My setup is very simular to yours10 gal aquarium
1 1/2" perlight
NO drip shield
cakes directly on perlight
First couple batches I manually vented, now I use fish tank air pump, bubled thru water. Soo much simpler. Just watch them grow and open up to harvest.
Regarding cakes directly on perlight. I have noticed that as I increase number of cakes in terrarium (standard is 9 cakes per batch) I have seen increased contamination problems after 1st flush. Not sure if contamination is from poor housekeeping, or setting cakes on the perlight and just increasing odds of contams starting then spreading.
I moisten perlight with 50/50 water and peroxide and air pump bubles thru same mix, when water level gets low in bubler, I top of with straight peroxide.
Here's a pic of setup (I discontiud use of light/heat source as it was not needed)
/Gadget
[This message has been edited by Gadget (edited April 13, 2000).]