One of the best media components for our detritus loving pets. Originally entered the terrarium scene for raising beetle grubs, but now is given to a wide variety of pets. As a more "standardized" and accessible alternative to white rot wood it has removed the need to harvest (somewhat rare) materials from the wild, making our hobby way more predictable and removed limitations stemming from one's location.
While it might seem quite complicated at first, flake soil is little more than wood broken down by Saccharomyces cerevisiae, aka. brewer's yeast. Note that we aren't fermenting the wood, we need the yeast to use the aerobic respiration metabolic pathway. This yeast is a "facultative anaerobe" which means that it doesn't need oxygen, and can just ferment to get energy, but it's also capable of aerobic respiration which is a way more efficient (Up to 15 times!!!). Also we need to avoid producing ethanol, acetic acid, and other various unwanted metabolites from the anaerobic respiration.
I will present to you how I make my flake soil. My recipe is loosely basen on the one from xtraordinarypets com, but I have altered it based on my experience/resources available.
Ingreedients:
5 kg oak pellets
100g wheat flour (preferably dark)
100g corn meal (turns out that corn *flour* lacks husks, thus has less nutrition)
50g table sugar
two tablespoons instant yeast
8.5l (divided) of water (preferably low in minerals)
First step is allowing the yeast to multiply a bit. Take 0.5l water, heat it up to around body temperature, add the wheat flour, corn meal, sugar, and the yeast. Mix until dissolved. Set aside until the mixture becomes very foamy. (I like to use this time to weight out the oak pellets)
In a large bucket (I use 32l ones) measure out the 5 kg of oak pellets (time saving tip: measure the weight of 1l of the brand that you are using, and count the 5 kg based on volume.)
Add the remaining 8l of water, and the foamy yeast mixture from the previous step. Mix it as well as you can before the pellets suck up all the water and make stirring difficult. Let the pellets suck up all the water, and mix them up well.
Next you will need to shake up the entire batch (make sure there's no "stagnant spots" on the bottom) twice a week, for at least one month. The mixture will at first smell like a bakery (good sign). You know that the batch is ready when it starts feeling more like soil, and less like sawdust. The fermentation time will differ based on many factors, such as the temperature, how well you stir it, and wood quality.