Flushing Hydroton regularly in DWC system

I can't seem to find any good info on this topic on any forum site. In a standard 5-gallon DWC system (not a recirculating system), should the system be flushed on any regular basis by pouring water (or some kind of flushing agent mix such as Clearex) over the hydroton and the net pot? I'm thinking this might be good to get any salt buildup out of the medium, but all the DWC guides I've seen do not mention this step.

If so, how is this done (i.e. how much and what do you use to flush the medium, and how often)?
 

KingBootz15

New Member
Im in the midst of starting my first dwc, although I have not read anywhere (as you were saying) that this is a step, I am going to do it. My babies are about a week from seed now and there getting fed a little to much. Most people dont give them any nutes until week two or so. My ppm is around 100 and im dropping it to 50, I rinsed my hydroton and net cups with distilled water to get the nutes out and and build ups. This I believe in no way will harm or stress your plants, so if your willing to put in the extra 5 minutes each time you clean your res I would go for it. As I just stated kinda, I would rinse em everytime you change your res, just run some distilled through the hydroton and net pots, not to much, not to little, you'll get the feel for it.
 
Thanks for the info and suggestions. The oldest of my 7 plants is about 5 weeks old, the youngest is 3 weeks (from germination). I haven't flushed the medium yet, but going to start next time I change out the reservoir, probably using just one gallon of pH adjusted tap water (no RO system in this grow - tap water is around 50ppm and 7.2 pH, so fairly high quality).

I have heard some people say they do this for hours (i.e. running water over the medium), which sounds like overkill. Other obscure posts I have been able to find mention that you must be careful not to deplete the plant's electrolytes, so I think less is more. I might buy some Clearex. Any other good flushing agents out there anyone recommends would be great to hear about, or if you feel like this is a waste, let me know that, too.
 

Nizza

Well-Known Member
always rinse and soak any soiless medium (the only thing i dont do this to is the rapid rooter plugs) soaking helps leech out any stuff and replacing the water is good. i think 3 days is the rule of thumb, add an airstone into your soaking bucket to encourage mixing and constantly monitor+change ph until it stops changing. also PPM's should stop changing too.
edit; this doesnt answer your question sorry! i would say yes, it is good to "flush" through the net pots. Especially if your using teas most people pour in through the net pot to encourage microbial culture in the clay pebbles. Clearex may act the same, sort of cleaning off the roots from that salt layer. It is very good to change your res in DWC as i've heard and i think you'd be doing good to do a clearex treatment as long as you re-flush the clearex out.
 

mr2shim

Well-Known Member
I have never once done this. I see absolutely no point in it. It's hydroton it's not like it's soil where nutrients are gonna stay for a while. With that said, I do boil the hydroton before every grow. I do that to get the clay dust off the rocks because that will change the ppm.
 

PersonalJesus

Active Member
If you're hydroton is clean... like you rinsed it well, sterilized it good... you shouldn't NEED to rinse/flush your hydroton.
With that being said... I used to do what I called a "top down fill" of my reservoir every 2 or 3 weeks... I'd pour my nutrient solution into my reservoir directly through the hydroton, figuring it would help rinse my hydroton of any excessive built up salts... don't know if my effort was worth it, never saw any difference when I forgot to do a "top down fill" on a few runs.
 
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