# Hydroton is no longer being produced.



## MeiKVR6 (Sep 16, 2008)

Just an open notice to Dendroboard folk. Hydroton is apparently no longer being produced, which means we'll have to use an alternative media when the remaining supply runs out. (Zoo Med's Hydroballs work just as well as Hydroton, lava rocks work, etc... There are plenty of options out there.)










I'm posting because I wanted to let people know in case they have local Hydroponic stores near them. (The big 50L bags aren't worth shipping from places online, since it would cost so much extra) If you regularly purchase large quantities of hydroton and you've got a hydroponics shop near you, I'd pay them a visit and see if you can stock up for your frog rooms!  We just cleared out our supplier, and I'd guess most other sponsors will do the same so the 'normal online supply' won't dry up immediately. 

Still, it never hurts to have a little warning in advance. 

Just my $0.02!
-Mike

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*EDIT 8/20/12: UPDATE ON PAGE 6 (2'ND POST DOWN) - HYDROTON IS NOW BACK IN PRODUCTION.*


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## Brotherly Monkey (Jul 20, 2010)

any idea why they're stopping production?


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## frogface (Feb 20, 2010)

Thank you! Really appreciate the heads up. I'll be hitting my local hydroponics store tomorrow


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## james67 (Jun 28, 2008)

there are a number of LECA manufacturers. i doubt seriously that it will be unavailable in the future, but it may take time for other suppliers to ramp up production.

james


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

Theres too much demand for expanded clay particles to have production cease. Someone will step up


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## frogface (Feb 20, 2010)

frogparty said:


> Theres too much demand for expanded clay particles to have production cease. Someone will step up


I hope you're right. I've only been able to find one source of LECA in my area, and it's Hydroton. Hopefully the hydroponics store will find another company.


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## kingfisherfleshy (Mar 17, 2012)

Id like to see the source of this information...

Its a good heads up if true - but this stuff is such a staple in so many different plant growing capacities that I have a hard time believing this!


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## Brotherly Monkey (Jul 20, 2010)

frogparty said:


> Theres too much demand for expanded clay particles to have production cease. Someone will step up


it's still rather surprising, given the amount of market they seemed to represent.


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## konton (Nov 17, 2010)

I've had this confirmed a few weeks ago at my local hydroponics store. I would stop using hydroton anyway. It's just clay pellets and they have to be imported from Germany. My local hydroponics store still sells hydrocorn, which is pretty much the same, just not round.

I've switched over to growstones. They are lighter, come from recycled glass, made in New Mexico, absorb water, help out the roots of your plants more, and makes it easier for your excess water to naturally dissipate from the tank. 

I've just started testing it out. I didn't even know it absorbed water, until I had filled the bottom of a new tank to test for leaks, then dropped in the growstones. Then all the water was gone. I was like "where the hell did it go?" I actually still didn't figure it out till I was watching this video.






Cool stuff. I'm trying the smaller stones out in my next 4 tanks. The big stones are good too, but the small stones look more like gravel and give less space for substrate to fall through to the bottom.

Jae


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## Brotherly Monkey (Jul 20, 2010)

frogface said:


> I hope you're right. I've only been able to find one source of LECA in my area, and it's Hydroton. Hopefully the hydroponics store will find another company.


most of the bigger hydroponic outlets will usually carry a few different brands. But in my experience (which is limited to 2-3 brands) each is a bit different in how it behaves (some might hold more water, or have a finer "grain"). But I couldn't see it being an issue in most applications, especially as a drainage layer


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

i use a false bottom anyway


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## Brotherly Monkey (Jul 20, 2010)

frogparty said:


> i use a false bottom anyway


I use it as a planting medium for anything like a cattlelaya, though it took me a while to get a proper feel for watering


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## james67 (Jun 28, 2008)

konton said:


> It's just clay pellets and they have to be imported from Germany.


its not just a clay pellet. if you've ever crushed one you would see that inside its dense ceramic shell its filled with a ceramic honeycomb structure. this happens by rapidly heating the clay to extremely high temperatures causing it to expand like popcorn. the kilns rotate during this process resulting in generally spherical shapes.









