Grow Mediums Cleaning dwc airstones?

[Henry]

I just put mine in the dishwasher , came out just like new, soaked them in vinegar and then 5 minutes in the microwave , rinsed and that's it.

How well did this work for you?

 

[emailadress]

just like new , I think the microwave is overkill , now they are in the res for about a week , no slime or funky smells... I don't have lab tests or anything like that

 

[Free Flow]

That seems like a serious chore, I have to add them in with my dishes soak them in vinegar then cook them for some time? I've grown dwc a long time and I can honestly say buy 4" questions. They put out better bubbles last longer and are by far cheaper. I get 50 for the price of 1 of your stones. I usually swap out a stone per grow. Sometimes 2 if I'm veging a photo longer or whatever but imo $20 is steep for just 1 air stone. But I am also very cheap lol hope all these replies help you brother. I enjoy just seeing how many people grow hydro on here

 

[emailadress]

That seems like a serious chore

placing the stones in the dishwasher and then pouring some vinegar and nuking them for a few minutes is a serious chore?

and I'm not even sure the nuke or vinegar is actually needed, the dishwasher makes them super clean ...

 

[Ydijadoit]

I ditched traditional airstones years ago. I started using 1/4" soaker hose, with a barbed fitting at each end, and a couple of stainless steel bolts zip-tied to it, to keep it at the bottom of the res. I've never had one clog up to the point of needing replacement in a grow cycle. If they do, or when the run is harvested, just pull them, cut a new length, and you are back in the game. They take more air than a stone, especially as the length increases, but it has worked well for me. A 100' roll should be about $10 at the local hardware store. It might be worth a try.
Regards, Kyle

 

[Henry]

I ditched traditional airstones years ago. I started using 1/4" soaker hose, with a barbed fitting at each end, and a couple of stainless steel bolts zip-tied to it, to keep it at the bottom of the res. I've never had one clog up to the point of needing replacement in a grow cycle. If they do, or when the run is harvested, just pull them, cut a new length, and you are back in the game. They take more air than a stone, especially as the length increases, but it has worked well for me. A 100' roll should be about $10 at the local hardware store. It might be worth a try.
Regards, Kyle

I like soaker hose too for many good reasons.

1. More air, more air bubbles guarantees more oxygen… extra O2 is always better than less O2
   
   
2. Hose is black, black is best
   
   
3. Hose is cheap bubblers @ 10 cents a foot, that’s nearly FREE to me – cheap is best
   
   
4. Hose is disposable, no fuss, no muss just pitch it
   
   
5. Hose bubbles for months before it stops up and causes low O2 problems in reservoir water
   
   
6. Hose is very flexible, flexible is great, roots encapsulates hose, air bubbles inside the root ball
   
   
7. Air pumps run cooler and quieter, longer lifespan guaranteed because hose has minimal back pressure
   
   
8. Air coming out air pump through hose is cooler, RE: less back pressure
   
   
9. Hose always requires less air pressure to male bubbles, more air bubbles/oxygen bubbles/nitrogen bubbles is always better than less bubbles or no bubbles in any hydroponic farm.
   

Often wondered why people buy those expensive bubblers ($5 - $10 each). Bubblers that always stop-up so quickly and makes air pumps run hotter reducing the life of the air pump. Many bubblers begin stopping up in 2, 3, 4 weeks. The bubble pattern progressively gets worse, less bubbles. Got to pay attention to the bubble output, those bubbles are a big deal, life and death for DWC, RDWC canna-roots.

When air bubblers begin stopping up, making fewer bubbles, this is what it looks like when you can actually see your roots getting less oxygen. The proof is in the pudding because you can actually see less air bubbles coming out of the bubbler.

No rocket science necessary, being a responsible farmer requires paying attention to your hydroponic system, basic observation and logical thinking… *** looking at your bubble patterns and really understanding what you are seeing.

If you don’t pay attention, don’t recognize and fix bubble problems (buy, replace or clean those defective bubblers) be assured that far more serious problems are predictable and coming at you. When you see fewer air bubbles and chose not to act for any reason, it will not be long before you have cause yourself a serious low oxygen problem’ Low oxygen problems can kill roots, then the roots will rot in the water.

All this grief because your bubbler progressive failed to make as many bubbles (less oxygen) as it did when it was new a few weeks ago. Suffocation is deadly for all aerobes and suffocation maims and kills quickly.

Choosing not to replace or clean dirty bubblers that do not bubble well as they age is often the [HASHTAG]#1[/HASHTAG] cause of low O2 and root suffocation in DWC, RDWC hobby growing.

