Thanks
@Herptology. I'm not sure what you mean by lightly wet it. I started off by placing the block in a tub and broke it up as best I could, and then put in 1L of water which seemed to do nothing. I increased to 4L, and then 8L of water and mixing it in with my hands turning it over on itself yet half of it was still bone dry with the other half damp but by no means saturated.
In total I ended up putting 14L of water before I got the whole lot moist. (Again, mildly damp - not saturated). And it expanded too - I'd say the expanding to 30L claim on the box is a fair statement!
Now I have it spread out thin on tarp in the shed. I guess a week or so should have it evaporate and I'll see what the end result is like.
Does 14L of water sound about how much you would use aka (lightly wet), and would the above technique sound correct?
Given that $2 makes 30L, vs $50 for 24L of aspen - I'm pretty keen to see how this stuff turns out and if it will be a suitable alternative.
[doublepost=1570346755,1570339208][/doublepost]OK - looks like I made a bit of a mistake. I thought it was damp and not saturated, but after going back it's actually quite wet - a lot more than I reported.
I ended up finding some video's online that deal with similar stuff. I think there's dedicated product of the same thing in America called Reptichip.
Apparently I need a litre of hot water at the very most for what we're trying to achieve.
So I ended up doing a second batch using hot tap water (60°c) and putting a small amount on (maybe 50ml at a time) and letting it soak through.
I found that a lot of the coir ended up falling apart without the need for moisture if I started pulling at it and rubbing clumps back and forth in my hands in the same way you'd break up a clump of dry but solid piece of sand.
So the second batch I have is warm and humid - but has very little wetness to it. I can say this more confidently as I can stick my hand in the tub, movie it around and pull it out without any coir sticking to my hand. (I can't say that for my first batch!)
So I guess the second batch would be safe to use after a couple of days laid out and drying. It may even be safe enough to use on a shedding snake that wants a bit more humidity straight up - I'm not sure.
FWIW - My local Bunnings didn't have this stocked in and weren't going to according to the staff so I asked for it as a special order. I got a few in (at $2/ea it would cost me more in fuel and parking to go down and get one at a time
) and it seems as though they now have some additional stock they must have purchased when getting mine in to start with.