Substrate, kind of urgent.

abarth

Arachnosquire
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Jan 17, 2007
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Can I use soil with 5% Perlite?

The soil contains:

Nitrogen: 300mg/l
Phosphor: 105mg/l
Kalium: 249mg/l
Kalcium: 1600mg/l
Magnesium: 25 mg/l

It's for a pokie.

Couldn't find the substrate i wanted.
 

Cirith Ungol

Ministry of Fluffy Bunnies
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I'm unsure if those specific contents do matter, though what matters is what kind of soil you have there.

But actually for a pokie 100% perlite would just work fine, afterall, a pokie will be the last T to try and dig.
 

Talkenlate04

ArachnoGod
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Nitrogen: 300mg/l
Phosphor: 105mg/l
Kalium: 249mg/l
Kalcium: 1600mg/l
Magnesium: 25 mg/l


These are the things you want to worry about actually. Peat and Loam and vermic all have very little in the way of chemicles............ and the less chemicles the better.
 

abarth

Arachnosquire
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Messages
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Thanks.
I guess I'll just use some "reptibark" til I can get the substrate I want.
She'll get some nice things to climb on.
 

Talkenlate04

ArachnoGod
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Bark is a bad idea too...... use the potting soil for the time being so long as you plan to replace it....... some people use potting soil all the time, I had trouble with mold every now and then and a few years ago switched to peat. Its a personal thing really. There are organic potting soils that have no chemical additives and those are perfectly acceptable.
 

DrAce

Arachnodemon
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Seems pretty normal to me

Can I use soil with 5% Perlite?

The soil contains:

Nitrogen: 300mg/l
Phosphor: 105mg/l
Kalium: 249mg/l
Kalcium: 1600mg/l
Magnesium: 25 mg/l
Those concentrations all seem relatively harmless... they'd be exposed to more-or-less those levels in the wild. Watch for mould and bugs, but otherwise you should be ok. I'm not 100 % sure what Kalium is, but I'm thinking pottasium - in which case it's also normal. It certainly wouldn't be toxic to the spider. All of those elements are present in higher levels in the spider, and are required for normal biological function (actually, in pretty much the forms that are in the soil, I bet, except for the Nitrogen).

Thing is, I think you're worrying too much about the chemical make-up. Your spider will not be poisoned by those levels of elements, and the question will then be one of "can it burrow sucessfully?".

Hope that helps.
 

abarth

Arachnosquire
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Messages
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Thanks, that helps:)

Is the reason for not using bark that they don't like it?

I also picked up what I think is an Chilobrachys Andersoni today, and it's been on bark in the shop, and it has spun a web on the floor. Maybe that's because it doesn't like sitting on the bark?
 

Thoth

Arachnopharoah
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DOn't worry about the mineral content of the soil, those concentrations listed are parts per million (assuming soil has the same density as water (it has slight higher density)), e.g. for every million parts of soil there are 25 parts magnesium.

The only way they would pose any risk to your t is they eat the substrate or drink from it. Also all those minerals exist at something similiar to those levels in most types of soil. I would be more concerned about the perlite (a few threads dealing with it) but its just a risk nothing to the best of my knowledge has been documented about it.

ALso like CU stated its not likely your P.Regalis will be playing around in the substrate. With arboreals some people use straight vemiculite (I 've seen a couple of people use no substrate at all, I don't really recommend that though)
 

Nerri1029

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Curious where are you from that you use the name Kalium?
 

DrAce

Arachnodemon
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Oh, Oh, I'm gonna guess before they answer!

Curious where are you from that you use the name Kalium?
I'm gonna guess German...

But Kalium is the old (latin) name for Pottasium, gives it the symbol K.
 

abarth

Arachnosquire
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I'm from Norway. Here it's called kalium.
I checked the dictionary now, and yes, it is potassium. Guess I could have checked the dictionary before I posted. :eek:
 

elyanalyous

Arachnobaron
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Mar 23, 2006
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i used potting soil all the time with my first T (i've since switched to eco earth and peat). you can use it. also if you can find worm castings they work really well too...
 

Heather

Arachnoknight
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I couldn't figure out what to use and what to look for in the soils... I just went with the Eco Earth and made it using spring water. I am using it with my Pokie.
 

bushbuster

Arachnobaron
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Nov 11, 2006
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Ya know that spring water comes from oklahoma, don't ya? lol j/k lol I just used the coconut stuff and good ol tap, once the gas fumes leave, its fine, lol
 
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