In our small family facility, we grow using Hydroton or expanded clay, and we use a LOT of it. One of the benefits is it’s a totally reusable grow media, saving countless dollars in the long run. One of the far biggest chores is cleaning the media between grows.
Early on, when I grew personally, I just used a 5 gallon bucket with holes drilled in the bottom, and rinsed accordingly, not an option commercially speaking. From there we went to a powered cement mixer to slosh and wash, also time consuming and physically draining.




Here’s a shot of the cement mixer.

There had to be a better way. My goal was to be able to clean around 40 liters at a time, without breaking a sweat or my balls. I also needed to be able to operate and perform this job as a one man show.
First, I wanted the bed to vibrate, and do so with extreme prejudice. I also wanted to incorporate a wash and rinse while this was going on, and wanted to inject a peroxide mix into the rinse. Once complete, I needed a way to get it from the cleaning tray to a 55 gallon bucket, again without busting my balls.
Here is what I came up with.


I also wanted to be able to integrate controls, allowing me to start the machine and walk away. Usher in my son Rick and his flair for electronics, we began using Arduino technology, which is basically an open source community using older cell phone technology. What this allows is me to stage as time as time events. For instance, when I start up the machine, it opens the water valve allowing me to saturate the media well. Once saturated, it energizes the injector pump mixing 34% hydrogen peroxide into the spray stream. Then it energizes the relay controlling the shaker motor, which is used to level out wet concrete but now is used to vibrate the table bed which is isolated from the main frame using four LS1 valve springs. This really moves the expanded clay around and with the h20 it rinses the salts left over. Then straight water rinse, water shuts off and I allow the shaker motor to run a bit shaking most o the water from the expanded clay.

Once that process is complete, I needed a way to get it from what we’ve called our “Shaker 6000” to a 55 gallon barrel on a wheeled cart. To do this we once again wrote a program allowing me to energize an electric actuator which begins to lift the bed. After about 15 seconds, it energizes the shaker motor, effectively moving the expanded lay towards a removable dump tray Into the 55 gallon barrel.

Here’s a video showing operation.




This worked great, and took countless hours off of cleaning expanded clay. Until something bad happened, and after carefully examining protocol, it came right back to the expanded clay. What might that be? Some bad stuff that lingered behind long after we thought the problem was taken care of. This “problem” rode in on the back of clones we purchased, and even after a complete burn down and reset, the problem reared it’s ugly head again, by what I believe were eggs that survived after going through the Shaker 6000.

I needed another solution, or one preferably that would tie into existing protocols. The Shaker 6000 really works at both separating any dead snarf as well as really doing a great job of rinsing residual salts.
Now, I can’t prove this theory, but ever since I added this final step, it’s as if the Marijuana Gods have shined their blessing upon our crops, so it stays as a permanent part of this extremely necessary step.
What I did was get the biggest crab pot and strainer I could find. I then built a roll around frame that could hold the pot, them built a 250,000 btu burner under it driven by propane and equipped it with a Piezo igniter for easy starting.
I then took a small electric winch and built a cherry picker around it. I then built a tall bucket dump that allows me to easily get the 50 liters or so of steaming hot expanded clay into the final barrel, and do it without grunting. Another plus is the clay is so stinking hot, it self dries itself so no more residual h20 in the bottom of the barrels, another big plus. The best plus? Sterile grow media that’s renewable over and over again. Hope you enjoyed!