Phampho humidity?

Ultum4Spiderz

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How much water are you actually putting in there? It looks almost swampy. Btw a lot of big chain pet stores now sell springtail cultures and they're pretty cheap.
About half a Gatorade bottle worth last night. I let it dry out three weeks and the mold didn’t go away. For some reason it shows up better in pictures then I can actually see it. Poor lighting in that area.
 

fcat

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Is that a glass tank you have her in? If not a row of holes at the sub level would help a lot.

Moss helps wick moisture from the soil, you could of put a bundle in, swap it out with a dry bundle as it gets damp, it can be reused once it dries again.

If it won't disturb her too much, you can till the soil a bit to get the more damp levels up to the surface. And poke holes down to the bottom with a straw.

How's the ventilation in your room? I have a ceiling fan and another small table fan at the opposite side of the room to keep air moving, but not directed at my Ts.
 

Ultum4Spiderz

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Is that a glass tank you have her in? If not a row of holes at the sub level would help a lot.

Moss helps wick moisture from the soil, you could of put a bundle in, swap it out with a dry bundle as it gets damp, it can be reused once it dries again.

If it won't disturb her too much, you can till the soil a bit to get the more damp levels up to the surface. And poke holes down to the bottom with a straw.

How's the ventilation in your room? I have a ceiling fan and another small table fan at the opposite side of the room to keep air moving, but not directed at my Ts.
Yes glass 15 gallon with the original lid.
There’s already Moss in there.
I added the Eco earth, just to hold moisture longer than topsoil as you can see in the first picture when I let it dry out.
No fan but the lid is screen so very good ventilation. Zilla tank was too hard to modify to replace the lid unusual dimensions, with acrylic and then I ran low in money. it would be $50 plus .
 

Dorifto

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About half a Gatorade bottle worth last night. I let it dry out three weeks and the mold didn’t go away. For some reason it shows up better in pictures then I can actually see it. Poor lighting in that area.
Try adding the moisture more gradually rather than flooding it at once. Mold/mycellium outbreak usually happen if you flood your setup.

I wouldn't worry too much about it, eventually it will balance itself.
 

fcat

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Yes glass 15 gallon with the original lid.
There’s already Moss in there.
I added the Eco earth, just to hold moisture longer than topsoil as you can see in the first picture when I let it dry out.
No fan but the lid is screen so very good ventilation. Zilla tank was too hard to modify to replace the lid unusual dimensions, with acrylic and then I ran low in money. it would be $50 plus .
I mean adding some dry moss for the purpose of collecting excess moisture, then removing the wet stuff to let it dry, so you can repeat if needed. The moss that's already wet only has so much capacity and will be at the mercy of surface area exposed to dry out at the same rate as your sub.

I would've suggested a tampon but I know you have moss.
 

SpookySpooder

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I'll post you some springtails when the weather warms up. The container I bought years ago is still culturing and I've run out of places to dump them so I have thousands just living on clay. You should already have a bunch in that isopod deli cup too.
 

Dorifto

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I'll post you some springtails when the weather warms up. The container I bought years ago is still culturing and I've run out of places to dump them so I have thousands just living on clay. You should already have a bunch in that isopod deli cup too.
What kind of clay do you use to coulture them?
 

Dorifto

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Just basic red/brown clay with calcium. I feed them a pinch of bee pollen and roach chow every few weeks and add some filtered water.
Thanks!!

I'll give it a shot next time I start a coulture, for some reason I never be able to raise them properly on charcoal. Finally raised them along with my isopods, but wanted to keep them separated.
 

SpookySpooder

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Your springtails live better than I do!!!
You and me both... I just had a Big Mac & Coke last night because I was too lazy to cook dinner (mostly cleaning up after TBH) because I spent my evening hours feeding my slings. You're making me reevaluate my life choices because now I'm realizing my bugs, plants, and cats live better than I do, LOL.

Thanks!!

I'll give it a shot next time I start a coulture, for some reason I never be able to raise them properly on charcoal. Finally raised them along with my isopods, but wanted to keep them separated.
Definitely use clay if you need more springtails and don't want to wait. Charcoal has some advantages. Mainly being easy to keep clean and you don't have to replenish it. They eat parts of the calcium clay, so eventually you need to replenish it, but it has the added bonus of helping them culture faster.

When I got mine they were about 20-30 in a little deli cup with charcoal, I had trouble removing them from the lower levels without getting a ton of water and charcoal in every enclosure and they didn't seem to culture that fast so I swapped them to clay as I read many PDF keepers have great results on clay.

I mixed the charcoal into some potting soil and never went back.
 

Mike Withrow

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You and me both... I just had a Big Mac & Coke last night because I was too lazy to cook dinner (mostly cleaning up after TBH) because I spent my evening hours feeding my slings. You're making me reevaluate my life choices because now I'm realizing my bugs, plants, and cats live better than I do, LOL.


Definitely use clay if you need more springtails and don't want to wait. Charcoal has some advantages. Mainly being easy to keep clean and you don't have to replenish it. They eat parts of the calcium clay, so eventually you need to replenish it, but it has the added bonus of helping them culture faster.

When I got mine they were about 20-30 in a little deli cup with charcoal, I had trouble removing them from the lower levels without getting a ton of water and charcoal in every enclosure and they didn't seem to culture that fast so I swapped them to clay as I read many PDF keepers have great results on clay.

I mixed the charcoal into some potting soil and never went back.
That's something I hadn't contemplated on yet but,I've got some clay soil left over from when I kept D workmani . If that will work I'm going to give it a go.

@Ultum4Spiderz . All I've used for the past few years,a couple at the least has be eco earth for my substrate. I even have carpets of moss covering 95% of the floor of my enclosures to help slow down the evaporation,and I've never really had any serious issues with any of them molding

Just getting back to your comments in a post from another members thread about your thread here and what substrate I use.

Most everything I have is Asian spiders. So I'm top of their water requirements.
 
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SpookySpooder

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Oh I know I just kept scrolling seeing new species I've never heard of and drooling, citing stock dates good grief

Gimme some of those vintage ones 🤣
Mmmm.. vintage springtails circa summer '69...

Those extinct roaches really tickle the collector's fancy. How EXCLUSIVE and RARE!

I'm glad I haven't pulled the trigger on isopods. If I bought one, I'd buy them all, and I certainly don't need that.
 

Ultum4Spiderz

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Hey @Ultum4Spiderz how far are you from Brunswick? There's an ad in the classified section that stars out with "Clean up crew" will come back with a link but they have springtails!

It would be cheaper to buy them from the pet store for 15-18 bucks. I didn’t because I’m too low on money.
Mmmm.. vintage springtails circa summer '69...

Those extinct roaches really tickle the collector's fancy. How EXCLUSIVE and RARE!

I'm glad I haven't pulled the trigger on isopods. If I bought one, I'd buy them all, and I certainly don't need that.
Imagine people having full rooms of those isopods. YouTube auto played some video of some guy who just collected isopods , it played after Dubai roach video.
 

dragonfire1577

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I kept my mascara and machala mostly dry and made sure they always had water + overflowed the dish in that corner. This resulted in one damp corner and a gradient over to the dry corner. Worked well for many years for me.
 
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