Hey guys. I am so frustrated. I bought a Compressed brick of what I guess is Coco Fibre from Petstop in Pretoria three or so weeks ago. Now I have been using this same brick for all my T tanks. At first, before I sterilised the Substrate, thye were all getting mold in them. So I took it out and replaced it with "Sterilised" Substrate. Now I normally Nuke it in the Microwave for about 30 seconds and most of my T's cages seem fine except my Biggest Curly hair which seems to have the most mold in it all the time. It only has 1 Piece of Bark-o-Plant that has been sterilized a few times (Now it looks like a old dried up piece of bark) and a Resin Hide with a Plastic Plant. Now a few minutes ago I checked under the hide and their was the dreaded Spider Web Mold. I took it out and threw out the Substrate. Now I am soaking all the Decor and Tank in Hot, hot water and am about to make more substrate from the same brick. Now my question is how long should I microwave the Substrate? And should I do it after it has been "made" or while it is still in powder form? I am thinking of switching over to Super Fine Vermiculite as a Substrate or is that too fine? Should I go with something a bit more coarse? I am tired of Peat.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I have a Fish Tank Style lid with a Small hole that I normally keep covered three quarters over it, leaving a small quarter. Could this be due to inadequate ventilation or The Bark-o-Plant? Please help me as this is very frustrating. Oops,just saw that there are two threads. I must have accidentally pressed the Submit button Twice. Please Help Me with this.

I had a mould problem about 4 months ago as well. I did some research and found that woodlice are good at keeping your enclosures clean from, mould, T poop, and anything that is dead or staring to decompose.
I caught some woodlice, placed them in their own tub, and let nature take its course, by letting them reproduce. A month ago I took about 15-20 for each T enclosure, and I have not had a problem since. They will reproduce on their own; once they seem to get to overpopulated you just take some out.

PS! They do not do so well in with slings as cleaners, as they end up as food (witch is actually great!). And you can't use them with T that requires low humidity and moisture.

:woohoo: :woohoo:

30 seconds is not nearly enough to nuke that peat properly, also depends on how much peat and water you have in there. I normally leave it in for 3-5 min on 2 cups of peat. I also use the same peat and I never had problems.

I use the same peat but I soak it well in advance and dry it completely again in the sun before putting it away for storage. In the beginning I used it straight after soaking and ended up with way to wet enclosures.

The portion I use I moisten a bit to the requirements of the various T's and that's it. I never sterilise my peat, only the bark if it comes from outdoors.

Very few T's actually need very high humidity, and a water bowl or live plants help keeping it up for those that need some.

Otherwise, just keep a corner of your enclosures moist and you should be fine. Woodlice are a fantastic help!

i had the same problem with my peat in the fish tanks, u are correct when u say that u think there is not enough ventilation. what i did is i added more holes on the sides of the lid to assist in more ventilation. it has already made a big difference and also no more of that fuzzy mold in my tank.

i also do not nuke any of my substrate for any of my ts. hope this helps!

Nuke it longer. there no rule to nuking substrate so if you won't to go for 5 to 10 mins over kill than under kill. also if you use kettle water to make your substrate brick expand will also help.
it will also Then also maybe more ventilation will help.
But if you getting mould the substrate is to moist and not enough ventilation.