FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey Everybody,

Personally, I'm getting tired of dealing with the fun of cleaning peat, coir and sand. So, I think the following will make my life a bit easier.

The stuff:




I picked a bulkhead type drain for the ease of assembly and dis-assembly:




First thing to do was cut some craft lattice and get it secured:




Then I got out a 3" hole saw and put a hole in the bottom of the bucket. I knew that the hole saw was a bit too small, so some filing would be needed:




A few minutes worth of time and it screwed right in:




Got out my Herculean strength () and tightened that sucker down:

Next, put some teflon tape on an old faucet that I have:




Thread it into it's new home:




Glue a couple more pieces together:




Then finish the assembly:

Setup a couple of blocks out of the way:




Fill it with prewashed peat:




Add plenty of water:




Lightly snap the lid on:

I am currently out of coir, so I used peat, plus I want to check the ppm of the peat and see if there is any benefit to repeated soakings.

The bulkhead type drain was more expensive than other alternatives, but it greatly increases the ease of assembly, and, just as important to me...dis-assembly. I won't be using this 24/7/365, so there will be storage time. By being able to dis-assemble the drain system--I can just store it inside the bucket, and store the bucket as any other.

I only filled it up enough to allow stirring. But now I can let the peat soak as long as I want and get back to it at my convenience. In this case, I will let it soak overnight, and when I come home from work in the morning, I can grab a small container to collect some of the water....then just let it drain until I get back to it. Maybe an hour or 2 later, when I get done sleeping...doesn't really matter. Close the valve, fill it back up with water, lightly snap the lid on and walk away. No moving or tilting buckets, trying to contain the contents, etc. This should make soaking coir a breeze, and, of course, the general concept can be adapted to larger containers.

For sand I can just unscrew the bulkhead, fill it with filter floss and away I go.

The 2 downsides that I see to the current setup are:

1) the faucet type valve may give me problems. If so, then I will just pick up an extender nipple and use a ball valve that I already have...

2) the valve could come out a bit more. It is easily accessible, but could stick out a few more inches.

Very cool! Thanks for posting this Naja!

Matt wrote:Very cool! Thanks for posting this Naja!

Hey Matt, glad you enjoyed it! Maybe this general concept can help someone else out.


I let the peat soak overnight. This morning I learned that the faucet type valve is pretty worthless. So, I scrounged around in my plumbing parts and found a nipple that works with a ball valve. Got it swapped out and it works great now. The first batch of peat drain water was 37ppm. I filled it back up and let it sit all day...~10 hrs. The 2nd batch of drain water was 38ppm, so I'm not seeing any benefit to soaking the peat. It's draining now. I'll fill it up shortly and let it soak overnight again, and check it in the morning.

This peat was already washed a couple of months ago. The standard let it soak in a 5 gal bucket 1x. I have a mortar tub full of it. Doesn't look like there is going to be any benefit to repeated soaking of it. If not, I'll move on to sand.

Ah...I love a good home project!

I don't really have any need for this at the current time, but that doesn't mean I don't think it's awesome! You should think about adding a plunging system so you can have a quick way to squeeze excess water out of the peat/coir.

95slvrZ28 wrote:Ah...I love a good home project!

Hey Blake, glad you've enjoyed it so far. More pix below. I may just make this my "My Adventures in Media Preparation" thread.

95slvrZ28 wrote:I don't really have any need for this at the current time, but that doesn't mean I don't think it's awesome!

Technically, I don't either, but I have quite a bit of media to prepare for next year. I would rather putz around with it now, then try to get it done quickly as I was doing.

I still have 1/3-1/2 of one of these to wash/soak:


Premier 3.0 cu. ft. Peat Moss

Plus I am trying to locate a local supply for sand. Plus 1 or more bales of coir. No need to rush and fiddle with all of it. I'll just putz around and do it at my leisure.

95slvrZ28 wrote:You should think about adding a plunging system so you can have a quick way to squeeze excess water out of the peat/coir.