Every grower has heard of what happens when the roots suffocate. The roots die and the grow room stinks. All because a $10 air bubbler stopped up and would not dissolve enough oxygen bubbles in the reservoir water.

Quarter inch soaker hose is no doubt the best and cheapest solution to insure that your bubbler keeps on bubbling.

Bro, when your bubble production slow down or stops bubbling as the bubbler ages and you do not fix this problem, your roots and beneficial microbes are going to suffer, suffocate, get sick, die and then in short order your roots and aerobic organisms will also rot in that water too.

Then come the fungi to eat and clean up this stinking mess in the tub, fungi always thrive on dying, dead and rotting roots and rotting microorganisms in DWC, RDWC grows.

In DWC, RDWC hydroponics, the results of insufficient bubbles (bubble stone failure) is predictable and when the bubbler fails, the crop prognosis is always poor without quick intervention.

 

[c@b420]

I boiled a disc before and it ended up leaking, rendering it unusable. The way I clean cylinder stones is: I fill up a pot so it barely covers the stone leaving the plastic tip open to the air, let it boil for awhile (you can actually see the film and gunk coming off of it), then I soak them in hydrogen peroxide and water mixed, and lightly scrub them with a sponge or toothbrush. I let them dry overnight and they seem to work good as new for me. I just boiled one last night and am gonna see if I can get away without soaking it in hydrogen peroxide. I assume using boiling water should pretty much kill any and everything anyways..

 

[Rev. Green Genes]

Run air through them while they're soaking in a bleach solution. Then air dry them or dry them under sunlight. The bleach should dissolve all the slime/biofilm and then completely evaporate after a day or so.

best answer.

What I do is buy 50 at a time so when they gunk up I just replace them. I get 50 of them for like 20 bucks on ebay. Way easier than messing with cleaning and soaking

I pay more for my stones, but they are far superior to the blue, grey, or green ones and last until you break them.

search for 'hydroponic hoss' or for 'bubble bubba' by Bubblemac Industries.

The stones are expanded silicone glass, micropores reduce the size of bubbles emitted, and increase aeration by something like 30 percent due to increased surface area with the water. They last through at least a couple grows before they need cleaning.

I have 4 of the small ones, and one large one and been using them for a year str8 now only cleaning twice.

 

[Royalroacho]

I hadn't heard of the nano bubblers, I'm gonna look into that. I found Dawn detergent free dish soap works pretty well, but they still clog up. I'm gonna try the soaker hose today, looks like they're available at a few stores. These disks lose a little output capacity with every clog cleaning, can't get everything out. heat breaks the seals, I've had to silicone them twice, I'm cleaning them like every 5 days...using cutting edge 3 part, calmag, silica...maybe if I cut the silica out they'd last longer, it seems like the culprit, but I'd have to make a support structure for the buds when they get big, which is a big pain in the ass with the bucket. Probably will clog no matter what I do. I also have a large protein skimmer impeller I'm going to try to rig up some how, I don't want to have a separate res right now, I've been thinking of making 6 sites in a 50 gallon tub and making dividers in it so I don't need all sorts of buckets and pipes and pumps, I think I could stage the dividers to cycle the water by cascading over, staggering the height of them, with a covered pump in the last section...

 

[Rev. Green Genes]

I hadn't heard of the nano bubblers, I'm gonna look into that. I found Dawn detergent free dish soap works pretty well, but they still clog up. I'm gonna try the soaker hose today, looks like they're available at a few stores. These disks lose a little output capacity with every clog cleaning, can't get everything out. heat breaks the seals, I've had to silicone them twice, I'm cleaning them like every 5 days...using cutting edge 3 part, calmag, silica...maybe if I cut the silica out they'd last longer, it seems like the culprit, but I'd have to make a support structure for the buds when they get big, which is a big pain in the ass with the bucket. Probably will clog no matter what I do. I also have a large protein skimmer impeller I'm going to try to rig up some how, I don't want to have a separate res right now, I've been thinking of making 6 sites in a 50 gallon tub and making dividers in it so I don't need all sorts of buckets and pipes and pumps, I think I could stage the dividers to cycle the water by cascading over, staggering the height of them, with a covered pump in the last section...

you could also try adding hydroguard to the res. It will help eat up the residues and break down the organics you are using. In fact, you might mix up a hydroguard soak for the stones when you clean them too, before adding them back in the grow. I love that idea! thanks for making me think of it!