success at killing them except with the big guns: Avid and Floramite. Theses are rather expensive but can be bought in small quantities and in veg and early flower will absolutely destroy mite infestations. I use one or the other on clones going into flower and the 4 week residual effect protects the plants far enough into flowering that any late flowering infestation will not be large or very damaging.

I also recommend you use a silica supplement in your nutrients. Dyna-gro Protekt not only makes plants much more resistant to insect damage, but is an awesome pH stabilizer.

HTH

Mites don't fly, but they have webs that can waft them on air currents from one room/plant to another. So recontamination is a real issue; getting them out of your grow room is only as important as keeping them out.

Thanks shnkrmn! I think ill be cleaning them in a large trash can like you said. And im going to try the iso alch on all the walls and surface to see how that works for disinfecting the room. As for the flood trays yeah ill probably only use a little bleach if needed. My hydroponic shop recommended azamax for mites and hygrozyme to help keep the roots healthy while growing in the flood trays. Ive got a technique to keep the algae and get much healthier roots this time around. Time to start vacuuming!

Also has anyone used pest strips for keeping out mites later in the flowering stage if you get an infestation? I just recently read about someone who had success using them.

I haven't had success with them, but I think if you grow in a small, enclosed space like a closet or grow tent that they work.

I have some azamax that I've used as a root drench for fungus gnats but I haven't sprayed with it.

I've used hygrozyme and I'm not impressed. I run inorganic nutes and would rather keep my roots white with a little bleach or H2O2. I rarely use either. I'd have to see a problem first, like foam or cloudiness. Even then, I'd do a major res/tray cleanout first. I've read that hygrozyme is the leach runoff from composted chickenshit so it's microbial in it's own right. As I understand it (I'm often wrong) Hzyme doesn't kill pathogens, it outcompetes them for the food supply of decaying organic material in your rootball, thus preventing pathogens like pythium from multiplying. Good hygiene and temperature control are the best preventative around.

Okay, off my soapbox.

Yeah one of the major issues I ran into this last grow was the roots. I had small pots throughout the flowering process.. which I should have transplanted to bigger pots once i put them in the budding room. And there was too much light hitting the roots that would come out the bottom of the pots into the flood trays. They wouldn't make it very far and just turn brown. I feel as if this lowers their defense against mites making them more vulnerable as well. Im putting panda film over the flood tray sort of like a lid so that no light hits the roots this time around. And im leveling the trays better so they flood more so that there is no sitting water.

Is there any other opinions?