GH the parent company of the Hydroton brand is in California, ive never heard the link to Germany, though they also have facilities in France.



kingfisherfleshy said:


> Its a good heads up if true - but this stuff is such a staple in so many different plant growing capacities that I have a hard time believing this!


i doubt we're being lied to here, but as i said earlier there are a number of other suppliers. brands some of us here in the us may be familiar with are grorox and geolite but there are also a TON of arab and asian manufacturers like litcon among many others.

james


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## MeiKVR6 (Sep 16, 2008)

Such a massively popular product... It's admittedly hard to imagine. I'm only going by what our supplier says, and just passing the word along.  (That's all I've been told.) The news has been posted on other (hydroponic) forums by other people, too.

Edit: If my supplier, the hydroponic forums, the other suppliers (mentioned earlier in the thread), and other websites (google it) turn out to be wrong... Please don't shoot the messenger.  I'm just trying to give people a heads-up, since I haven't seen anything posted on a vivarium forum about it.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

Brotherly Monkey said:


> I use it as a planting medium for anything like a cattlelaya, though it took me a while to get a proper feel for watering


For orchids I like rockwool croutons better


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## Brotherly Monkey (Jul 20, 2010)

frogparty said:


> For orchids I like rockwool croutons better


I use that stuff a lot, as well. But for dryer orchids I prefer the hydroton


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## kingfisherfleshy (Mar 17, 2012)

Intel seems credible coming from so many different places!

Im a newbie to the viv scene, but not to hydroponics. 

I am surprised, but convinced. Good heads up.

Grow stone looks legit however. Loved the video, I can attest to how miserable that red dust is...even after intensively washing the hydroton.


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## konton (Nov 17, 2010)

kingfisherfleshy said:


> Grow stone looks legit however. Loved the video, I can attest to how miserable that red dust is...even after intensively washing the hydroton.


If you look at Black Jungle, you'll see they call growstone Feather-Lite, just like they call hydroton Terra-Lite.

It's legit. Sometimes it just takes a while for new ideas to catch on. I know I was all about hydroton until I needed to find a light weight substitute.

Jae


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## Azurel (Aug 5, 2010)

The growstone looks really interesting gonna have to look for that......


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## frog dude (Nov 11, 2011)

hmm. Didn't know that. Good to know. I probably would have moved on to false bottoms anyway, and no there is another possibility, the grow rocks.


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## CJW (Nov 14, 2011)

interesting, There will always be alternatives though....


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## frograck (May 1, 2005)

Alternatives such as substrate foam!
Lightweight, clean aesthetic, and substrate cannot infiltrate it.
Www.thefrograck.com


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## Totenkampf (Jun 25, 2012)

My last bag of hydroton read that it was made in Germany, which is a shame since the kiln fired aggregate plants in the US are suffering these days.

I just switched to the Dutch produced Gold Label Hydro Pebbles which are basically the same thing with exception to a couple items. They guarantee that no heavy metals are leached into their products. Hytroton wont say this. They are also more irregular in shape so they dont slide and shift around near as much. Since I feel the LECA / Weed Barrier construction is superior to the False Bottom method, this is important to me. The large bag was also less expensive than Hydroton. This brand can be found at most hydroponics supply stores.


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## konton (Nov 17, 2010)

Totenkampf said:


> My last bag of hydroton read that it was made in Germany, which is a shame since the kiln fired aggregate plants in the US are suffering these days.


Hey, I just realized this thread started with a photo of a bag of hydroton that says "made in germany"









Well so far my growstones are working well for me. And those are made in the USA. It's making me wonder why I've bothered with adding drainage to all my new tanks. Guess it's better safe than sorry.


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

I understood that the original hydroton made in Germany was originally manufactured as an industrial filtration medium, not as a growing medium. Perhaps this is the reason that they have halted product--because it is not longer cost-effective to produce it for that purpose.

It sounds like there are enough alternatives around anyway. It is too bad however because those big bags of hydroton were cheap and the grains were nice and round. Round grains maximize the amount of empty void space in between.


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## Brian317 (Feb 11, 2011)

I've used hydroton for all my vivs, but there will be always be alternatives to this. I would not mind trying featherlite or growstones though, they look very interesting to me!


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## kingfisherfleshy (Mar 17, 2012)

I have a false bottom I am going to cover with a substrate barrier. 

