Charcoal for drainage layer?

[KYguy]

I was wanting some feed back on an idea I had to use cleaned chunk charcoal for my drainage layer for my T's. I was thinking it would make wonderful drainage material. Plus it would at the same time, filter the water and fight of bacteria from my enclosures at the same time. But I wanted your guy's input first.

 

[BenWilly]

Are you talking grill charcoal or aquarium type charcoal? Grill type of course I wouldnt use. Aquarium type should be good to go. I see your name is KYguy, so I assume you are in kentucky? Im in jefferson county ky

 

[KYguy]

Awesome, I am in Paducah area. And I was referring to cleaned/washed chunk char-wood, "not" the cooking briquettes. I know a lot of handler's put crushed char-wood in their substrate to fight bacteria and to help maintain healthy Ph levels in damp environment enclosures.

 

[BenWilly]

Oh , then I definitely aint the one to answer that lol. I have no clue about that.

 

[Thekla]

First of all, of what species we're talking about? Would you really need a drainage layer?

Secondly, I only heard (and used) charcoal as an additive to the substrate (or as a layer on top of the dividing layer between drainage layer and substrate) for filtering purposes, and that's mainly for vivariums (like for dart frogs and such).

I'm not sure if it'd be the right stuff to serve as a drainage layer. I think clay balls or larger gravel would be more suitable.

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

Creating a drainage layer in a tarantula's cage is an unnecessary complication. For tropical species needing damp substrate, you should never add so much water to over saturate the substrate. Also, using a highly absorbent soil additive like coco fiber will soak up and hold onto water better and quicker than anything else on the market. If you tend to over saturate the soil or want to be more on the safe side, use a plastic container as an enclosure and add a row of small holes in the bottom where the walls meet the bottom to allow water to drain. If you are housing a large tarantula and need a large enclosure, adding a row of holes in the bottom middle will be needed. If using a store bought glass terrarium, this is obviously not an option.

When I keep adult Theraphosa species, I house them in a large clear plastic container and carefully water the substrate using a watering can for plants. Caring for them is just like taking care of a plant, but without the plant food and light. I never needed a drainage layer or to add drainage holes for those. I have though used drainage holes as described above years ago when housing tube-dwelling species such as Cyriopagopus spp. See this article (PDF file) by Martin Huber and Volker von Wirth for more details on housing "tube-dwelling" species (in German).