Hello everyone, so I came up on some dwc equipment today and I’m trying to find out the steps I need to take before setting it up as far as cleaning or rinsing or whatever. I have a 3 gallon black bucket with a net top that fits on it perfectly, a bag of Hydroton, some air stones and black line and these root riot plugs. I have quite a few questions, do I need to clean this airline? Do I need to clean the Hydroton? How do you clean these things if they need to be cleaned? How do the root riot plugs work? Does the whole plug go inside the net? Do I start the plugs out the way I would in soil? Or do I start running with the pumps from day one? I have a few more questions but let me just start with these because I really want to get my bucket set up so I am trying to find out my first steps to cleaning the airline and hydrogen or air stone if I need to clean it. Thank you
Ok personally I wouldn’t use the airline or air stones, I would buy new. But the clay pebbles I cleaned by boiling them for about 15 min then strained them an put them in cool water.
The bucket, lid, net cups “plastic” I would do a bleach clean, to ensure it thoroughly cleans it. Don’t want to carry over any bacteria from previous grow.
@DanB okay I feel you but what is wrong with using the airline and stones
Well you could clean the air line, but I was taught air stones get replaced every grow. But in truth the line and stones are cheap so that’s another reason I don’t clean. $25 got me 2 stones and 15ft of tube.
@DanB okay that’s what I figured, so I just threw the hydrants in pebbles on the stove in a big pot, so do I just put it on high for about 15 minutes and then dump it in a strainer and rinse it off? Another thing I want to know as it is okay to use tap water correct? Like in my hydro bucket or does it have to be distilled or RO water??
Hey so the pebbles are boiling right now and there is a film in a few spots and going around the side and I’m wondering about it, is that bacteria or something? Is it supposed to be happening? Can I mess these pebbles up from boiling them? Thanks
@DanB
Sry was eating, you are sterilizing them. Just boil for 15 minutes and strain, rinse and drop in cool water. Once cooled you can dry and store them until you are ready to start dwc
The others your going to clean with bleach you wanna make sure to fully rinse them
@DanB okay I just watched the video about cleaning the air stones, not sure if they need to be cleaned but it’s probably a good idea to put it in some peroxide solution anyway correct?
Yes. Would be a good idea. If you are going to try cleaning and reusing the air stone. And as for the water used in the buckets, as long as it’s not contaminated it will work, do you know what Nutrients your going to be using, do you have all the testing equipment and pH up/down?
Bleach leaves a residue that can cause problems. 3% peroxide and water is the hydro growers’ friend.
I’d ditch the bucket and get a large tote. Otherwise you’ll be mixing nutes daily when in flower.
Good luck!
Normally I would 100% agree about 3% peroxide would be a better clean. But given the uncertainty of what was in the bucket and how long it sat, I would do a few drops of bleach in hot water to do a quick scrub then rinse very good, then refill and add 3% peroxide and wipe clean again. That’s what I did with my black bucket and the white widow I grew was decent. No contaminates or problems other than my nutrients didn’t mix well with hydroguard.
@DanB yes I have pH and PPM meters, I’m going to try CX horticulture nutrients on it
Just under $100 I got
Threw Amazon.
And the customer /grower support can’t be matched. I whole heartedly endorse and recommend this line, it’s a lot easier on maintaining pH lvls in DWC, only thing you will need to get is U C Roots, it’s like $22 a bottle but is scientifically designed for pH perfect line in DWC.
If you try to use Hydroguard with this line you will have nothing but problems.
@DanB yeah that seems good I just don’t have $100 right now to spend, I’m still behind on my rent this month LOL but I already have a brand new pack of the CX horticulture. Maybe one day in the future I’ll end up with some extra money to give advanced nutrients to try but definitely can’t right now
Hey brother I fully understand. Just something worth checking in to.
Most definitely @DanB much appreciated!
hey jayjay… as said above do not reuse any airlines or airstones…you are asking for contamination to join your grow and like said very inexpensive to replace each grow… a 3 gallon bucket is going to be a real challenge like mentioned above when trying to keep up with high drinking phases… we all have had to start with less than what we wanted but some things you should not skimp on or you will not be happy with your grow or harvest… have you abandoned your other post??
@Retiredoldguy hey what’s going on, but the air Stones look okay, I let them sit in some peroxide water for a little while and only had bubbles coming out of one stone from the peroxide. So I rinsed them out really good and let them dry overnight. No I did an abandon the other post I just made this post after I picked up the dwc equipment
just got back from washing the 4runner and catching up on some posts… about ready to eat some tacos…