After every harvest the hydropnics system which includes the buckets, lids, pipes, gromets and hydroton needs to be disassembled, washed, sterilized with 34% food grade peroxide and put back together. Some say growing in soil is much simpler and I would agree however there are benefits with growing in hydro such as computers to help maintain PH and EC, plants grow & finish faster, flushing can be done in 3 days vs 2 weeks in soil, saves water & nutrients since the system recirculates.

The downside is you need to make sure everything is working properly, if pumps fail, power goes out, you may not have much time before the plants spiral downwards.