I don't think I've ever actually used the stuff myself, but I've had a brick sitting around for almost a year now and decided I could use it for a couple new millipede habitats. It says on the package to let it soak in 3-4 liters of water for 30 minutes and it'll be good to go. Um, no. 3 and a half hours into it, an extra liter or so of water, and some manual breaking-up of the brick, and it's still a brick. It's supposed to soak up the water and turn into a nice soil-like substrate. Has anyone had better luck with the stuff or is it always this difficult to work with? I'm sure it makes a decent substrate, but that's no good unless I can actually get it to that consistency.

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I'm not sure it's exactly the same, but I use some similar bricks here in Switzerland. I think they are fantastic.
But it's not as easy as they say. I always pour some HOT water over them. They usually swell up first and then you can scrape off some of the soil, put it in a separate container, then add some more hot water, etc.
In the end, it's usually too wet for my BP enclosure, so I have to squeeze out a lot of the water and let it dry out again for a while.
But the soil itself is great, never had any bugs in it or anything.
Good luck!

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Andrea

Yup -- it takes a LOT longer than the package says, but eventually, it's nice stuff to work with.

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Amy

Dito, I just expanded a brick not too long ago for my hermies...It take a long time! The brick soaks up the water and gets softer..so you can start to break it up. It is just like soil.

I think its the same as bed a beast, I got a brick last week, it said to soak for 30 mins, was ready way before 30 mins, was a big mush of soil lol and very messy, I had it all over the bathroom lolol...my Sav loves it though

Yeah, I think it's the same as Bed-A-Beast. Maybe that stuff isn't packed as tightly or something. I wound up leaving mine overnight, and this afternoon it still held much of its brick shape. I managed to break it apart, then had to drain the water out and press it. I broke it down some more and now it's sitting in the sun because it's a bit too damp.

I suppose this may have been easier if I had a bucket, but I was using a garbage bag Well, it looks good now at least, just a pain in the butt to get it that way when you're expecting the directions to be accurate.

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"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines." - John Benfield

Directions are usually never accurate, lol.

I've used it for my Tomato Frog. I like it, its fun watching it expand

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MARSHA
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I've never had an issuse with it, it works in about the time it says. My only complaint is that I can't break the brick in half until its been expanded.

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i used the bed a beast it worked fine for me did take more than 30 minutes and I helped it mix in a bucket and let it sit a bit longer also I used water on the very hot end other than that it fine I like it have that mixed with bark seems to work good
i did how ever mange to break that brick in half I had to saw at it with a knife and some water on the cut line to help then broke it over my knee after sawing about 25% into it around
was alot of work just to cut a little brick but if you have some power tools it'd be so much easier

Get a saw


My other complaint is that it doesn't appear to have expanded as much as I was hoping. It says 7-8 liters of substrate, but I guess that's spread pretty thin, meaning most of it would be air. You keep it moist and kind of pack it down a little like I did and you could fit all of it in a 2 liter bottle or two. Overall it still fulfilled the need I had for it, just not the expectations.

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"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines." - John Benfield