eco earth substrate??

[ReaperHWK]

The guy at the store gave me this compressed coconut fiber expandable substrate that I'm supposed to put in water and it expands, and the scorpion will burrow in it. ANyone ever use this???

 

[Brian S]

I always go to Lowe's or Wal-Mart and get a bag of Spaghnam Peat Moss

 

[Squirrelcore8]

I use ecoearth for all of my tarantulas. I love it.

 

[Fascination]

I use coco fiber for my scorp and they love it. But where did you get it at that price ?

 

[Crono]

Used it for my scorp. Not that bad, as it seems to hold a burrow well. There might not be enough in a brick if you want really deep substrate though.
I don't see that much difference with peat though, except maybe some environmental issues on using too much peat.

Here's my terrarium, all Eco-earth, with some Exoterra Jungle Earth sprinkled on top to make it look pretty .
(Some salesguy conned me into buying it, way to expensive, might as well use it now that I have it)
View from the side, 10 gal. tank, with an inch of gravel at the bottom and 1 and 1/2 bricks of Eco-earth on top, just to give you an idea of how much you get. Changed the dish and added hides.
Enjoy
Dave Mc

 

[Fascination]

Why did you put gravel Crono ? just curious.

 

[Crono]

False bottom setup, from some of the forums here.

In the back left corner, there is a plastic tube going down the side of the tank. This goes down into the gravel layer, so I can add water to it.
There is about 1" of "River pebbles" or whatever. like 5$ for 20kg, a double layer of fibreglass mesh, then the cocofibre.

This creates a humidity gradient in the substrate, the scorpion can burrow to where it is comfortable and I don't have to stress as much over the humidity of the air on the surface.
I just pour some water in every once in a while, it never actually reaches the substrate but the substrate is visibly damper the lower you dig.
I only got the scorp monday night, but had the terrarium set up for two weeks before just to make sure there wouldn't be any problems with temp or humidity when it was set up.

 

[ReaperHWK]

awesome.

I might use the brick when I redo the tank when my scorp gets bigger, he's a real small emporer now.

As far as the price, is that really cheap or something?? I just picked it up in the pet shop.

Brian

 

[Crono]

got mine at 5.99 CAN$ per brick, so it's not that much of a difference.
Big difference in $/volume over other substrates in a pet shop for sure

I can thank Arachnoboards for a proper setup.
What would I do without it?

 

[Alakdan]

Coco fibre

I use coco peat for all my enclosures. For my tropical species, I mix it with spaghnum moss for moisture retention. For arid or grassland species, I mix it with sand and/or bark.

Use it as a base and then experiment with different add-ons and ratio to achieve your desired result.

 

[bluebell]

Eco Earth is great for T's and scorpions, although I find it doesn't hold moisture as well as peat moss.