Reptile & Amphibian Forums

im planning on in the next couple of moths getting a trio of red ackies , im just wondering if some of you can tell mehow much u believe your troughs weigh with substrate and what kind of substrate you use thanks, as always pics would be great

when we go to the dirt supplier, they use a Bobcat with a 4 ft bucket to load soil. one scoop is 1 ton. you might not use a full scoop for each 4 ft trough, but it is close...
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

soo a 8x3x2 trough would weigh like 4000 pounds. if soo is there a lighter suitable substrate that monitors(ackies) can burrow in,i live in an apartment so 4000 pounds of dirt is kinda out of the question. im wanting to get some ackies soon but wanna have everything figured out before i get them.

soil is really the only choice. everything else is either a significant compromise, or just plain horrible.

try going with less soil, perhaps not so deep.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

i dont want to give them a substandard enclosure so ill just wait till i buy a house at the end of this year, thanks though

I use six foot troughs, each trough has aprox 400pds of dirt. And these troughs have been producing ackies for 17 years. Cheers

i can do like 600 pds im on the bottom floor, so that great news thanks

I'm sorry, maybe I'm missing something, but it is sounds too light to me. Do you use 2 feet deep dirt? A 6x2x2 feet through must contain 24 cubic feet of dirt. One cubic feet of dirt is approximately 75-115 pounds. So, I think it must be 1800-2700 pounds. Sorry, in my country I use metric units, so it is surely not precise, but I can not understand the big difference.
Frank, I would appreciate a lot, if you could explain it, because weight is a crucial point in my choices of these animals also. Thanks a lot!

No offense, but I really hate theory over reality. In this case, your theory over something I do everyday and have since 91(longterm experience) Thats the reason I fight with the academics. It really does not matter what you think(theory), I friggin weighted it. Period. I use 8 five gallons buckets of dirt per trought, Each bucket weights approx. 50 pounds, That equals approx 400 pounds. Yes, the weight of each bucket varies depending on the moisture level of the dirt(how wet it is) So, the above is ON AVERAGE. hahahahahahahaha

To understand how this functions, a little more accurate. Each time I dig up eggs, I remove an average of 3 buckets, which is 150 pds. Sometimes, I can go right to the eggs and only remove 50 pounds, ONE BUCKET. Other times, I am not so lucky and have to remove enough(up to half, four buckets, 200pds) to make room to move dirt, which allows me room to not harm the eggs, as I am digging.

I have done this 1000's and upon thousands of times. Yes, thousands. So I ask, how can you not understand that? So I say what Harry Potters friend would say, Bloody Hell(o), whats the matter with you! Its really not all that hard to understand, its not all that complicated. 8 buckets weighting 50 pds. Simple enough hey, cheers

I never said I use 2 feet of dirt. I do recomend two feet to newbies. Remember, newbies do not know their bum from a hole in the ground, as in, INEXPERIENCED. If your experienced, you do not have to overdo it to be on the safe side. You know what is needed and how to provide it. Newbies have no idea of whats needed, so they should start out, overdoing it(to provide more then actually necessary), so they do not UNDER DO, What they do not understand. So advice to newbies IS AND SHOULD BE, different then advice to those with ACTUAL experience.

If you used some actual thought, you would quickly figure out that troughs are on average 27(guessing) inches deep, so 24 inches of dirt would be silly, unless you build a cage on top the trough. Which is a great idea.

If you had experience with troughs, you would understand, they do not come in actual lenghts. That is, they are shipped inside of eachother(clamshelled). So they vary in L.W.and H. So some six footers are much larger then other six footers. In width, lenght, and height. The larger six footers would indeed take more dirt then the smaller six footers. Hence I say, ON AVERAGE.

If I were you, I would question the "one ton" suggestion. As one ton is 2000 pds. Which is forty, five gallon buckets. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm Or 8 buckets of lead shot, j/k. I am thinking he was thinking of his large troughs.

Back to the top, REALITY always replaces theory. We do it all the time, and that is reality.

If you have the smarts to get all technical, then you should have the smarts to GO GET A BUCKET OF DIRT and WEIGHT IT. Then see how much fits into YOUR TROUGH, with YOUR DIRT, in your conditions. Sir, that is the smart thing to do. Cheers