Wow you ditched the Reptile Basic hides? I love those things and aspen too. My BP loves them too but my sunglow could less and to her, they are just perches lol. Just be sure your snake has somewhere it can get to that is dry so it doesn't have to sit on wet/damp substrate 24/7. That combined with a lost poopie in the cypress and high temps/humidity is just asking for bacteria/scalerot. Anyways good luck and I hear good things about cypress. Just the stuff is too expensive for my cheap butt as I just toss out all my snakes' substrates every month anyways and do full cleanings. Doing that with that forest floor stuff would run me $60 a month in just substrate lol.