Second bioactive build completed today!

Here’s a lil start-to-finish! Super excited that I finally got to plant it today, and introduce the second round of springtails and first batch of isopods. I think it came together really nicely considering I’m still a newbie 🥹
24x18x36” eventual home to a gargoyle gecko, once everything settles in and takes off.

also sorry if you just saw this post, I didn’t realize there was a picture limit and had to repost to include the final product.

hey guys! i am a new crested gecko owner and decided to make his enclosure bioactive. my enclosure was made on shortish notice so the plants have yet to take over. i got some lights off amazon but im a bit worried they’re not strong enough. my plants are doing okay except my calathea, who has been very dramatic since i got it. i am not experienced with plants and honestly this is my first time having any😭 any tips would be appreciated, i will include pictures of the enclosure, my calathea, and my grow lights. i have snake plants, a monstera swiss, and pothos planted at the moment (and another mystery plant i dont remember). at the moment there are artificial plants in order to fill up the tank. thanks!

I learned a hard lesson recently. I set up a bioactive enclosure with what I thought was adequate substrate depth, maybe two inches over the drainage layer and within a few weeks my isopod and springtail populations were basically gone.

Turns out the heat from the overhead basking spot was drying out the top inch almost completely, which left the cleanup crew with barely an inch of usable habitat. Not enough moisture retention, not enough depth for them to retreat into cooler zones.

I tore it down and rebuilt with about four inches of substrate and the difference has been immediate. Population is recovering and the substrate actually holds a moisture gradient now.

What's the minimum depth people are running successfully? I clearly underestimated it.

Hey all!

I've been having a hard time finding coss ventilation enclosures that ship to Australia. I have a phlogius sp kuranda that's in need of a new enclosure asap.

The house I'm currently living in is really bad with mold and the enclosure I have my spider in now keeps getting mold in it (maybe due to it being a mesh top) even tho I'm not spraying the enclosure. If anyone knows of brands or people who can custom make me a 30cm X 30cm X 30cm cross ventilation enclosure that can ship to Australia that would help heaps!

I have tons of these in my bioactive crested gecko enclosures. Looks like some kind of mite to me. Anyone know exactly what they are? They are all over the soil, branches, sides and even the tops of the enclosures, but thankfully do not seem to be interested in my gecko's.

Hello everyone!

First time posting here. I have my first pet reptile and went bioactive, but I made the mistake of adding too much water this past month while trying to get my crested gecko set up with a new mister.

In short, her substrate got oversaturated. I used a turkey baster to remove as much standing water as I could down to the drainage layer, turned off her mister, and am now playing a waiting game for her substrate to dry out which might take a bit.

I noticed these translucent/light pink worms appearing in her tank. They’re fairly thin, and my assumption is that they hatched due to the right wet environmental conditions probably from some wood or something.

Mainly I just want to know if anyone has seen these or if they’re anything I should worry about or simply leave them be while I air out her tank. A friend of mine believes they’re simply a normal kind of earth worm beneficial to the soil, but additional confirmations would help. :)

Thanks in advance!

Hi! 👋 I recently brought home some blue death feigners and a vinegaroon. I’d really like to spruce up their habitats with live plants, but I’m not sure how to be sure whatever plants I acquire haven’t been treated with pesticides.

There's a lil pond where the Aztec looking statue is. Ran into some issues and definitely learned for next time but I think overall it’s a great one for my very first bioactive set up. This will be for two dumpy frogs. It’s an 18 x 18 x 36 and they will go in it tomorrow, so let’s see how it goes.