Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Where Can I find Coconut matting to put as background for viv. and plants to grow on? I am not sure if this is correct, but I read it somewhere. Does it have to be a specific kind? Cause I found some made by t-rex for hermit crabs to climb on. It is pretty thin, but I might work. I am looking for an alternative to cork.
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bearded dragons 0.2
chuckwalla 0.1
egyptian uromastyx 1.0
Veiled chameleon 1.0
Jewled lacerta 2.1
leopard gecko 0.1
clown agama 0.1
eastern collard lizard 0.01
asian waterdragon 0.01
jackson chameleon 1.0
dwarf chilean tegu 0.01
Sulcata tortoise 0.1
similis spiny tailed iguana 1.0

Look for cocos panels at Black Jungle or Pondside Herp Supply. These can be siliconed to back of glass and are excellent for growing plants on.

Whoa, don't buy the stuff from the pet store. Go to home depot or a plant nursery, they sell the stuff in rolls for cheap. sometimes its called pot liner for air plants and such. And don't buy orchid bark from the pet store either, it comes in big bags for a couple bucks at HD and nurseries too. As a matter of fact, just walk thru a good nursery supply or even the garden section of HD and you'll see lots of stuff you can use in your terrarium and the prices will astound you. brands in the pet stores put their name on a rock and sell it for 20 bucks, its a rip off.

>>Whoa, don't buy the stuff from the pet store. Go to home depot or a plant nursery, they sell the stuff in rolls for cheap. sometimes its called pot liner for air plants and such. And don't buy orchid bark from the pet store either, it comes in big bags for a couple bucks at HD and nurseries too. As a matter of fact, just walk thru a good nursery supply or even the garden section of HD and you'll see lots of stuff you can use in your terrarium and the prices will astound you. brands in the pet stores put their name on a rock and sell it for 20 bucks, its a rip off.

Thanks guys. I just read the walkthrough on blackjungle(cool site)and like the foam spray idea. I have another question. If I decided to use the spray foam, like great stuff, and I put some flat rocks embedded into the foam to make a waterfall. Could I just cover the open areas of foam with silicone, and no coco bedding? Just to mask the foam. Won't constant running water f@#$ up the coco bedding siliconed to the foam. Will this be safe for frogs? I am talking about just the area where the water would be running down. The rest would be covered in coco.

Thanks in advace.
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bearded dragons 0.2
chuckwalla 0.1
egyptian uromastyx 1.0
Veiled chameleon 1.0
Jewled lacerta 2.1
leopard gecko 0.1
clown agama 0.1
eastern collard lizard 0.01
asian waterdragon 0.01
jackson chameleon 1.0
dwarf chilean tegu 0.01
Sulcata tortoise 0.1
similis spiny tailed iguana 1.0

I'm on another forum that deals with terrariums, and people there have had mixed experiences with Great Stuff. Apparently it is very hard to get stuff to stick to it, because it just pushes it out as it expands. You could try spraying the foam on, letting it expand somewhat, and then shoving your rocks for your waterfall in there really good and holding them there a bit as the foam continues to expand. Then when it's all dry, you could smear all the cracks with black silicone to make sure the rocks stay in there.

When you put your cocomatting on the rest of the back of your tank, make sure you use LOTS of silicone. Gob it on really good, and lay your tank down so that the back is on the floor, and weight the coco panels with heavy books or something while it all dries. Because yes, water does rapidly deteriorate cocomatting, which is why treefern panels are recommended if you don't want to redo things every few years. They are much more expensive to begin with, though not in the long term (figure in replacing the cocomatting every 2-3 years, whereas treefern lasts at least 10 years).

Another thing that is especially popular with the dutch is to use the foam to give things shape, and then coat it (when it's dry) with a mix of Weldbond glue (yes, it's non-toxic) and peat moss. This is the ground-up peat moss we're talking about, not the long-fibred stuff for growing orchids. It needs several days to fully cure, but apparently it's great. The peat moss holds moisture for the plants that grow all over it, and the weldbond holds it all together. If you are impatient and don't wait at least a week for the weldbond to cure, it will be certain disaster, as the whole thing just collapses in a soggy mess when it gets wet.

Hope this helped!