You don't really need...actually in my opinion you NEVER need a drip sheild if you've got perlite in your terranium.

I haven't used a drip sheild for awhile now and I have great flushes. I know what you mean by not having enough room:-) Those drip sheild do take up too much space. But like I said if you've got a layer of perlite on the bottom of your tank, you'll be fine if you take the drip sheild out.

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"A good shroom is like a 'sore' peter..It's hard to beat!"

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"I've always read about the dangerous conseqences of Alcohol, Tobacco, Mushrooms, LSD, Ecstacy and other illegal drugs...so I have finally decided to give up reading!!! "

10 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).]