Going to support that with PVC rings, but also thought about putting something underneath that. 

Hydroton or growstone would support the false bottom as well. 

I like the idea of the reticulated foam. Only things I dont like about it are these:

Seems that the pores would eventually clog with dirt.

And a negative/positive is that the roots can grow down as low as they want. A pain for re planting or moving stuff...but good so that the plants can do whatever they want.


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## JJuchems (Feb 16, 2004)

I went to my local hydroponics store today and they have not heard of the discontinued status, but he may have not gotten the news yet. He sells 3 to 1 Sunleaves :: Sunleaves Rocks a made in the USA product and is cheaper. I picked up a bag and it looks to be a great alternative.


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## Brotherly Monkey (Jul 20, 2010)

JJuchems said:


> I went to my local hydroponics store today and they have not heard of the discontinued status, but he may have not gotten the news yet. He sells 3 to 1 Sunleaves :: Sunleaves Rocks a made in the USA product and is cheaper. I picked up a bag and it looks to be a great alternative.


how does it compare in volume and weight to hydroton; say if you had 60 lbs of each, would they both take up a similar amount of space?


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## JJuchems (Feb 16, 2004)

Brotherly Monkey said:


> how does it compare in volume and weight to hydroton; say if you had 60 lbs of each, would they both take up a similar amount of space?


Just did a quick test, I filled a Pyrex measuring cup to 2 cups. Hydroton was 205g, while the "Rocks" weighed 265g.

Here is a benefit of "Rocks", it does not role around!


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## Brotherly Monkey (Jul 20, 2010)

at that weight, the pricing seems pretty comparable, being that I usually pay 20-25 bucks for a bag of hydroton (which is on the cheap end, if I'm not mistaken)


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## JJuchems (Feb 16, 2004)

My local shop sell Hydroton for $38.99 a 50L bag and the 65LB "Rocks" for $22.


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## Totenkampf (Jun 25, 2012)

glad to read about the featherstone if its truly lighter than LECA even...i will try that next


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## konton (Nov 17, 2010)

I think I posted this somewhere else. But I'll just reference the numbers from hydroponic stores with the products mentioned. Except I don't have a hydroton example, so I'll have to substitute hydrocorn.

Hydro Corn = 50L = 1.41 CF = $32.95 = 40lbs.

Sunleaves Rocks = 50L = 1.41 CF = $21.95 = 65lbs.

Growstone Growing Medium = 35.5L = 1.25 CF = $24.95 = 11.4lbs. (so 50L would be 16lbs.)

Growstone Super Soil Aerator = 56.5L = 2 CF = $27.00 = 26lbs.

These number are not probably not perfectly accurate, but they are what I've found online. 

Jae


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## Scott (Feb 17, 2004)

You folks need to discover matala!

s


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## JJuchems (Feb 16, 2004)

Totenkampf said:


> glad to read about the featherstone if its truly lighter than LECA even...i will try that next


I only know of one place to order and no one local, and it does not seem to be widely availabile. That is going to put it out of my builds and I am sure others.


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## Brian317 (Feb 11, 2011)

JJuchems said:


> My local shop sell Hydroton for $38.99 a 50L bag and the 65LB "Rocks" for $22.


My local store is about that too. I think it is $40 on the dot for the large 50L bag...



Scott said:


> You folks need to discover matala!
> 
> s


Are those the sponge/filter mats? 

Hmm, that would be interesting...Do you currently use them?


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## Brotherly Monkey (Jul 20, 2010)

JJuchems said:


> I only know of one place to order and no one local, and it does not seem to be widely availabile. That is going to put it out of my builds and I am sure others.


you could always ask the shop to order it in


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

If I missed please excuse this post.. but there is also featherlite.. see Substrates 


Ed


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## Scott (Feb 17, 2004)

Yes I do. 

They support subtrates very easily - are nice and porous yet still provide plenty of space for bacterial growth (whatever - you know what i mean  ).

Not terribly expensive.

I like it. I'll not be going back to anything else.

s


Brian317 said:


> ... Are those the sponge/filter mats?
> 
> Hmm, that would be interesting...Do you currently use them?