That's a good idea, and I may incorporate something. A simple rough cut piece of plywood would do the trick. Stand a block (~35 lbs) on it and walk away....provided rain is not forecast. Once I get a bit further along on my Planter Bog I will have available a piece of scrap plywood that I can cut to fit.

But as you can see in the 2nd and 3rd pix below...it drains pretty darn good as it is. Would be nice if a plunger would work with sand, but....no.


An update, more babbling...your call!

Just a pic of the changeover to the ball valve...works great:




I opened the valve and let it drain for a while:




Dumped the contents in a mortar tub and the bulk came right out:





What was left inside:




Scraped out as well as a regular bucket:

Just so ya know: the last soak of the peat was down to ~30ppm. Not sure if that indicates further soaking would be beneficial, but I chose to move on to sand.

Dis-assembly was not quite as easy as I had hoped. I did have to get out a screwdriver and use it to lock the inside portion while twisting the outside portion. Took more strength than I would have preferred, but it is what it is. When I put it back together I learned that I did have to lock it down good and tight in order to prevent leakage. Not a biggie. Just takes a bit of muscle!

Dis-assembled:




Got out some batting that I have that I've used as filter floss in the past:




Filled the spot:




And assembled everything back together. HD had some good pool filter sand. I went by there this morning and they had NO pool filter sand of any kind. I did not feel like waiting, so I picked up some playsand of the same brand of pool filter sand that I've used before:




And it is a mess:




So, I stirred and dumped about 10x. Let the water run through it via the drain and over the edges for a while. Managed to get it semi-clear with this hard 284ppm tap water:



Then let it drain real well:




Just a pic of the drainage through sand:



I flushed it with 2x 1/2 gal of RODI...letting it drain well each time. Last time I let it drain for a few hours. I just topped it off with ~1/2 gal of RODI which will be the water from here on out with this batch. It's going to take a few soaks and drains to get most of the tap water TDS diluted out of there. But it's a ridiculous idea to try to use RODI for the initial cleaning, so dealing with the consequences of tap is just a necessity! Sand is a lot more work than peat or coir!

I have sand in 2 other buckets that I have been working on for a while now. I'll post those results when I get them.

Is the play sand intended for your plants? If so, I wouldn't use it. I just did a bunch of tracking down on that particular sand and it turns out it's not sand at all. It's actually ground calcium carbonate. Unlike silica sand, which is quartz, calcium carbonate can break down in water (you can see all the bubbles in the pic where it's full of water). It also looks like that "sand" is probably dyed since calcium carbonate is actually white naturally.

I'd suggest you search out some different silica sand! If you're into washing potting media, I recently found out the Quikrete commercial grade sand needs a nice washing before you can safely use it!

95slvrZ28 wrote:Is the play sand intended for your plants? If so, I wouldn't use it. I just did a bunch of tracking down on that particular sand and it turns out it's not sand at all. It's actually ground calcium carbonate. Unlike silica sand, which is quartz, calcium carbonate can break down in water (you can see all the bubbles in the pic where it's full of water). It also looks like that "sand" is probably dyed since calcium carbonate is actually white naturally.

Well, I appreciate the info! There is, of course, no info on the bag about what is actually in it. I will work with it for a bit to see what the outcome is. That brand of pool filter sand cleaned up pretty easily.

95slvrZ28 wrote: I'd suggest you search out some different silica sand! If you're into washing potting media, I recently found out the Quikrete commercial grade sand needs a nice washing before you can safely use it!

Yes, I mentioned the Quickrete sand here:
Scroll down inside first post

It is discussed here:
SAND


One of the 2 sands that I have in other buckets is ~10-15 lbs of Quickrete Pool Filter Sand from Lowes. It has taken quite a bit of work, but I currently have it down to a steady 15ppm.

Thanx for the heads up though! I bought it not knowing what to expect. If nothing else, I have places in the yard that I can put it, and I can let others know about it. One thing that I do not like about it is that it is a pretty fine grade of sand.

