Perlite vs. Hatchrite

So i have a bag of perlite, hanging out in my incubator, waiting for my girl to ovulate. this is my first year breeding (and hopefully it will be my first year with eggs too!!) and i was wondering. i read that alot of people use a mixture of perlite and vermiculite. I've also read about just using hatchrite, or just perlite. ive read bad things about using just perlite. my question is, what would you do?

If you are unsure and it's your first year, I'd just use HatchRite.

I use straight vermiculite. Works great for me. Thing with hatchrite is that its expensive! There are several posts and videos describing how to mix up perlite/vermiculite with success.

yeah ive read that alot of people use a perlite/vermiculite mixture, but i wasnt sure if using straight perlite is recommended or not. my local home depot is selling huge (and i mean huge) bags of vermiculite, i dont know if it keeps for a long amount of time, cuz i definitely wont need that much this year. :D i think i will just go ahead and buy it though, it seems like a good deal, and im sure ill worry less if its a mix of the two. hatchrite does seem expensive, the only reason i was considering it is because its premixed. i did see a sticky on how to do it though, so i guess ill just try my hand at the mix. thanks for your input!!! and please wish me luck. send gravid vibes my way. (to my snake, not me!! PLEASE!! :D )

Skip the vermiculite, perlite is just fine. Pick up some eggcrate from Home Depot instead of the vermiculite. You'll find it over by the flourescent lighting section, it's used as a light diffuser. Cut it to fit nice and tight inside your egg box. Grab some sort of small spacers, I use 1/2" pvc couplings. Put four of them in the egg box, and fill the box up with perlite until it's even with the top of the spacers. Pour in a bunch of water until the water level is just a little bit below the top of the perlite. Put your eggcrate on top of the spacers, and your eggs on top of the eggcrate. The eggs are out of the substrate so you don't have to worry about it being to wet, while you still get all the humidity they could possibly need. About the only possible way to screw up this method of incubation is the temperatures in your incubator spiking too high. :gj:

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Originally Posted by m00kfu

Skip the vermiculite, perlite is just fine. Pick up some eggcrate from Home Depot instead of the vermiculite. You'll find it over by the flourescent lighting section, it's used as a light diffuser. Cut it to fit nice and tight inside your egg box. Grab some sort of small spacers, I use 1/2" pvc couplings. Put four of them in the egg box, and fill the box up with perlite until it's even with the top of the spacers. Pour in a bunch of water until the water level is just a little bit below the top of the perlite. Put your eggcrate on top of the spacers, and your eggs on top of the eggcrate. The eggs are out of the substrate so you don't have to worry about it being to wet, while you still get all the humidity they could possibly need. About the only possible way to screw up this method of incubation is the temperatures in your incubator spiking too high. :gj:

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That's how I set up my tubs, with one difference, I use hatchrite, add water and a light diffuser. Helix set at 89. cover with press and seal snap on the lid. Open it once a week to vent.

Any specific reason you use Hatchrite? I was under the impression the big deal about Hatchrite was that you could use it the oldschool way of putting the eggs directly on it without having to worry about having the mix ratio right. Using the eggcrate on top completely removes the possibility of having the substrate too wet, so it seems like using Hatchrite for that method would just be throwing money away.

if you are not going substrate-less you will want to mix perlite and vermiculite and water, or just use hatchrite its already premixed.

if you want to go substrate less just use some perlite or pretty much anything that would stop water from sloshing(could be perlite, aquarium gravel, hatchrite, etc) around the tub and put grid in there to keep the eggs up out of the water.

what ever setup you go with make sure you do not use anything with fertilizer in it(i.e. mircle grow)

Would someon mind posting or pointing me in the direction of a picture with the eggcrate/light diffuser method. I'm a visual person :oops:
Thank you!

iv heard of many people using nothing but a tub of water and egg crates to keep them just above the water