Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have seen some people using this in their substrate mix! For substrate I currently have coco bedding, and tree fern fiber which seems to be doing OK. I was just curious what everyone's oppinion is on using this, and if I should add it to my substrate? THANKS
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MIKE
4.14 Leopards (SHTCT, and Jungle Albino Trempers)
2.13 Fat Tails (Amels, Hets, and Normals)
1.1 Teratolepis Fasciata
1.3 Crested geckos
0.0.3 Dendrobates Tinctorius (Citronellas)
1.0 Diamond Back Terrapin
14 Snakes (Tri colored hogs, subocs, alterna, rosy boas, and black milks)

I wouldn't bother with it. Your plants will do the same work that the charcoal does. Charcoal will need replacing after a while and tends to be just a waste of time and effort. If your plants are planted directly in the substrate then you have no need for charcoal.

-Bill J
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Again, I agree with Bill. Charcoal is just another addition in substrate, and once it has absorbed what it can, it is saturated and no longer active. While it doesn't help for long, neither is it harmful. It may continue to add somewhat to the drainage. I use it quite a bit in my sub-drainage however, mixed with the rock and gravel of the bottom drainage system. There's no real reason to do this I suppose, but my grandmother said so, and she always used charcoal from the stove along with the broken crockery on the bottom of her house plant pots, and had could grow anything. Chemically, it is actually short-lived, and as Bill said, needs replacing if it is to continue to be useful for absorbing excess nitrates, etc.

On the other hand, as the substrate becomes leached out, it may have held the excess nutrients that the plants can use later.

These are just thoughts, not advice. In any event, I don't think adding charcoal will do any harm. I still do it, not from any real chemical knowledge about how it acts in this situation, but just because my grandmother said so.

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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
3 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
4 D. leukomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus pending

I use charcoal as one of my two ingredients in my soil mixture (the other one is coco husk chips . . . and sometimes sphagnum). I do so for 2 reasons. First, it does absorb various salts, helping your plants in ion exchange and nutrient uptake . . . even if it is only for the first 6-8 months it is in the terrarium. Second, it increases the drainage and aeration of my soil mixture, which tends to be quite coarse anyway. Plus, I got the recipe from a commercial orchid grower.

I have found that this combination of coco husk chips, which retain moisture well, and the activated charcoal allows me to plant a wide variety of plants . . . from epiphytes to bog plants in the same substrate and obtain good results. Plus, I just bought three 2 lb. bags of the activated charcoal for $1.54 each at Lowe's. Even at the full price of $3.32, that's a pretty inexpensive soil additive . . . and I'm not messing with my recipe since it has given me such good luck thus far.

Ultimately, though, soil mixes are a personal preference, and everyone has their own secret brew that they love. For my two cents, though, I'll keep using activated charcoal.
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Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

I use the cocoanut hunks, too. They seem to keep the soil from getting soaked and packed and don't break down very fast. The plants do great in it.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
3 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
4 D. leukomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus pending