Jungle Mix

[andrew]

Petland discounts, a chain pet store in the northeast of USA, sells a substrate called Jungle Mix. I was wondering if anyone has ever used this, and if so, was it any good. What did/do you think of it?

 

[jennifer]

I think there may be several products under the general name of "jungle mix". I have used one that is called "jungle mix lizard litter". I like it, although I think it is overpriced. The other substrate I like is a mixture of coco fiber and top soil.

 

[mark]

From what I have heard, it is okay to use, just a tad expensive. I would recommend getting this stuff called bed-a-beast, it goes by other names sometimes. It just looks like a compressed brick of substrate... Well thats what it is, good luck!

 

[andrew]

Yeah, I saw the brick right next to substrate bag. I don't know too much about the brick though, it seems like it will come out to be stringy like fern root. Would moss grow well on that stuff?

 

[mark]

Hi, The brick comes out like a type of soil, and its not stringy at all, its really quite good. Unfortunatlly moss grows bad on this stuff, and I don't know why. Have you had any luck growing moss? Fill me in.

 

[joshua]

I use Jungle Mix, it's sort of a mix between soil, leaves, bark, sand, and some other stuff, holds humidity pretty good. I prefr it over bed-a-beats which dries out far too quickly.

 

[andrew]

I have had really good luck growing moss on regular potting soil. But only in the last three months. I wasnt using a good enough light source in my tank for the past three years. As a result the only moss that grew well was in the water area where most of the light hit. In the last three months I got my little ten gallon viv a real strip light and pruned my Syngonium podophylum to let the light in. The moss looks way cool now. But it still has to colonize the vast majority of the tank.

 

[mark]

Cool! Isnt potting soil bad for amphibians? What kind of light should i use?

 

[andrew]

I've heard that potting soil really is bad, probably because it has that fertilizer rocks all over it. It never hurt my frogs, I've had them for three years. Then again, I have layers of soil that came attached to wild collected moss on top of the potting soil. Its possible they never had any contact with the stuff. I just put in a new plant (some kind of aroid if your interested, its a seedling I grew) and as I was digging a hole for it, I found myself with a layer of brown, muddy color, clay like soil. Under that was a mixture of potting soil and gravel. My soil has settled into the gravel bottom area over the years. This is my first viv, and the first time I have ever bragged about it so bear with me here. It was a spur of the moment construction when I brought home a spring peeper egg from biology class at college. I had no idea what the egg was gonna turn out to be, to my surprise and utter horror, the egg hatched in one night and the tadpole morphed in two weeks. I was totally unprepared. So I quickly took my old ten gallon fish tank, ripped off the glass section from an old light hood, and created the land/water viv!
Then, for some reason, i filled the land area with soil first, then with gravel on top. Put some Syngonium podophylum (the plant you see up there), and let my spring peeper morph. Except it had morphed over night while I was preparing the tank! Well, I put the tank + peeper in the window sill and fed the little peeplet tiny mosquitos that got into my apartment through the window screen. That was hard. In the end, the peeper grew fast, and died young from over exposure to the sun. I had this crazy idea i had to have the tank at 100% humidity so I covered the tank with a plastic bag in full sunlight.

The peeper didnt survive the summer.
Then I took the tank and inverted the soil and gravel layers to get what i got today. Plus got the idea that it would look great with lots of green moss. I did all this at the time believing I was the only one crazy enough to do all this for frogs. Oh well. Sorry for the lengthy story, hope its similar to someones story of how they started the hobby.
-Tind

 

[mark]

Thats cool, so what kind of light should I use?

 

[andrew]

I really dont know. I use two lights. One small computer florescent light that lights up the back of the tank. Then my main light source is a regular aquarium stip light for ten gallon tanks. Its a bright bulb, not sure what kind it is since it came installed in the strip light when i bought it.

 

[mark]

hmm, so is that the right light you use to grow moss? Thanks

 

[andrew]

Yea its working great on the moss it shines on. My moss area has doubled in span and thickness since i got the strip light 2 months ago. Can't wait to see what it looks like in August.