Washing grow media (gravel)

abdul

This is the most frustating thing I have ever done. I just spent almost 3 hours sitting in my bathroom trying to wash the equivelent of about 20 liters of gravel and I din't achieve a thing! the water still doesn't run clean!!! Is there something I'm doing wrong here?! Please, for the love of God, give me some advice on this or I'll go mad I tell you, MADDD.

On a separate note I noticed two funny things, one is that the grey rocks have some white rocks in them too, are those marble/limestone or am I just being paranoid? got the bag of rocks from a contruction dude who uses it to build houses. Also, theres some form of white bubbles, soapy and smelly, in the water when i wash it, any idea what it might be? I thought it was some rotting organic matter at first but theres nothing but rock in there.

In conclusion, my neck back and thighs are killing me, I cut my finger, and I still don't even have ONE of my GB's gravel ready, please help.

Desperately demoralized,
Abdul Aleem

faye

Good luck Abdul, I send best wishes.

Ian

Abdul,
Poor pet!
Been there, done that, ticked it off and got the T-Shirt!!

Gravel (crushed or otherwise) will always contain a large amount of both organic and inorganic matter in the interstitial spaces because of the way it is handled and stored. You just have to keep going! I left my gravel in a shallow heap outdoors for about a month to let rain etc do a lot of the work before washing it in a Cement mixer (inside a plastic clothes basket!). Even then, the rain etc had little to no effect after about the top 50mm or so.
The concrete mixer allowed the gravel to be well agitated to release all the grit, dust and stuff and continual sloshing in the plastic basket released 99% of the colloidal particles into the washing water. This was allowed to settle in the bowl of the mixer, spooned out and discarded on the dirt garden so saving the wash water for many batches.
You will never get rid of all the sediment etc from the gravel before putting it intop your Grow Beds, it will however, settle out after a period of use. You have to wait 6 to 8 weeks for your system to cycle anyway, so just let it happen. Have a little patience and enjoy the therapy!!

Cheers IanK

TCLynx

I usually set up two bins for gravel washing.

It is important to set them up at a comfortable working height since your back will rebel if you are swishing gravel while bending over.

Anyway, I put some gravel in a basket (like the ones often sold for water plants) and swish the basket in the first bin and then in the next bin then I can dump it in a grow bed.

You may never get the gravel so clean that the water runs perfectly clear right away, you just want to get most of the dust, sand and clay out of the gravel so it doesn't wind up in your system.

If you are worried that some of the gravel may be limestone or marble, I've heard people say that you could take some and put it in a cup and pour some vinegar over it, if it bubbles up lots, then it is probably limestone or marble.

Now your situation might be more challenging if you are trying to wash gravel indoors. I usually do it outside where I can just dump the bins of dirty/sandy water on the grass when it is time for fresh water. (I probably only had to dump the bins about 5 times when washing the gravel for my 300 gallon system.) I usually work till the first bin becomes about like thick chocolate milk before I finally dump it and turn the clean bin into the dirty bin and rinse the empty bin out and refill with clean water. If I were more patient, I could probably even let the bins settle and pour off the relatively clean water from the tops for re-use before scraping out the sediment from the bottoms of the bins, but water is relatively plentiful here in Florida so I didn't take the extra time to do that.

DéjàVoodoo

One of the rights of passage - the next one I think is killing off a batch of fish.

vlt

I had 3 cubic metres of scoria delivered over the weekend. After shovelling, wheelbarrowing and dumping into the back yard, the driveway was red. I also put the hose on a little corner of the scoria and the water ran red. Not looking forward to the washing also.

I feel for you.

As others have said. Don't get caught up in getting the runoff completely clear. I plan to just get most of the silt off.

DecalsbyJT

Since I have a well, I set up two saw horses and a frame with 1/4" metal screen attached to it..

I shovel in 3-4 shovel fulls of gravel and move it around with one hand while washing it with the highest pressure I can get from the hose.....

