LOL, don’t need perlite in coco, check my coco grow, no perlite at all and plants looking fantastic, one reason I moved to coco is no need of perlite, been wanting to get rid of perlite for a while.
I soaked my coco brick in full strength Jacks 321, I wouldn’t use just water, need some nutes and calmag if not using something like Jacks 321 that has a lot of calcium and magnesium in it.