layering substrate

[gentlejamo]

the other day i spotted some gnats, and one of my plants is dying....sooooo i thought i would totally empty out my pygmy cage and cleans and rebuild it with some new plants. so i am gonna go pick up some more hydroton pretty quick here for my pygmy enclosure.

a quick question. i am putting hydroton on the bottom layer, then organic soil mixed with coco fiber on top. i have seen people put a layer of something in btwn these two. to keep them seperated? what is that stuff? is it necessary?

any thoughts?

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

The stuff in between those 2 layers is either garden charcoal (recommended) or small-ish gravel. THe purpose is to cleanse the water, as it migrates down through the soil toward the hydroton. If you do use charcoal, it may also provide cleansing properties for the gases (evaporated water) that migrate up into the enclosure. Simply put, the gravel or charcoal layer acts as a water filter.

The charcoal is available in most garden supply stores. We used fine gravel, though, and it seemed to work fine.

Each layer was separated by screen material, to keep them all in place.

Here's a great link:
http://www.chameleonnews.com/new/?page=article&id=63

 

[gentlejamo]

ha. ok. that makes sense. i think i will look into that little more and consider some when i set it up. sounds great though. thanks for the help.

 

[Chameleon996]

weed paper

If you use weed paper (the stuff used in gardens to keep weeds from growing) in between each layer your layereing will last longer because the smaller particles won't be able to sift down into the bottom where the Hydroton is.

 

[ChameleonsTree]

What kind of chameleon are you keeping?

 

[Roni013]

This might be a dumb question but is activated charcoal bad or does it make a diffrence? I dont really feel like blending my own charcoal but I can onlyfind actived charcoal powder and not regualar.

 

[gentlejamo]

I am keeping a rampholean brev...pygmy leaf cham