The coco puff effect is twofold......the balls are very light and they are round.......drop your bucket and your plant is usually done for since there is absolutely NO stability to hydroton. It does not hold roots very securely imo and the fact that they roll everywhere (if you drop them) they are a complete PITA to deal with. Also becase of their airy nature they tend to "hold onto" extra nutes and salt allowing more overfert/salt buildup issues than I liked.

There are few pluses to hydroton....it's very light and seems to resist algae well but I NEVER reuse my media....no matter what it is......so the pros of h-ton come in WAY under the cons.

Hope this still falls under blink's q.......otherwise sorry for the threadjack.