I have a 40 gal bioactive tank for my florida king (she is young and small, don't worry about tank size >.>) and while the cool and damp side is doing great, the dry side where the heat lamp is happens to be a bit... barren. I have a couple more plants and moss coming, but it is all for the left side (cool) where the humidity is good. The dry side only has a couple rocks and some wood (ghost, cork, and driftwood) making up a more elaborate hardscape at the cost of no foliage at all. I want to at least try to put something over there, but I am unsure of what.

Does anyone have any good plants that will grow up and into the wood/rocks? No pothos, I don't want to risk my snake biting it on accident while trying to get my tongs and getting dosed o_o"

Right side in question ^^

Just started up my first bioactive in my 4x2x2 for my little butters, and I’m a big fan of how naturalistic it looks with live moss and the 3 pothos I’ve added so far. The reptile store I went to only had those 3 left and I cleaned them out lol, and I’m hoping to get some suggestions for in the future. I still have some fake plants in there to make sure he still feels secure in his environment but I’m hoping to replace them over time with live substitutes.

I like the colors in the first one, and the branches are thicker. However, the second one has longer skinnier branches. I like the way they both look I can't make up my mind. What do you think?

(i also have cork tubes I'm going to place under the branches, but i need to decide which wood to use first)

So I’m about to officially do my first bioactive terrarium for a Central American banded gecko. Doing the custom background and even decided to do the cup method for the wall. I started to run out of time so I bought the plants on Instacart. The plants are showing to be to big for the enclosure but I’m not fully done I still need to add the substrate barrier. What should I do?? Could I do a major pruning and let the plants grow in the tank properly or what?😭

I just finished my first time bioactive tank for my leopard gecko. Springtails and isopods are in there for 1-2 weeks now. But now I think nature is doing their thing.

Yesterday I found the first daddy long-legs spider with one of my orange isopods in the web. I catched it an thought now it would be fine but today I found the next one and can't get it...

Is this a common thing? What can I do to save my isopods? Maybe adding fly screens at the ventilation openings against the spiders?

This was my first ever bioactive enclosure and I'm devastated. It seems that there's hundreds of these little ants that have invaded and made my crested geckos home, their home too. My springtails and isopods are absolutely thriving (i actually didn't know if there were any isopods until taking decor out and checking the dirt and seeing many babies!). Is there anything I can do without completely starting over? I'm also very concerned they may have burrowed into a large cork wood piece I have siliconed to the glass. I have since removed my gecko and placed him into another tank I had empty and just kept it bare minimum until I can sort out his tank. I'm unsure if they are harmful to my gecko or not, or to my springtails and isopods, although it seems they have been unaffected. Any advice on what to do and how to prevent this from happening again very much appreciated.

Almost finished setting it up.

Has Armadillidium granulatum isopods, springtails and I’m considering getting some Death Feigning Beetles too.

Pond liner, 2” clay pebble drainage layer, 5” substrate consisting of coco coir, play sand, and reptisoil with some coco husk chunks on top. Oak leaf litter, cork bark rounds and flats, live pothos, philodendrons, mini monstera, and begonia maculata. Buried hide is under water dish with an elbow pipe as an entrance. There’s are three hides total, identical ones on each side of the temp gradient, then one in the middle. I’m thinking about burying the other black hide as well (but under the warm side) and adding another surface hide on the warm side.

PVC pipe elbows buried in back wall for enrichment and climbing.

The clean up crew is powder orange isopods and tropical springtails.

So I got this Vivarium custom made but I wanted to add much more hardscape and branches on the walls. Maybe cover the glass too with more expanding foam and wood. I got the exact materials it was made with but I’ve never made a background before. Is it okay for me to just sorta add on to the existing hardscape and new walls or do I need to scrape off everything I’d want to replace?

Also there’s no one in the tank at all, but should I be concerned about the plants or isopods already in the enclosure? I do have a chameleon gecko right next to this enclosure so I’m wondering if it would be best to move his tank out of the room while the silicone cures.

