- Joined
- Apr 11, 2007
- Messages
- 5,438
So i picked up a "cube" of straight peat moss at a local garden store. This is the chopped up, partially decomposed variety not the stringy, fresher type generally used for plant decoration. Apparently it was more moist than i initially thought. After i redid my adult smithi's tank i realized the humidity was way too high at ground level: about 85%. Also mold started popping up in places accompanied by a quite musty smell and she basically wouldn't touch the soil at all. She covered everything with webbing and spent a LOT of time walking around upside down on the lid.
I've taken this same bag of peat and nuked about 6 cups at a time for 2 minutes each, long enough for steam to rise out of the peat and for it to become too hot to touch. I've done this enough times to get plenty of soil to fill the tank to the necessary level.
My question is this: Does that seem adequate to you experts out there to kill any mold spores present and do you think it really dried the substrate to an adequate degree? Also should i be sterilizing soil in this or some other manner every time i set up an enclosure?
Thanks in advance for your replies.
I've taken this same bag of peat and nuked about 6 cups at a time for 2 minutes each, long enough for steam to rise out of the peat and for it to become too hot to touch. I've done this enough times to get plenty of soil to fill the tank to the necessary level.
My question is this: Does that seem adequate to you experts out there to kill any mold spores present and do you think it really dried the substrate to an adequate degree? Also should i be sterilizing soil in this or some other manner every time i set up an enclosure?
Thanks in advance for your replies.