I've used this product for the past couple of years. For my hermit crabs' tank (about 40 gallon), I use two of these bricks and mix it with some play sand. It does a really good job or staying moisturized. It's also perfect for my hermit crabs to burrow underneath - it doesn't get so dense that they can't dig holes. Overall, I love this product.

It does what it says it will do

With the right care, it does keep the Nats away

It's soft on my pets feet, keeps the cage fresh

We have a custom made tank for our 11" Red Footed Tortoise, it's about 90 gallons. We use all 9 bricks (each pack has 3 bricks, and you get 3 of those packs), and it's the perfect amount. So much cheaper than a bunch of the same bedding that comes loose (not compressed).

We empty the tank completely, clean it out using 1:30 bleach:water mixture (or whatever your preference on cleaners). Once all surfaces are rinsed and completely dry, then we put the compressed bricks inside, spread out single stacked. Then we add the amount of water stated on the package. As it absorbs the water, we break it up with our hands and stir it all up so it is evenly wet and distributed throughout the tank. Then we put our tortoise back inside. It is very easy for him to burrow and move the bedding around where he wants it. He loves digging a hole to sleep in. Sometimes he goes in his house and pushes the bedding into the doorway for privacy.

We use a pooper scooper to remove solid waste. We thoroughly wet and stir up bedding (everything is out of the tank except the bedding and it's a complete turn over of all the bedding), about every week. We don't let it dry out all the way, keeping it moist allows us to avoid a humidifier. However, if it stays too wet, it will attract little gnats. That's why stirring it up every week or so helps to keep it at an appropriate level of moisture.

I recommend total replacement of the bedding every 3-6 months. We never have to add bedding during that time, and we throw away ALL of the bedding at the end of the 3-6 month mark. Then we clean all surfaces and start over. Can't beat the price and low maintenence!

I love all Zoo Med products, but this by far for us is the BEST.
Our snakes shed wonderfully with this bedding.
Feeding rats no longer nasty with this bedding.
Easy to maintain moist bedding even with our heat pads.
Never need to do anything but spot check and changed when your
schedule is.

I bought two 3-brick packages because I wasn't sure how much the substrate would expand once moistened. I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least. One 3-brick pack expands to about 5 gallons of substrate! (I even had to pack it down slightly to fit in the bucket!)

Also, the consistency is very nice - there is a lot of actual coconut substrate - not just the fibrous filler material. It seems to hold it's moisture nicely and it's easy to rinse off your hands, because there's not a lot of very small particulates like there is with regular soil. I plan to mix this with a little bit of potting soil to use as a base for my Ball Python's vivarium. I haven't yet determined how well the plain substrate supports plant growth, so I plan to dig out holes and transplant the plants into regular potting soil in various places.

For this price, you can't go wrong with Zoo Med's Eco Earth!