# Springtail Wood Chips



## packer43064 (Nov 30, 2010)

Does it matter what kind of wood chips to use for springtails? I can't find the "Cowboy" brand that people seem to use alot. I can find the wood (BBQ) chips, but there is Maple, Cherry, Hickory, Oak, Mesquite...all kinds. Which one would work?

Need to know before I start making alot of cultures, don't want to make then they all die because the chips were the wrong kind.

Jeff


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Jeff, you don't have it quite right. It's Cowboy Charcoal. It's been described as wood chips because it is a whole, unformed charcoal. Basically partially burned wood chips/chunks. It will be right beside the Kingsford charcoal at Lowes. But Kingsford is no good because it is a formed charcoal.
If you cant find Cowboy, just use any horticulture charcoal or even an aquarium charcoal/carbon. It's not that Cowboy is any better, it's just that Cowboy is WAY cheaper!


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## JeffP (Mar 2, 2010)

I'm in Cincinnati and just picked up a bag of "cowboy" brand from Home Depot today. Have you checked there?


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## Mitch (Jun 18, 2010)

None of those will work. Cowboy charcoal can be found at Home Depot and Lowes. It's in a brown bag and says cowboy charcoal on it.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Just went down to get a shot for you and realized my Lowes has changed the brand. They carry Frontier now. It's the same thing and works fine.


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## varanoid (Jan 21, 2011)

Pumilo said:


> Just went down to get a shot for you and realized my Lowes has changed the brand. They carry Frontier now. It's the same thing and works fine.


I've seen this and similar stuff before but have found that the chunks are quite large. I was thinking that I could put a bunch into an old pillow case and smash it up with a hammer to make the pieces smaller. What do you guys do?


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## Mitch (Jun 18, 2010)

varanoid said:


> I've seen this and similar stuff before but have found that the chunks are quite large. I was thinking that I could put a bunch into an old pillow case and smash it up with a hammer to make the pieces smaller. What do you guys do?


That's what I did. I also washed it with the garden hose after, the stuff gets incredibly dusty.


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## packer43064 (Nov 30, 2010)

Thanks everyone. I went to Meijer after work earlier today (got off early) and went to the grill/charcoal section and just found the wood chips for grilling. I went to Home Depot about 30 minutes ago and picked up 3 bags of the stuff. It was Cowboy Charcoal.

Thanks!


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

I love the pillowcase idea! I usually wrap it in a towel and "It's Hammer Time!"


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## varanoid (Jan 21, 2011)

The pillow case idea actually came from my reef tank experiences. My technique for providing a mount for frags involved smashing live rock in a pilllow case so that all the pieces were saved. I figured a pillow case would work well in containing smashed charcoal which would ultimately need to be rinsed to remove the dust before being used (regardless of whether it was smashed or not). Glad that I could contribute. Appreciate my first thanks on this forum Pumilo! I am honored.


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