I would like some info from the pro's on what i can put in my terran to make it more of a natural surrounding for my bearded dragon.

I am looking to put some sort of sand in the tank with wood and some succulent plants. But my local lizard store said not to put sand in apart from calcisand or some expensive jip in a bag the size of a matchbox.

Can i possibly use cheap play sand? or any other alternative to their rip off options. thanks for the helup!

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Dom

play sand is reccomended on most herp forums over calci sand or almost any rep sand out there. you need to 'bake' it though, I dunno what it does to it, but my ex used to keep and breed lots of reps and always put in da oven very low for an hour, gets rid of something in it thats not good for reps :S

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.x.Jessie.x.

.0.1.0 Iguana Iguana
2.1.0 Python Regius
1.0.0 Boa Constrictor Imperator
0.0.1 Lampropeltis getulus californiae
1.0.0 Elaphe guttata
1.1.0 Eublepharis macularius
0.1.0 Grammostola rosea
0.0.6 Pygocentrus nattereri

Yeah I just used normal sand for my Beardy. That was stuck in the microwave for about 10mins (If I remember correctly) before being added. I think with most things its just to remove any nasty little parasites/mites that may take a liking to reptile skin. Used to have to do that with bark chips as it was crawling with mites.

Extras in the tank were just big lumps of Tufa rock and other small textured rocks and thats it.

playsand is fine...but i wouldnt use it for baby beardies...only adult/sub-adults over 12in long, the thing is babies are pretty clumsy feeders and will take mouthfulls of sand with their crix etc and will soon become impacted! i kept all my babies i bred on paper just to be safe...the thing is in reality sand is not a particularly "natural" substrate as they live more on rocky outcrops and hard dry mud etc rather than loose sand...what about some textureed stone effect lyno or tiles? (easy to wipe clean, and doesnt get all stuck in the door runners of the viv making an awful racket every time you open and close them! lol) the choices are up to you of course...and yes i have used sand for my adults i had and they were fine on it...but just throwing some other suggestions in too...

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Fish
5ft fish only marine tank
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Reptiles
0.1 Kahl strain albino Boa Constrictor
1.0 salmon hypo het kahl strain albino Boa constrictor
0.1 common boa constrictor
0.1 albino granite burmese python
1.0 tiger reticulated python
1.2 eastern indigo snakes
1.1 brazilian rainbow boas
1.1 kenyan sand boas
1.1 albino bull snakes
0.1 wild type bull snake
1.1 crimson corns
0.1 royal python
1.0 blue tongued skink
0.1 tiger salamander

Thanks people for the helpful information, he is only 8 weeks old. I think the need for aesthetics doesnt compare to the importance of his welbeing.

Like you say ian i am thinking of making a mat with and using silicone have sand coated to it. i am very keen on creating a natural surrounding for it.

thanks for the info people!!!.

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Dom