Hello! I have a crested gecko who I have had in an enclosure with no live plants or anything for about 3 years. He is happy and always jumps around. However, since I’ve been making more money, i want to give him an upgrade to a bioactive. I suppose my main questions are:

1. is 18x18x24 enough space still, even tho the substrate cuts off a lot of height? Or should I get A taller enclosure?

2. Should I get an entirely separate cage so that he can stay in his normal set up while the bioactive cycles?

3. How do I disinfect wood, plants, etc

4. what are your guys go tos for substrate, bug, and anything else?

5. What all do I need Bug and substrate wise? I see a lot of people using different arrangements so just wondering (:

6. Other than plants, wood, LED lights for plants, bioactive substrate, isopods, springtails, drainage layer, mesh separation layer, leaf litter is there anything else i would need?

Sorry about all the questions that may seem dumb, ive never done this before

As of right now I have the following for my new phailozoo 4x2x2.

Arcadia 12% 22.5 inch UVB

REPTILE systems eco halogen bulbs. I got them in 75w but also got replacement 50 w bulbs just in case. Do you guys recommend starting with the 75w bulbs or 50w? I got them with the flukers 8.5 inch fixtures.

I have both the biodudes solar grow 36inch led and also the jungle dawn 22.5 inch led. Which one is best to use or should I use both? I am going to be purchasing biodudes terrarium kit for the 120 gallon and i didn’t realize it already comes with a 36inch solar grow but I bought the 22.5 inch jungle dawn. Don’t know if i should just return the jungle dawn.

I also ordered a herpstat 2 to control/dim the heat lamps and got a KASA smart timer surge protector for everything else.

Is there anything else I need for lighting? Everything will be placed above the mesh.

I should mentionI couldn’t find the right basking spot length on the lightmyreptile site using the 75w heat bulbs but I could using the 50w bulbs. Curious what everyone’s experience is.

Thank you so much from a newly upgraded bearded dragon owner!!

This is my first bioactive enclosure and I'm wondering if the sealant will stick properly if the panel isn't flat due to the divider in the glass. Should I trim the cork to fit above the divider?

I impulse bought a juvenile hognose (which isn't great but the reptile expo atmosphere got to me). Currently he's in a 20 gallon on aspen with lots of clutter and is doing fine. I bought a 75 gallon off fb marketplace and I've been in the process of setting it up. I would like it to be bio active.

So currently the tank is filled with 80 lbs of top soil, 7 lbs of sand, and 60 lbs of excavator clay. I poured cups of water into this mixture with the idea being that the soil would bake and it would be dry on top and the under layers would be wet and the snake could self regulate. I wet the soil weeks ago and have lights on it during the day but at night the humidity is still getting up to 90. During the days when the lights are on it gets around 35 on the hot side and 50 on the cool side. This is where I would like it to stay but I'm still seeing these crazy spikes at night. I don't want to put bugs inside before the environment has stabilized. I feel like I'm doing everything to keep humidity down. I have a fan pointed at the tank and a dehumidifier in the room. What do you guys think my next steps are? Just sit and wait while the soil dries up?

I know the snake would be fine on aspen but I would like him in the closest environment to outside as possible. If I can't get this right I will just fill up the tank with aspen

Hi. I'm making my corn snake a bioactive enclosure. I'm looking to make a substrate to grow plants and support a cleanup crew well. Ive never made a substrate mix before and I am not sure what to put in it.

Do you guys have any good substrate recipes for me to make?

I was looking at premixed ones but they're are hard to come by in the UK and are usually very overpriced as I need quite a lot for a 4x2x2 enclosure. I'm new to this so I'm basically just looking for a shopping list and ratios.

Thanks for all the help.

Hey all!

I finally got my plants in the ground & we are settling into day 4. Still waiting on a couple more things to finish off this viv (it’s a little empty up top for a crested gecko) before we get our first occupant but…

The humidity is reading 99%.

This would be fine, except it stayed there for two days.

When I gave everything a mist down after that, the humidity dropped down to 89% & then I left for the day & came back this morning to see the tank visibly dry & the humidity back at 99%.

