Altadude:

How anal are you about drying your Platy's?

Here in relatively dry southern Cal -- a 1L platy will take 2-3 days to dry and a hydration tube a lot longer still.

But if you are the type that likes to clean and put away things... then you can shorten the dry time significantly by buying an el cheapo aquarium pump and tubes at Wally World ($5). Connect tube to pump and insert the other end to your Platy. Get "T" connector so you can dry two Platy's together. Of course, if you use hydration tube, make that part of the connection between pump and Platy and you can dry everything together. Drying time is overnight -- as compared to 2, 3, 4 days or longer.