Alternative to paper towels as a Substrate

So here is a tip I hope to share with other users. I have never posted on this site as other forums for other hobbies take much more of my time. But I hope to share something with everyone that is of some use.

I have found a very good way to maintain humidity in a terrarium and maintain cleanliness, and cost effectiveness..

All you need is standard acrylic felt that you can buy in a craft store. Its the same stuff as reptile/carpet felt sold in stores but it's not as dense and waaay cheaper..

But here is the key to keeping it from getting filled with bacteria or fungus. And using it pretty much indefinitely.

A Microwave..

Now I will give you a bit of history as to why I know this works.. I used to grow specific strains of microalgae for some saltwater aquarium stuff.. And to maintain a single strain of algae without contamination for months and months on end you need Everything to be sterile. That's where I discovered microwave sterilization.. When in a microwave anything in water that's heated to above 181 Degrees F is, for all intents and purposes, dead.. The microwave kills everything if it's all heated EVENLY and there are no cool area's. It also nukes the DNA of most everything with the microwaves so it can't reproduce.

So back to the felt.. I use it in my lizard tanks and here is what I do.. On a regular basis I remove the felt. Then get off all the loose poop and whatnot and rinse it real good in water. After that, I put it in a microwave safe bowl and fill it with water so the felt is submerged. I'll put it in the microwave and let it cook till it just about boils.. 6-10 minutes per liter for most microwaves will do just fine.. Then I take it out, let it set and rinse it with warm water. That's it.. Back it goes into the tank.. In one tank I have used the same $5 of felt for an entire year.. It hasn't fallen apart, hasn't gotten gross.. No bacteria, no fungus, no anything... Totally clean and fresh every time I clean it.. No lizard problems either. They don't try to eat it, they don't get sick, nothing.. It works fantastic..

I have a data logging setup for my paludarium and i'll show you how well it holds moisture. The is a small fan in the paludarium and it is 1/3 water.. The water feature maintains the tank at a baseline 60% humidity. Everything else is from a rain system and the felt.



What you can see is every hump is where my rain system goes off every 8 hours. And the humidity just slowly goes down from 80% back to baseline 60% in 8 hours.. This data is all from measurements ten times a minute for a month .. I think all total it was 42,199 data points. So it's a pretty good test..

Felt and a microwave... Easy..

Hope this helps..

Great post!

Keep comin' back!

Nick

Impressive first post. Data is good.

This may sound silly but could you also post a pic of what this felt looks like?

It's nothing special, you can find it anywhere.. As long as it's Acrylic felt and not wool felt you're fine.



You can get it in 9"x12" squares or probably find it at a fabric store and buy it by the yard.

In the paludarium there is a Chinese water dragon, Mountain Horned Dragon, and a Emerald Swift all coexisting peacefully. The felt in there I cut into leaf shapes and whatever. It's not quite real looking, but it's way better than just a plain bottom. And the lizards don't have problems with it. They don't eat it, and occasionally they'll lay on it and dig around.. But even in smaller cut shapes and with lizard torture, the felt hasn't frayed on the edges and it's looks pretty much exactly like it did a year ago..