How compact should potting mix be and what should be used.

[NepNut]

How compact is compact?? I would gauge this by how well drain the media is when you water it, you all should know what I'm talking about right?

Only a handful of neps species (all L/L) preferred (or adpatable) to water soaking media and those can also be grown equally well in well drain media. Most other neps prefer media that can hold moisture and well drain (more to do with giving circulation to the media and root zone).

Try to introduce some other potting mix that's chunky (1-2 cm) like perlite, coco chips, orchid bark, charcoal and etc when mixing LFS to "open" up the media. With this, you'll be able to use less LFS. If you want the media to retain more water, you just adjust the ratio of LFS (use more) or mix it with peat or coco peat.

Myself use mostly inorganic media like coarse sand, burnt red clay (laterite) and perlite/pumice with up to 70-80% of the media composition. The other 20-30% will be mainly organic based media like coco chip, coco peat and LFS (to be use mainly to increase water retention of the media). For hanging pot, since most inorganic media like sand and clay is heavy by density, you can increase the ratio of less dense inorganic media like perlite and pumice to lessen the weight of the pot for hanging. Same effect can be archieve by increasing the ratio of coco chips but please becareful with using a lot of coco chips in your media if you're growing your plants outdoor in a tropical country that may experience seasonal monsoon rain...

There's no "perfect" media that you can get by following other's mixing ratio and type of media... you will need to play around/adjust your watering frequency, growing condition, type of pots and various other factors to strike a balance to get that "perfect mix" that will just only work for you and you only... it's magical.

Hope this help.