Hydroton washing is a pain the arse...I have an ebb and flo system with a 50 gallon res(CAP). I just throw the hydroton into the res with a little biofriendly dishsoap(seems to break down faster then normal dishsoap) and mix it around. Let it sit for a few hours...dump it in my bubble hash bag(the 220) 5 gallons at a time(spray it with a hose). most of the roots goto the bottom(70-80%)..dump the bubble bag into a 50 gallon garbage bag...and done..of course it is time consuming, and not perfect...But it cleans the res and hydroton at the same time...