I just wouldn't use that Play Sand with any plants you're too attached to is all! Even if you can get it down to an acceptable TDS now, it's likely to continue breaking down over time. Pool filter sand is almost always silica, play sand is...well, who knows! Some of it appears to be ok, some of it appears to be ground calcium carbonate

My recent adventures with Quikrete sand seem to show similar results to your experiences with it. I have about another 45lbs to use up though, so when I get some new plants, I better be ready for some washing. Maybe I'll consider piecing together a wash bucket like you have!

95slvrZ28 wrote:I just wouldn't use that Play Sand with any plants you're too attached to is all! Even if you can get it down to an acceptable TDS now, it's likely to continue breaking down over time. Pool filter sand is almost always silica, play sand is...well, who knows! Some of it appears to be ok, some of it appears to be ground calcium carbonate

My recent adventures with Quikrete sand seem to show similar results to your experiences with it. I have about another 45lbs to use up though, so when I get some new plants, I better be ready for some washing. Maybe I'll consider piecing together a wash bucket like you have!

Well, I thought I had the QK sand down to a steady 15ppm, but after soaking for a few days...it's back up to 42ppm! I've got it draining now and will add another soak, but there is something breaking down in that sand. It will probably go out in the yard! I'll continue fiddling with this playsand and see what happens. I'm not in a rush, so I can let it soak for days at a time right now....see what the effect is. The only thing that I currently have to soak is peat, and that can be started and finished pretty quickly. It will be a while before I get some more coir, so again, I'm not in a rush. I'll fiddle with it for a while. Maybe breakout the aquarium test kits to see what kind of readings it shows.

Ok, just going off on a little bit of a tangent here. I am now working with 3 different sands. 1 (Quickrete) pool filter sand, and 2 playsands.

I've been working with the Quickrete, since I started my Planter Bog project, so not quite a month ago.




Playsand 1...this stuff:


Lowes

I've been working with this for probably 1 wk - 10 days.

I let the above 2 sands soak for days at a time. I may work with them more than once in a day, or 2 days in a row, or they may soak for 3-4 days before I get back to them. I gave them both a good ~8 hr drain last night and got them soaking again this morning.

Playsand 2...is the Pavestone stuff in this thread above that I just started working with yesterday:




I have not kept a written log on any of these sands, but I do have a mental log, recent results and a general idea of what the results have been. Here are some results from this morning:

Quickrete pool filter sand: Many soaks and drains. ~8 hr drain last night. New RODI mixed well: 21 ppm. Seems to go up with soaking.

Playsand 1-Short Mountain Silica: 4-5 soaks and drains with ~8 hr drain last night. New RODI mixed well: down to 30 ppm. Keeps going down, not up.

Playsand 2-Pavestone: Initial wash with hard 284ppm tap water, plus 2x flush and drain, plus overnight soak:

Start of drain: 168 ppm
Mid-drain 1: 159 ppm
Mid- drain 2: 147 ppm
End drain: 132 ppm
Results expected--still flushing out the TDS of the hard tap water. Each of these 3 sands were initially cleaned with this hard tap water and initial results are always in the 165 ppm range. It will be a few more drains before anything of value will come from playsand 2.

EDIT: I just did a 2 and 3/4 gal flush with RODI of the Playsand 2-Pavestone. The end drain water result was 10 ppm. Doesn't mean much other than most of the tap water TDS should be flushed out. I topped it off and will let it soak. It will go up, so the question is--by how much? and how will it behave with soaking? We'll see...

Next set of results...one quite surprising:

All 3 sands have been soaking for +10 hrs since last fill.

Quickrete pool filter sand: Started out at 21ppm. Now after good stir/mix...32 ppm.

Playsand 1-Short Mountain Silica: Started out at 30 ppm. Now after good stir/mix...42 ppm.


Playsand 2-Pavestone: After soaking in the sun all day-

Start of drain: 16 ppm
Mid-drain 1: 14 ppm
Mid- drain 2: 13 ppm
End of drain: 13 ppm

I know that the Pavestone pool filter sand cleaned up very easily. That is why, without that option, I decided to try this playsand. I got the pool filter sand down to 5 ppm (with 1ppm RODI), but, IIRC, I was just rinsing at that point, not soaking. If so, then I really don't know the result.