I love using my old equipment, meant to make rinsing/buffering and mixing nice and easy. 20 gal trash bin with dolly which is also good for lugging water to fill a large resivoir. Large, tall 20 gal fabric pot also for the preparation process being easier.
I soak coco in 5 gal buckets, feel out that it is mostly full to eye ball 4 gal at a time to desired portion. I eye balled this run perfectly. Just over 6 gal coco. I use a marked 5 gal bucket so I know how many gallons I just made before buffering. Dump it into 20 gal fabric pot.
I use a 1/8” mesh screen to rinse, a 7”x12” strainer. I figured out that 3 cap fulls of calmag cali magic per 5 gallons water makes 1.2EC solution so no need to measure, saves a step. I can make close to 20 gallons at a time like this. I use trash bin to dunk coco in water and squeeze out twice to rinse off calmg.
I use a 25 gal tub to mix it so it is a breeze, harder to do in a smaller container. 90/10 is my favorite ratio pearlite. 1 quart pearlite per 2 gallons coco. Nice clean coco ready for action! 6 gallons this run. I like prepping my own coco because I can say it is rinsed/buffered if any issues arise and weave that out. Double buffered 8 hrs at a time soaking.
I like Nutrifield coco bricks they have been the easiest to break down with butter knife than others that took drills and anything to break apart. It is far the cleanest coco too but it still has a lot of sand, dust and etc to rinse off. Others had pollutants. I rinse the pearlite too.