How do you clean a flood & drain tray?

[ItsAllOver]

So, I have been presented with a used 4x4 flood and drain tray, and it was pretty dirty in every sense of the word. Seems to have nutrient buildup on the inside, and maybe dirt/mud on the bottom and sides. Of course f&d trays have channels and all manner of crevices, which makes it even more fun to deal with.

The problem is that I have to clean this 4x4, and I can't do it outside with a hose. I can't even imagine those folks that have to somehow take care of a 4x8 f&d tray.

I just spent an hour crammed in the shower with the tray, a brillo pad (the all plastic kind, I don't want to create lots of tiny shallow scratches to allow bacterial buildup and make it harder to clean later), and my detachable shower head, scrubbing as much as I could. Now it's a lot cleaner than before, but def not perfect. I'm not even willing, I don't think, to get it much cleaner than this because what's left are the little corners and such. Also, it's def not sanitized, which it can never really be if it's not totally cleaned of buildup. The inner part of the tray in which the plants will reside is mostly free of nutrient buildup, so I'll be able to sanitize it with H2O2 when it's about time to get things rolling, which is cool. I don't even know how the previous owner got the bottom so dirty! I'll have to ask.

So how do you folks clean your hydro trays? I wish I could take it by one of those DIY pressure car washes, but I'm afraid of the wrong kind of passerby wondering what I'm doing out there late at night. This would surely work, though, and would probably get just about everything off. DAMNIT!

I don't even know why I posted this, honestly, because I've pretty much answered my own question with the pressure washer. Hmmm, how to achieve this, doubt I can.

Peace

 

[TwinTurboGuy]

Wow, you got quite a situation in your hands. Do you have a backyard atleast? I remember cleaning my trays awhile back with a car scrubber I bought from the auto store, but it would be extremely difficult to move around a 4.8 tray around. Why not just route of PVC piping from the drain of the tray and route it outside, then just hose it down inside while it drains out?

Just throwing out some ideas.

 

[Eminem]

I would just set it up, and run bleach through it, and scrub it. Rinse good a few times and done.

Obviously when this table is setup, you will have a way to drain it and the rez for nutrient changes? Just drain it that way.


As far as how the tray got so dirty. I have veg trays that just kept running, with no down time. Not any mud even with the hydroton, but I do get alot of algae buildup. After a few months and when plant count is low, I empty the table, scrub, rinse, and put plants back in

 

[ogatec]

blast it with water hose to clean, then spray with bleach solution to sanitize. it doesnt have to be perfect, its gonna just get dirty again anyway..

 

[Babbabud]

fill it with water and bleach it will clean right up

 

[ItsAllOver]

Thanks for the info, guys.
I found out that the bottom is nasty because it sat in the back of a truck, getting rained on, etc for days. Sumbitch...
I need to take this thing to a pressure wash place to get it spotless. AH gotta figure this out. But haha I never thought to set it up with hoses and all and bleach it, then drain to a rubbermaid and pour it down the tub drain or something.

I don't really like using bleach with grow equipment because it's really basic, but I guess if it's rinsed well enough afterwards, it should be fine. I usually use H2O2 but surely that's not as effective.

Also did I mention that my house is TINY! hahaha

 

[Lazyman]

Instead of bleach you could use Physan20, it's cheap and kills everything, and smells good too. I had the same problem as you, I set up the trays, filled em with a half inch of water, got some brushes of different shapes and sizes (fav was a long skinny brush for cleaning car wheels) and scrubbed away, drained it all into the res, then dumped the res outside. More work this way but it worked out in the end.

As others said above, it'll be dirty again in no time. I clean mine 2-3 times a year and it's a pain, but the 4 harvests a year make it all worth the effort.

 

[Graham Purwatt]

if you have plenty of ph down handy,i spray my table with it,let it sit for a little bit and hose it down.the acid eats all the crap off pretty well.much faster than bleach and a lot less work.it only takes about a 1/2 a cup to a cup to do a 4x4

 

[Oldmac]

I find that a handheld steam cleaner easily removes crap and crude from res or buckets or trays. The steam sanitizes also. Cost less then $30.

 

[fish83]

maybe this can point you in the right direction

maybe this can point you in the right direction

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=32458

 

[ItsAllOver]

Handheld steam cleaner... I'll look into that!
Lots of cool ideas here to solve this problem. I actually thought about using the wheel brushes, I have a bunch laying around. It was quite interesting to be in the shower with the thing. Really reminds you that it's a bitch that this shit is illegal.

Separately:
I actually decided to say fuck the 4'x4'. I'm using (2) 2'x3' "mortar mix trays" from the hardware store now once things get rolling. It will allow me to stagger my harvests, which will be nice, and will work better with the footprint of my thouie, methinks. (and BTW, this means I wasted my time cleaning the fucking 4'x4')

This will also help me get em clean when it comes time to do that. Much smaller, and don't look sketch, so I'll probably just take them to the pressure wash place and if anyone asks, I'm cleaning out mortar, which is what the tray is for, o course. (shit just thought about the bulkhead holes, Oh well, I'm not worried. A 4'x4' is fucking huge and obvious.

I will surely bleach them afterward, but this will help get the gunk off. Just because they're gonna get dirty again doesn't mean you don't have to clean the damn things all the time. Will probably do it in between grows. They're so cheap I'll probably get a few extras, too.