I covered the wire with plastic wrap and cut a piece of the mat to fit. After following the directions to rinse the mat and drain I sprinkled the charcoal mix on the level, laid down the mat, sprinkled the seeds and covered it with the dirt mix. There is a sunglow lamp right above this level and I made sure to mist it a couple times a day to keep it from getting too dry.
The package directions said 4-7 days before sprouting. Seven days had passed and there was no sign of sprouting. I decided to give it a couple more days before giving up on the grass (although I was going to keep the plain mat on that level, grass or not). The very next day grass started shooting up like mad.
It's been 10 days and not all of the grass has sprouted yet. I'd say about 40% is already growing, but I'm sure more will come. I added some additional seeds to the mat because it looked like the grass coverage would be a bit sparse. Of course, that's my mistake, not the manufacturer.
I haven't had any crabs up there exploring, as far as I know, since the grass sprouted. I do know that one of my PPs likes to bask under the moonglow lamp, so I'm sure he'll discover the grass sooner or later.
In the end I have to say that I like this mat. I think it's just the thing for flat levels that would have trouble holding other types of substrate, like flat plexiglass levels. It's supposed to help with humidity levels and I like the idea of having live plants in the crabitat.
I'm not sure what price this product retails at because I bought mine on clearance. I paid $7 for a medium sized mat and used less than half of it to cover the level. I plan on using the rest when I remodel my other 20 gallon tank. However, next time I might experiment with some type of herb seeds in addition to the grass.
