Mold help???????

[BassAssassin]

Hey guys I need some help. I recently got a Versi sling and put it in a small plexi box. It is about an inch and the box is about 6 in tall and 2.5 in wide. I put bed a beast snbstrate and a small piece of store bought wood in there and a small fake plant. It started to web and I thought it was doing great. I noticed a web like material on the bottom of the wood connected to the substrate I thought this was just the Ts webbing. After closer inspection, it looks more like mold film. I took the T out and it definitely looks like some kind of mold. What did I do wrong, I have never had a mold problem but have also never used this substrate. Was it too wet????? I am going to redo the enclosure but want to avoid this I the future...... Any ideas?

[Sathane]

Wood () that happen to be grapewood you put in there? Grapewood is brutal when it comes to molding. I'd use a piece of corkbark instead.

[Mktnr9jAKsnxzlo]

If the wood is real, perhaps you can try an artificial piece.
Increased ventilation can also help to prevent mold.

[dukegarda]

Gut the tank, put your T in a container while you od this. Set your oven to 150 F stick your wood in (OUCH!) for 10 minutes, should kill the mold spores ETC. Or just boil it in a pot of water vigorously for awhile. rinse out the tank with scolding hot water, get some new substrate, increase ventilation.

Problem should be solved.

I've had a couple of mold outbreaks with my P. regalis live tank. You learn quick when your spending 60 bucks a month on replacing plants and soil.

Ventilation is pretty important. Gotta keep the humidity up, but can't choke the enclosure doing so. Gotta find that sweet spot.

[BassAssassin]

Thanks guys. I'm going to bake the piece for a little while although I'm thinking about not using the wood and just putting a decent sized fake plant in the that can be used to web on. I'll see how it looks. Any pros and cons to plants over wood or vice versa for avic slings?

[dukegarda]

I'm no expert, but I think plastic would be better than silk, just easier the wash to poop off when it comes to clean up time.

[Sathane]

All suggestions above are good. Just a quick note on ventilation and humidity. These tend to be opposing 'forces'. Increased ventilation tends to dry things out. The best way to reduce or eliminate mold while keeping humidity up and maintaining optimum ventilation is to maintain the humidity in the entire room. 70% humidity is a delta for nearly all species. Moistened substrate will increase this for moisture loving species and will stay moist longer due to the increased humidity of the room. A fan in the room does a good job of keeping the air from getting stagnant (a big problem with Avicularia).

My spider room is done like this and I've never had mold problems, except for when I put a piece of grapewood in a versi's enclosure.