I then dump the washed gravel into a wheel barrow and take it to the GB's

all the little stuff that falls through the screen, I use in the landscaping or on the floor of the GH

its quick and easy.....

jT

Privatteer

abdul wrote:

3 hours sitting in my bathroom trying to wash the equivelent of about 20 liters of gravel

Um, perhaps a photo of what you have? Sounds like you have a lot of dirt or something.
Took me about 4hours for 800kg.

RS_

We feel your pain....... and at least i've had helpers for washing my gravel.........

We washed all the silt out with the recycling dirty water, and then rensed it good with city water before adding to the new grow beds

I used washed Lava Rock (scoria) in the bottom of the GB's, then 3/4"+ river rock gravel, and sprinkled some washed 3/8"- expanded shale i had on hand, through out the GB's as we went along....

I will post new GB pic's in my therad soon.........

SwampCreekFarms

hey there..

I'm cheap, and love to recycle and re-use everything I can. Most people have 5 gallon buckets laying around. What I did was get a decent size drill bit, and drill a bunch of holes in the bottom of a bucket, so the water drains out the bottom.

I use two buckets, the first one with the holes in the bottom, I tie a rope onto the handle and throw the bucket over a sturdy tree limb. Tie it off comfortable for your working area, standing or sitting, as long as it is off the ground somewhat.

Dump the rocks in the bucket about half full, and run water through them.. Then dump the rocks into the other bucket or whatever you have to transport them in.

If they dont look clean enough the first go around, keep watering.

I use the holy bucket for all types of things.. It works great to wash bio filter medium.

I take it with me fishing and toss it over a tree limb that hangs over the water, it will fill up with water and tie it off so its level, throw my fish in it and use it for a live well. Keeps my fishies fresh with the option to throw them back or move them some where else.

abdul

New plan, will take what I have washed so far, which is about half of what I have and I have a feeling only 2/3 of what I need, wash the other half by rinsing it for a while in the grow bed which is effectively a bucket with a hole in the bottom, then chuck it all into the system and start cycling the water. I'll put a mechanical filter at the exit of the grow beds in the form of an old AC air filter all folded up, and hopefully that will catch most of the remaining dirt, anything it won't catch will settle into the GB in due course.

My fingers are killing me, its a pain to type this post :[

you can take a look at my grow medium in this video I made, the water left standing in the bucket stays clear but soon as I start to swirl the gravel it gets murky, have left it in a hot water bath now.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FERybJBjIJ4[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONbI-EZDkXY[/youtube]

DecalsbyJT

wow that media looks very sharp... bet it is hard on the fingers

jT

Dufflight

I don't wash gravel any more.

cjinVT

abdul wrote:

I just spent almost 3 hours sitting in my bathroom trying to wash the equivelent of about 20 liters of gravel and I din't achieve a thing! the water still doesn't run clean!!! Is there something I'm doing wrong here?! Please, for the love of God, give me some advice on this or I'll go mad I tell you, MADDD.

Hopefully you'll find some gravel that's PH neutral (EDIT - any river stone available???).

For that small amount you could use a colander under the faucet. In less then 10 seconds it'll run clear. A little at a time.

I used a cooler outside with the spout open, the water that ran thru the colandar then ran thru the gravel in the cooler too:

Attachment:

Gravel Washing.jpg [ 67.69 KiB | Viewed 3000 times ]

abdul

Oh horror of horrors, remember that grow media I posted and all my blues about trying to wash it, and yes IT IS SHARP AND HARD ON THE FINGERS, well I tryed testing it with some vinegar and came up with this, I figure its got limestone or sandstone in it :-x

Heres the video, can you all please confirm this? Also, have found a line on some river rocks, only won't get those for free, they're a bit pricey as they get transported from far away, thats in the vid too. BUT, tomm am going to follow up a couple of leads I have on clay pellets, and one on possibly having my own LECA/hydroton made. Its just balls of clay isn't it?

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