Tips for avoiding calcium on plants?

[jclee]

I have put up with this minor irritation for a while: dusted crickets dropped into 20G high, planted vivarium inevitably coat most of my plants with calcium dust. It wipes off easily enough, but it's tedious and time consuming.

Do any of you have any tips? Other than to be more careful when dropping dusted crickets into the tank?

[Kyle The Toad]

Misting the leaves with a spray-bottle might help.

[froggsong]

What do you shake the bugs in? a bag? a jar?

I have a system, lol (calcium will kill moss, and I have lots of it in my setups). I have a bowl, a jar (old el paso salsa jars work very well for this because of their shape), and a net (or other sifting apparatus). I add the calcium (and vitamins when needed) to the jar, then the bugs, then shake well. Next I put the net over the top of the jar and hold it tight (The tighter the better), then turn the jar upside down and shake the excess into the bowl. Then I tap the net to knock off the bugs, then shake them into the tank. Works every time.

[Grimm]

Thats a handy little trick Froggy! I'll have to remember that if I ever manage to grow moss successfully! FML while LMAO

[froggsong]

well, it's still good for tanks without moss, lol... Plus you can save the excess calcium for next time.

[jclee]

I do mist the leaves, but it tends to happen that some small amount of calcium doesn't wash off, and begins to form a layer that continues to get worse until I literally wipe down each leaf with a paper towel.

I'll try to net trick. That sounds pretty good! I'll probably still get some calcium in the tank as I drop the crickets in, since it kind of falls off of them as they land, but from what you're describing, most of it will come off.

I knew that mosses preferred acidic soils, and I knew that my tank never seemed to keep mosses alive for long... I never put two and two together, but that makes perfect sense. Wow, I've got some slow moments. Hmmm. Maybe after another few months of trying to sift off as much calcium as possible, I'll give moss another chance. (I suspect that I let the humidity get a little too low, and that calcium alone is not responsible for my tank's ritualistic genocide of all things mossy, but I'll try again anyway, just for kicks.)

Thanks, all, for your tips. I'm happy to hear any extra ideas that come up.

[froggsong]

Pretty much all of the loose stuff comes off as you shake them against the net. You can reuse the calcium for a while, but there comes a point when its not powdery enough to stick while shaking. If you find that you loose too much calcium powder to shaking, yours may not be ground finely enough (I've noticed this with some pet store calciums). A few pulses in a magic bullet or equivalent helps to smooth things out.

Check out the thread on moss propagation in the plants forum for more info on mosses. We never got to finish the discussion, but we'll pick it up again someday!