Zilla Reptile Terrarium Substrate Bedding, Walnut Desert Blend, 5 Quart

I am using this to stuff pincushions. I am very pleased with the result. It gives some weight to the pincushion so that it doesn’t slide around on your sewing table and it is easy to insert and remove the pins.

i use this to stuff my homemade pincushions. Adds desired weight and durability!

I bought this as a cheaper replacement for sand, and it’s a wonderful product. In fact, for my purposes, it works out much better than sand. I could buy sand at a home improvement shop and get much more for less money, but I just don’t need 50 pounds of sand, especially considering that sand probably would be damp, need drying out before use, be too large to keep in my home, and when dry, it would probably produce considerable dust as well. This product, intended for use with small reptilian pets, is already clean, dry and dust free, so that’s a major plus over a large quantity of sand. The amount of product is perfect as well — any hobbyist (I bought mine to use as ‘earth’ on bases for wargaming miniatures and other diorama and terrain projects) can keep this amount near their work area (unlike a 50+ pound bag of sand), and unless I’m mistaken, it’s the same thing some companies sell as ‘railroad ballast,’ although this was cheaper by far. It’s sold as five dry quarts and I’d guess its weight at about ten pounds, and it comes in a plastic bag about 1 foot tall, 7 inches wide and 4 or 5 inches thick (depending on how it’s settled). It’s pretty much an exact match for the Woodland Scenics medium ballast product (maybe right in between their fine and medium sizes), but the WS 32oz shaker jars at Amazon sell for ablout twice the price of this, and this bag contains as much product as four or five of those. Five times as much for half the price, and the same thing to boot? I am definitely a happy customer! I’m sure it’s perfect for our little wriggling and burrowing pets too, since that’s its intended purpose, but it’s also perfect for my hobbying. After all, it’s the same thing I’ve used for years with great success, and I couldn’t be happier to get so much at such a great price (six bucks and change, which is about the same as the price as the quite small bags of brown ballast from WS, much less the large shaker bottles). For wargaming hobbyists needing something like sand for basing miniatures, this is a huge bargain. This one bag probably would cover an entire 4′ x 8′ sheet of plywood (the size of the wargaming tabletops on which I enter battle) with considerable leftovers, or if used just for bases, almost certainly last me the rest of my hobbying life. 😉 As is the case with the normal brown ballast from WS, white glue and acrylic paints (as well as washes from Vallejo, Citadel and Army Painter) work great, although some may like the color exactly as is. I’m really glad to have discovered this, and I highly recommend it for tabletop wargaming and military miniatures hobbyists.

So the price is great. Less expensive than the local Petco. I don’t have a lizard. I use it as media to tumble once fired brass from the range. It cleans faster and better than corn cob media. It cleans the inside of cases where the corn cob doesn’t seem to. It does create more dust than the corn cob. (not a big thing though)

I do still use the corn cob media however to polish the brass since this walnut cleans but doesn’t polish as well as the corn cob media. I can use this first then later the corn cob media with brass polish added. I’ve even mixed the two which works well and saves a step. Don’t deprime the cases beforehand, just leave them in and tumble first.

I can use this stuff over and over again. The best thing is that I don’t wear out the corn cob media very fast at all since most of the tumbling is done with walnut. Just my experience. I found this tip on some reloading sites. This brand specifically was mentioned along with a few others.

What can I say, great. I have tried other media and they made dust or left everything stained with red crap they impregnated in the media, I assume to make it polish well. These expensive ammo specific walnut media and corn cob media did not work as well as the Zilla with a squirt of NuFinish car wax. One expensive purpose made media was the perfect size for packing up the primer pocket of EVERY 9mm shell. I had to spend a good amount of time clearing the media out the pockets in EVERY SHELL. Zilla does not block anything. Another purpose made media for ammo polishing had some read stuff impregnated. The red crap got on everything, a mess and made dust…. No DUST with Zilla and a bit of NuFinish. I use a plastic cooking spoon with slots to fish the brass out and leave the media in the VibratorWhat can I say, great. I have tried other media and they made dust or left everything stained with red crap they impregnated in the media, I assume to make it polish well. These expensive ammo specific walnut media and corn cob media did not work as well as the Zilla with a squirt of NuFinish car wax. One expensive purpose made media was the perfect size for packing up the primer pocket of EVERY 9mm shell. I had to spend a good amount of time clearing the media out the pockets in EVERY SHELL. Zilla does not block anything. Another purpose made media for ammo polishing had some read stuff impregnated. The red crap got on everything, a mess and made dust…. No DUST with Zilla and a bit of NuFinish. I use a plastic cooking spoon with slots to fish the brass out and leave the media in the vibrator.

The Zilla crushed walnut with NuFinish is perfect. No dust, no plugging up of the case primer pocket or port and does a great job making it shinny. For me cleaning and polishing I will use this. I like the KISS method, Keep It Stupid Simple. I primarily use ULTRA SONIC cleaning, and the polish is to just finish it off. I thought I’d never get a polisher, but I finally broke down and bought one. Strictly speaking you don’t need it because ultrasonic is great. However the shells are a little dull and have some uneven splotches. I bought a Frankford Arsenals Vibrator at the same time I bought the Zilla walnut on Amazon, so free shipping. I run it for about 2 hours on about 100-150 9mm cases. They come out shiny. Enough said, last a long time. Cheers

Awesome product for cleaning range brass. The size of the ground is much smaller than I thought, almost like sand picture shows chunks but I’m really happy with the results. Picked a bunch of dirty range brass from the floor with a shovel along with twigs and rocks,sorted them out, took the crap out of them and put them in my new Frankford Arsenal case tumbler with this stuff and about an ounce of NU-Finish car polish. Man! they came out looking like new. I’m cheap I used to clean my brass with Citric acid and soap in hot water and they came out clean but never like this. I’m in awe lol
I’m including a picture of the first few hundred. EDIT: Btw the 25Qt bag is a BIG bag, around 30 pounds of it, I’m going to have some of this stuff left in 5 years lol