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Dry coco bedding?

2K views 14 replies 6 participants last post by  Guest 
#1 ·
I'm working on a viv based on the expanding foam / black silicone/ coco-bedding technique illustrated on Black Jungle's website.

I was wondering where one could obtain the dry coco bedding necessary to coat the black silicone? Do you just expand a coco brick and let the material dry?

Thanks very much!

-John
 
#3 ·
Make sure that it is throughly dry otherwise it wont properly adhere to the silicon and will start to fall off. When I do my background I like to add some ground tree fern fiber, small bits of cork bark and other small natural materials to give it some variation.

Rob
 
G
#5 ·
be careful with that in the oven, it is very flamable..... i know.

What i did was expand the foam and then pour the whole mix in an old pillow case and squezee all the water out and then spread it on a trash bag in the sun. was bone dry in about 48 hours.
 
G
#7 ·
better yet, avoid the oven aand just spred it out in a thin layer on some plastic sheeting (such as the kind used to cover windows in the winter) and let it sun dry for a few hours. This would be much less haphazard than using the oven.

-Bill J.
 
G
#10 ·
The whole point is to expand it, therefore getting much more of the product (up to like 8 times more).
Derek,

Think about it... You can't get something out of nothing. You can't create more mass than was already there. You add water, the mass expands, you evaporate the water. Nothing has changed here. You are not creating anymore volume after adding water than you would be grinding the bedding up. Adding water simply breaks the bedding up without you having to do anything to it. Except, of course, having to dry it out.
 
G
#12 ·
xplodee said:
The whole point is to expand it, therefore getting much more of the product (up to like 8 times more).
You add water, the mass expands, you evaporate the water. Nothing has changed here. You are not creating anymore volume after adding water than you would be grinding the bedding up.
Actually the bedding does gain volume. by adding water, the brick expands from it's compressed state and the fiber puffs up with water. when the water dries, air takes it's place and it is fluffy and pourus. just crunching it up does not let the fibers swell so you are not getting the full benifit of the product.
 
#13 ·
Furthermore... it is *still* going to expand.

I doubt it is a good idea to have it expanding after you have embedded it in your vivarium. It may loosen the "grip" that the silicone (or whatever material you used to attach it to the foam) has on it.

s
 
G
#15 ·
Regardless of whether it does or doesn't expand to the same amount, the vivarium I created without allowing the coco bedding to expand has worked out just fine with no bedding falling out because the silicone "lost its grip."

I wouldn't worry about it no matter how you create the tank, its really not a critical factor.
 
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