Cleaning machine between grows

[Andyrmt]

Question: do you use a diluted cleaning solution in the reservoir to clean the lines and the basin and sensors between grows with the drain and fill ?

[Ctaylor684]

Hey @Andyrmt this should help.
Cleaning your Grobo - Fundamentals - AllGrowers Forum | Hydroponics, Harvesting, Cannabis, and more

[Azuri]

Hey @Andyrmt

Here it is in its full glory:

@Stephen

Hi Growers,

There are two types of cleaning that you can do to ensure your grow goes smoothly. The 1st is sanitation and the 2nd is sterilization .

Sanitation refers to the removal of all of the debris in your unit. It is important to keep your reservoir free of dead leaves, roots and floating things. Quickly remove any spilled nutrients, excess water, or dead plant material you find. Removing dead leaves immediately reduces the risk of having pests or diseases get a foothold in your system.

To clean your intake fans, inspect them monthly and clean with compressed air shooting from the inside out.

To clean the door window front or back, use a microfiber cloth. These are very sensitive and can scratch easily.

To clean the outside or inside metal, you can use isopropyl alcohol and a soft cloth.

To clean your wood top, non abrasive soap is best as it has previously been sealed with a varnish.

Sterilization refers to the removal of all pathogens in the system and concentrates on our deep water culture tank. Here we use a solution of 50/50 water to distilled white vinegar to eliminate any bacteria, fungus, spores or viruses that may have found their way into our system. You can perform a final tap water fill and then drain to ensure that there isn’t any residuals on the tank. To clean the tank and lid:

1. Prepare a solution of 50% water (tap is fine) with 50% vinegar.
2. Remove the lid from the tank and scrub the underside with the solution. Rinse well and allow to dry.
3. Drain your unit.
4. Fill a bucket with the solution and fill the unit. Allow the unit to soak for 30 minutes.
5. Drain your unit.
6. Using an abrasive scrub brush and the remaining prepared solution in the bottom of the tank, scrub the sides and bottom of your tank.
7. Fill your unit with clean water, then drain again. Wipe out the excess water in the bottom with a sponge or paper towels and do a final wipe down of all surfaces. Be careful cleaning around your water level sensors!
8. At this point you can select a new recipe and start a new grow.

Bonus cleaning If you notice your airstone is slowing down the flow of bubbles into your tank, you can clean it too. After step 7 above, prepare a 35% hydrogen peroxide solution (mixed 1/1 with water) and pour enough into your tank to cover your air stone. Let the system sit for an hour, then fill and drain your unit. One final wipe down and you are ready to fill your unit and begin growing again!

[Azuri]

LoL @Ctaylor684 great minds think alike we posted at the same time.

[Ctaylor684]

@Azuri Yes sir most definitely!!

[Andyrmt]

Thank you!

[Osage]

I’ll be doing the same this weekend. Getting her all cleaned and ready to go.

[Stephane]

Ok just so I understand fully. I’ll start from where I’m almost at on my first grow the harvesting part

Steps

1. Select end grow and cut down my glorious plant.
2. Go through full cleaning procedure.
3. Make sure my probe is wet in a baggy with KCI pH probe storage solution.
4. Hang my glorious plant.
5. Select drying recipe.
6. Once buds are dry take them out and begin curing process in jars.
7. Replace probes in their respective holders in DWC tank.
8. Replace all empty nute bottles.
9. Put seed in dampened coco pod.
10. Start new recipe.

So this is the process in my head and it makes perfect sense to me lol. The one question I have is that drain and fill for the cleaning process works even if you aren’t currently using a recipe.
Also I’m assuming the drying recipe won’t require me to fill the reservoir.

[SilverGrobo]

@Stephane,

@Stephane

Steps

1. Select end grow and cut down my glorious plant.
2. Make sure my probes are wet in a baggy with distilled water or RO water.
   2.5=Drain water from Grobo
3. Hang my glorious plant.
4. Select drying recipe.
5. Once buds are dry take them out and begin curing process in jars.
6. Go through full cleaning procedure.
7. Replace probes in their respective holders in DWC tank.
8. Replace all empty nute bottles.
9. Put seed in dampened coco pod.
10. Start new recipe.

[Stephane]

@SilverGrobo

Awesome! You the best.

[Pete]

Put your probs in tap water. Do not leave them in distilled water or RO water for any extended amount of time. This is bad for them. The best thing to put them in is your pH probe KCL storage solution. The same solution that the probe came with when you unpacked it.

[Stephane]

I learned that after the fact. I bought a bottle of that solution for the next time. Used it with my portable pH pen

[Nunez]

After my first grow ended, I haven’t put them my probes in a storage solution. Can they be damaged?

[Bplatinum9]

They most certainly can be, probes are not suppose to be dry at any time. Before you start a grow check with Stephen to see if your probes can be saved or you need to order more.

[Stephen]

Hey @Nunez,

I responded through support, but thought this may be helpful to other growers…

Probes last about a year, but can lose their reference point if left to dry. You could re-hydrate the probe by letting it sit in tap water for 24 hours (or storage solution) then calibrating it with the healthy check feature. Once you run the health check one of two things will happen.

1. Your probe will be healthy when compared to the 7.0 solution and you are good to continue your grow.
2. Your probe will need calibration. You will be prompted to calibrate at 7.0, then switch solutions and calibrate to 4.0
3. Once you have completed step 2, run the health check again. You should pass with only checking 7.0 again.

If you continually fail the health check, you will need a new probe.

Cheers,
Stephen

[TheWarden]

@Stephen - can the health check be run after the grow has already started? Is this a data point you can check for me?

[SilverGrobo]

@TheWarden,

@TheWarden

can the health check be run after the grow has already started?

((#PHprobe)): ((#PHsensor)):

You can check it at any time within the grow, just as long as you can lift the lid to get it:

https://www.allgrowers.com/t/just-for-fun-d/1866/20?u=silvergrobo

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