hydroballs and coconut fiber

[haydenm14]

has anyone used these together to help with humidity? i want to try this out but do not want to waste my time because i know impaction is a big problem sometimes.

 

[kinyonga]

I haven't used either. I worry that coconut fiber will lead to an impaction if ingested so l stay away from that.
I've never seen hydroballs so if they are small enough to be ingested I wouldn't use them either.

 

[Matthew43s]

Good idea that doesn’t look terrible and works great, go to lowes and get painters plastic, it’s about 8 dollars for a 10’x10’ roll, so if you don’t like the first time you have plenty of material to try again until it looks the way you want it, attach it to three walls of your enclosure (side+side+back) with either zip ties or twist ties, if using zip ties get the smallest ones possible so you don’t destroy the screen mesh, pull it taught and it actually looks really good. Start misting more often and boom. I did this and it took my humidity from the 30% range to the 50%-60% range

 

[Matthew43s]

Hydroballs and cocunut fiber just scream “potential disaster, steer clear”

 

[haydenm14]

Good idea that doesn’t look terrible and works great, go to lowes and get painters plastic, it’s about 8 dollars for a 10’x10’ roll, so if you don’t like the first time you have plenty of material to try again until it looks the way you want it, attach it to three walls of your enclosure (side+side+back) with either zip ties or twist ties, if using zip ties get the smallest ones possible so you don’t destroy the screen mesh, pull it taught and it actually looks really good. Start misting more often and boom. I did this and it took my humidity from the 30% range to the 50%-60% range

I have a half screen half glass enclosure but my humidity sits from 50-55%. My plan is to take a couple of inches of hydroballs, and then a couple inches of coconut fiber in a small container to just help a little. And in that container I’ll plant a umbrella tree

 

[Syreptyon]

Do you think it's really worth the risk? Especially if you already have 50% or higher humidity...

 

[Matthew43s]

That’s what I was thinking too. 50-55% is good.

But if you want to do that as your soil and use the hydroballs as drainage I don’t see why you couldn’t. Just cover the soil with large river stones that can’t be ingested. That’s what I did.

 

[haydenm14]

Do you think it's really worth the risk? Especially if you already have 50% or higher humidity...

well my whole plan of that is few inches of each in a pot then when the plant is potted i would take gridded screen with small openings so insects cant get through. this would help with humidity as well.

 

[Matthew43s]

That’d work