So, I picked up a very large amount of this stuff in bulk during PetCo's on-line sale this week, and have never used it. When expanding it, do you just drop the entire brick as is into the water, or do you break up the brick first? The picture on the instructions just shows you tossing the brick into the water.

its really hard to break apart. I use about one brick per 10 gllons for emperors but you can use less for other species if you wish.

Thank you sir.

Yep, just dump it in the bucket and then add water

it usually says to add 4 litres of water per brick but ide cut that down to about 3 litres otherwise u'll end up with a big soup, plus if it needs more water its easy enough to add more whereas its a pain to get any excess water out of all of the substrate

I just take a knife and cut it into thirds. I have a basic ten gallon fishtank for my scorp. Once you at least make a dent in the brick, it's easy to break off. Like I said, 1/3 of the brick is good for a 10 gallon tank... and I usually just guesstimate with the water. It expands pretty quickly... 20 minutes. And if you add too much water you can always drain/squish it out outside.

IME, a brick covers roughly a third of a 10 gallon when compacted.

Those bricks could really hurt someone, im not sure about cutting them into 1/3s with a knife, the ones i get would need a chainsaw

I've already sliced myself trying to cut them up. So now I just soak the whole brick in the tub and take as much as I need, saving the rest for when I need it later on.

I just put the rest inside a binbag and stash it somewhere, sorted

Heh . . . we throw 'em in a bucket and pour on some water. We save the leftovers in the bucket.

And about needing a chainsaw, Lori tried a hacksaw.

I've never had a problem. I just kind of cut it enough to actually make a line through all 4 sides then bend it over the counter and it snaps off. It's the same Eco-Earth in every commercial pet store.

And I don't compact it down. I just dump it into the tank so it's got like 3" worth. My scorp never burrowed so I'm not going to waste a whole brick on one tank.

I usually put the brick in a vice and use a hack saw to cut it. Works great and you won't cut yourself that way....


Kevin

Sorry if I'm raisin' this post from the dead, but I think you guys are working too hard. When I'm expanding this stuff for my toad's tank but don't need the whole block I just grab a big bowl, fill it with enough hot water so that only about 1/4 to 1/3 of the block is submerged (when placed vertically in the bowl) and once it starts to soak up water it's easy as heck to just scrape off the wet parts and stick the remainder of the dry block in a plastic bag for storage.

yeahh i saw this and lost it
why are you cutting it? you put it in water and it becomes instant fun soil. my adult male emp is covered in it!