Hydroton Cleaning and Preparation Question

Can Hydroton cause a PH to rise from 5.8 to 6.4 in a 10 hour period? How do you properly clean Hydroton? I have mine soaking in a bucket of warm 5.8 water...I'm using Distilled water, GH Nova, have a PH and TDS meter, Up and Down. Trying to dial my system in before use and dealing with a quick rising ph, any help will be appreciated...

I rinse warm/cool in a strainer until the water's clear and I do not reuse. Yes, dirty rocks can cause ph issues but it should lessen with more feedings.

From every post I"ve ever read said not to use distilled water, now R.O. on the other hand is a different story all together. I noticed that GH products seem to want to buffer right around 5.9 to 6.0 atleast from what I've been noticing. What size is your rez? Another question I had about DWC is when you change the rez are you just changing it or all the water in the system, that is all the way out of each bucket also? As plants use nutes the waste causes a rise in PH. So the larger the volume of water in the rez the more stable the PH will become as well as a constant tempature within the rez (spikes either up or down can cause PH swings). Also when plants use nutes and produce waste there is more volume to disperse hence less fluctuation in PH. Finally, if you are just changing the water in the rez, mixing nute solution, adjusting ph, then recurculating it into a bunch of old solution within the buckets it would seem to me that it would also affect your PH in a very short time.

I'm growing in a 6 site DWC, so all is contained in one package. I've read that GH Nova has buffers, so it will rise for a few days, then level out. My system is small, 4-5 gallons, should I get a larger rez? Nothing is in the actual system right now, just trying to get it dialed in. The plants are in cubes growing roots, and will be transplanted soon. I have the GH Micro, Grow, & Bloom also, are there any PH buffers in this? After cleaning the whole system, and adding new water and nutes, I left the PH at 5.8 last night, and woke up to 6.1. Not as bad as before but still rising. Is this normal?

Jesus, I don't know why the threads about hydroton and PH are not fucking stickied!! YES hydroton can and will jack your PH big time until it settles in so to speak. I have soaked new hydroton for 4 days, adding a crap load of PH down everyday until it gets stabilized.

My suggestion. PH your water to about 4 or 4.5. Fill your tray, let it stand and see how the ph behaves. It will settle out eventually.

Cheers.

if you buy it new, you need to rinse the shit out of it before you use it.
This means: Get a rubbermaid tote or something, and drill an ebb/flow fitting into the bottom side.
Pour your rocks in there.
Rinse the shit out of it until it doesnt run brown anymore.

That stuff comes super dirty in the bag.

And yes, you CAN reuse it.
Just make sure you rinse it and get all the old roots out.
It's a pain in the ass, but it works.

If hydroton is causing pH fluctuations then you are doing something wrong

Make sure to rinse it really good. Then when you're done rinsing it, rinse it again, then again after that. Did I mention to rinse it again?

Finally settling around 5.7, the hot water must have worked last night,...Hate chasing a PH. Will update, thanks...

If you rinse Hydroton in the sink or tub a lot of that loose clay settles into the drain traps and pipes.

This morning the PH was still hovering at 5.8. If the hydroton was the problem, it was solved by washing and soaking in HOT water for 4 hours. I used my germination mat to keep the bucket warm. Thanks

I use alot of tron and never soak or prep, only thing I do is rinse off the dust and chucks and root matter.
then use

This is used hydroton I'm talking about. Stored for about 10 months. Had to soak it for a bit, nothing serious...

i just put the ton in my buckets/smartpots and rinse with warm tap water until the runoff is clear. I have noticed that some hydroton took longer to clear, but thats when it was an old bag with lots of broken up pieces at the bottom... Either way, pH is an easy to fix problem... as said before me, it does seem to gain stability after about 3 or 4 feedings. I have never heard of anyone pH'ing the water the hydroton was soaked in, as 'legallyflying' stated. seems a little excessive to me.

Experimentation my friend, didn't hurt to try...

If hydroton sits around for a long time there is a chemical reaction that takes place that will raise the ph when you add water to it. There is an excellent post about it on garden web forums but I'm not going to search for the link. Glad soaking worked for you.
Cheers

Hobgoblit said:

Did that already, soaked in warm 5.8 water for 4 hours, even had my germination mat under the bucket to keep the water warm. Seems better today, still drifting upwards, but not as fast. Hope it gets better soon, or it might be road trip time, or better yet UPS in The Drive time. Any knowledge shared would be greatly appreciated.

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What was the source of your warm water you used to soak them? Also it takes more than just soaking new hydroton, you have to repeatedly rinse it, until the water runs completely clear.

Warm water was from my tap, 021 on my TDS meter. I use distilled in my system. This is about my 5th grow in this hydroton, I'm in a DWC, the PH stays stable until I feed. For some reason the flow of nutes through the Hydroton is causing a pretty quick swing up. Scratchin my head...

legallyflying said:

If hydroton sits around for a long time there is a chemical reaction that takes place that will raise the ph when you add water to it. There is an excellent post about it on garden web forums but I'm not going to search for the link. Glad soaking worked for you.
Cheers

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http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hydro/msg100749279742.html Is this the Forum?

I stick it in a collender under the bathroom tap for a minute or so and swirl it around with my hands till a clear runoff. Nothing more. Never experience any issues. Although I'm not using it as a medium so that would explain my lack of issues, it's simply used to stabilise a cube in a net cup.