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## JJuchems (Feb 16, 2004)

Brotherly Monkey said:


> you could always ask the shop to order it in


We have two shops in town, neither can order it. One is owned by a guy I know from high school, he said there are other issues with product. He did not elaborate, so I don't know if it an ordering/stock issue or a product issue. I asked back when it was first posted by Black Jungle.


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## pa.walt (Feb 16, 2004)

Ed said:


> If I missed please excuse this post.. but there is also featherlite.. see Substrates
> 
> 
> Ed


featherlite/growstone 
ed two different names but look like they are the same product. there is a place in philly area that sells growstone.


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## konton (Nov 17, 2010)

pa.walt said:


> featherlite/growstone
> ed two different names but look like they are the same product. there is a place in philly area that sells growstone.


They are the same product.

You can find suppliers using this:
Where to buy Growstones | Growstone

That's how I did. According to one owner though he's listed because he can get it from a supplier in the area, not because he stocks it.

Jae


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## Zach Valois (Jun 7, 2012)

Is there a reason that no one has mentioned Turface yet? I grow lots of orchids outside of tanks, but so far I have only been using Turface for display tanks (putting it around and on top of false bottoms), some microfauna cultures, and I start some select cuttings in Turface as well.

I generally only use Hydroton in my tub setups. I like it for this use because it is lightweight and does not absorb water, and is easy to see the standing water level. In tub setups, this makes monitoring and cleaning relatively easy.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Zach Valois said:


> Is there a reason that no one has mentioned Turface yet? I grow lots of orchids outside of tanks, but so far I have only been using Turface for display tanks (putting it around and on top of false bottoms), some microfauna cultures, and I start some select cuttings in Turface as well.


If you use a air gap between the bottom of the turface layer and the top of the water in the false bottom, turface works fairly well (and I've used it in pots to propegate bromeliads) but if the water stays in contact with it or it is subjected to a lot of misting, it can remain too wet (at least in my experience). 

Ed


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## skylsdale (Sep 16, 2007)

Hydroton is only a brand or single manufacturer of LECA pellets/spheres and it was preferred/promoted by a few influential orchid growers and suppliers because of it's irregular shape (which created a more compact, yet still spacious, medium for orchid roots to grow). For the purpose of vivariums--since most people just use it as a filler under the substrate--any brand of LECA will suffice.


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## JJuchems (Feb 16, 2004)

Scott said:


> Yes I do.
> 
> They support subtrates very easily - are nice and porous yet still provide plenty of space for bacterial growth (whatever - you know what i mean  ).
> 
> ...


What is else is it sold as, I am interested.


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## frogfreak (Mar 4, 2009)

Scott said:


> You folks need to discover matala!
> 
> s


Hi Scott,

Which product do you use? Filter or drainage? 

Envi Drain


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## Turningdoc (May 24, 2012)

Has anyone ever used those plastic " hydro balls" that are for pond pump tanks? They would still grow bioactive bacteria from waste, but seems would be much lighter and reusable after sterilizing.


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## Scott (Feb 17, 2004)

I use Item # MTBK-1/2SH from this page.

Make sure you get the right item number! 

s



frogfreak said:


> Hi Scott,
> 
> Which product do you use? Filter or drainage?
> 
> Envi Drain


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## Brian317 (Feb 11, 2011)

Great to know. I've always been a fan of products like hydroton or a similiar products that gives the extra space for beneficial bacterial. I saw you post above and I will have to try it out in my next exo build! Thanks for the link 



Scott said:


> Yes I do.
> 
> They support subtrates very easily - are nice and porous yet still provide plenty of space for bacterial growth (whatever - you know what i mean  ).
> 
> ...





Scott said:


> I use Item # MTBK-1/2SH from this page.
> 
> Make sure you get the right item number!
> 
> s


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## MeiKVR6 (Sep 16, 2008)

*Good news from our Hydroton supplier... *

The reason for the stop in production was apparently due to the mine/source of clay was (for whatever reason) no longer going to work out. It was rumored that the clay was contaminated or impure. _They've since found a new mine/source and are now beginning production again._ 

So Hydroton might be unavailable or in short supply for a temporary time, but shouldn't be a permanent problem. I hope the false alarm from the manufacturer didn't cause anyone too much trouble. I'm glad they figured it out, though!


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## kitcolebay (Apr 7, 2012)

Thanks for the updated info!


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