How to Properly clean your UC system

[motherlode]

ahhh yeah I get it - might be better to use some light wire to fish it through

 

[jimmyhoffa59]

Yep I used a simple piece of safety wire with a loop at the end to avoid catching edges. Worked great. I am leaving my 50:1 Water to Bleach solution running in the system for a few hours. And my shop vac was amazing for getting out the last 4-5 gallons of water sitting below the 2"pipe.:rain

 

[MediMary]

Hey Ucmenow, whats the best way to break down a system when the time comes and it needs to be broken down. lol
Do you relube? any pointers on how to do it without breaking shit?

Good info in gets shared in jimmys threads = )
:)

 

[RMCG]

Looks like a rock solid plan. just make sure to pull the 3 inch PVC with the toilet brush and your set I think. Hell I could be wrong tho... Occationally wrong, never in doubt as I say...

Ha!

That's my saying!

Frequently in error, Seldom in doubt!

 

[MediMary]

Ha!

That's my saying!

Frequently in error, Seldom in doubt!

:D

 

[jimmyhoffa59]

Hey Ucmenow, whats the best way to break down a system when the time comes and it needs to be broken down. lol
Do you relube? any pointers on how to do it without breaking shit?

Good info in gets shared in jimmys threads = )
:)

Well I used a dead blow and kept tapping around till it came off each bucket. If I was to do it again I would put a small scissor jack between two pieces of wood 2x4 with a c-type shape at each end at the bucket and seal and turn that jack till it extended and pushed the buckets apart. Once you separate the middle buckets its easy to put a tiny bit of fuck-lube on the pipe and twist them off from the epicenter and return manifold pipe. Took me like ten mins. :evilgrin0040:

But I only gotz me a 6... well below average on here! LOL

 

[BudGoggles]

My arms always get a pretty good work out taking them apart and putting back together. Feels like I was arm wrestling at the bar all night.

 

[sky high]

Either way you decide to go...good luck, jimmy.

FWIW, folks...when I tore my system down to clean it the one place I found brown gunk that I don't thiunk you can get at with the unit assembled is around the uniseals. Every one of em had that crap in between the seal and the bucket and I ended up taking all the seals out and cleaning them seperately in physan to get it all off.

Waiting for some clones to root here and then I'm gonna give it another go.

Hopefully things will rock and I won't end up with 7 new trashcans by Summertime....

rock it, jimmy!

s h

 

[UCMENOW]

Either way you decide to go...good luck, jimmy.

FWIW, folks...when I tore my system down to clean it the one place I found brown gunk that I don't thiunk you can get at with the unit assembled is around the uniseals. Every one of em had that crap in between the seal and the bucket and I ended up taking all the seals out and cleaning them seperately in physan to get it all off.

Waiting for some clones to root here and then I'm gonna give it another go.

Hopefully things will rock and I won't end up with 7 new trashcans by Summertime....

rock it, jimmy!

s h

This sounds like a compelling case for keeping goopy, poopy organic inputs out of the system as this is what can happen.

Sky, didn't u run a pretty organic regime when u first fired up your system? Looking forward to seeing your next run......keep it mineral clean and probiotic IMO

 

[UCMENOW]

Hey Ucmenow, whats the best way to break down a system when the time comes and it needs to be broken down. lol
Do you relube? any pointers on how to do it without breaking shit?

Good info in gets shared in jimmys threads = )
:)

Relube, hold the pvc "joint" and lightly tamp the uniseal with a rubber mallet until the seal forged between the pvc and the uni is dislodged.

Once this seal is compromised just muscle the pvc out.

 

[thetreegrowerrr]

i think it all depends on your nutes...if you use house and garden physan 20 a good scrub with a green pad and a nice flush should due...but always safe then sorry bottle brush that bitch with a shit ton of bleach!

 

[lilredwagon]

What I have learned, as SH said, is that the uniseals are the biggest harborer of nasty stuff. My .02 is to fully disassemble the system between each run, and yes, it is a pita. I have found that if you flip the buckets upside down, sit on the second to last bucket and work the end bucket in a 9 to 3 o'clock back and forth motion they come apart easily- mostly applies to assembly as well.

The value of the crop being grown in these systems goes without saying. Don't take chances with a mostly clean system!

I send every last uniseal through a high temperature dishwasher after hand scrubbing in bleach water, the big air diffuser discs should also be high temped.
Once I have hand scrubbed all components and reassembled the system, I run it for 24 hrs at max capacity with a heavy H2O2 dosing.
New air stones in place and sterile hydroton- and she's ret to go!
- Personally, I use a hotsy (high temp, high pressure washer) to clean the buckets, manifolds and anything that is too large for a dishwasher, understandably, this may not be possible for many of the farmers out there- I do like the toilet brush on a rope idea- real nice!!!

 

[woodsmaneh]

Physan 20 is not available in Canada but "hth Algicide10" is available at any Canadian Tire store (swimming pool department). It has the exact same chemical as comprises half of the Physan and is half the strength of Physan 20. Note the Canadian Tire house brand algicide has a strength of only 5 %.

Peace

 

[f1ydave]

Very easy to pull apart with LUBE

OK, just pulled my 2 - 8gal systems apart, took 5 minutes total (by myself). Spread a very small amount of lube on the pipes and they fly out. A couple did take some tapping with a rubber mallet, but didn't slow me down at all.

 

[Bud Spleefman]

I have a 24 site Ugly Current and I am NOT TAKING IT APART, last plants come out on Monday, and by Monday evening the thing will be filled with bleach, and by Tueday evening I wil have hit it with a toilet brush, and by Wednesday it will be drained and flushed a couple times, and on Thursday it will have plants in it........

9 yrs DWC, I know this works........ bleach kills everything.... and I'm not worried about some dead particles in there... what will they do, THEY'RE DEAD?

My biggest complaint about the Under Current is, the thing clogs... if you run it properly, it clogs. No two ways about it... and I thought I needed a bigger return, but seriously, 2 inch pvc... 12 buckets inline... when I took the plants down I was shocked at how little liquid was in the end buckets...... towards the end of my run I had the thing on a timer, 20 seconds on, 20 off... to allow the liquid to seep through all the roots and avoid burning out the pump... after 20 seconds that pump would be dry sucking ........

 

[Bud Spleefman]

Here's a question for the neat freaks:

How do you properly clean the chiller? I can sterilize it with bleach, sure..... how do you scrub it out? What's inside, a holding tank, a network of plumbing? This always gets me...... I wish I knew.

 

[FLB]

Here's a question for the neat freaks:

How do you properly clean the chiller? I can sterilize it with bleach, sure..... how do you scrub it out? What's inside, a holding tank, a network of plumbing? This always gets me...... I wish I knew.

Its basically a radiator that you would find in a car.

 

[bakershredhead]

Hey Spleefman I wonder the same thing. I took a bottle brush and took off the inlet and outlet nozzles and just ran the brush down into the chiller. That's about all I think you can do at least that I can see.

 

[Lost]

High pressure water. Use a sprayer from a water hose and blast away. After a bleach treatment is sluffs off pretty easily, but I don't think you ever git is all..

 

[MMJInsiders]

For hydro systems that are running smoothly we use Bio Green Clean and a good toilet brush. For a thorough cleaning, spray, scrub, fill, add BGC, run 24hrs, drain, rinse, good to go. Or less elbow grease and a little quicker, drain, fill, add BGC, run 24hrs, drain, rinse, good to go. We run it for 24hrs before drain and rinse. Works well for chillers too. I used to use a bleach and h2o2 mixture on chillers with a higher gph pump and cycle the mixture through it for 24hrs. The BGC is less toxic, easy to use and works great.