Is this normal?
Is this faulty equipment?

Thanks for the help y’all. I have really enjoyed learning about how to build these enclosures and I just want to make sure I am on top of everything so when I finally rescue an animal, I know at least had a better navigate the environment and potential issues that may crop up.

Been a bit busy. But with the Outlook outage, I had time to post.

I cut out the 9-inch circular opening at the top and also added a 3D printed diagonal brace for where the viewing portion meets the top. This will be for LED grow lights and misters. Its ab=ngled so it points along the back wall and sides.

I added acrylic to lessen the openings on the side ventilation holes top and bottom. The bottom is also for the drainage layer.

I added some acrylic to the overflow that was originally on the back wall. This will now be a planter section with another drainage layer and substrate. I sealed it and placed a drainage hose that will run along the back wall behind the spray foam. I think I'll just have it drip onto the plants/drainage layer below at the bottom.

All of the acrylic was glued, then caulked around seams. etc.

Feedback or ideas are more than welcome. Next is to design the hardscape and where to put planters. I have a 6ft manzanita, medium and smaller pieces, and lots of cork.

First post....
https://www.reddit.com/r/bioactive/comments/1xipe79/comment/19rufjh5nf1xd/

I have an anole that I primarily feed flies and get the occasional cricket or worm when I am going to immediately feed. I would like to add more regular variety and keep pinhead crickets for her too. The last time I got some they all escaped their enclosure and I gave up.

How do you keep pinhead crickets without them escaping? Photo of her setup for fun. I am also in the middle of setting up a second one and am intending to get starry night reed frogs, so I will need the crickets for them too.

❤️❤️❤️

These are my first isopods I’ve had, the Orange Clown isopods or Armadillidium klugii. My terrarium is getting watered and fed today, and I found these two fellas chilling under the water dish.

For context of the video, I built a little two tiered den/five-star hotel in the foreground of the enclosure. It just received a healthy serving of fish flakes coated and calcium powder, so I was quite surprised to see these two over here for the first time.

The terrarium itself has a bit of adjusting to still go through. I had envisioned and prioritized building a vibrant tropical closed lid terrarium first, and striking isopods were my second thought.

I purchased a 10 pack of these klugii at a reptile show when they caught my eye, and then after taking them home and researching, I learned they prefer more arid conditions to many other isopods. This led to a few tender aquatic plants dying off within the first week or two of setup, since I originally planned for a closed lid, and thought I could buy aquarium plants for my wet section.

During the same first week of adjustment, the isopods were nowhere to be found. I was quite excited to eventually see they were healthy and thriving that I’m not too concerned about some dead plants. Besides, I figure they will happily eat the dead plants, when they get around to it… They seem to like protein rich fish food more than dry leaves, though.

At this point, everything else I planted appears to have rooted and has new growth. I did put in 10 orange springtails, but I have yet to see them…

Any suggestions for other inhabitants in this tank?

Only started noticing them the past few days after adding a second dose of predatory mites into my bioactive snake enclosure. They definitely don't look like mites and move very fast. It's the small black / dark grey shape

How do you guys decide what to plant?

I was at HomeDepot and a few local pet store today with the intent of purchasing my plants but then felt overwhelmed and unsure of what and how many plants to purchase. I have a 4x2x2 that I’m planning to house Garter Snakes in that may or may not have a water pool.

As for being overwhelmed, my brain has started to compartmentalize each step instead of going straight for it, meaning that I will likely have my clean up crew before having my plants.

Do anyone have any tips or resources to look into for this for someone who doesn’t even know what a pothos looks like? 🤦😩 Pics of the plants I was looking at while at HD.

hi! recently the terrarium where I house my crested gecko has started having an unpleasant smell. I've had my gecko in various forms of bioactive enclosures for over 4 years but this never happened before. It never smelled like sunshine and rainbows but was never this smelly.
I have powder orange isopods, some random hitchhiking millipedes and springtails. recently my main plant which was a dwarf umbrella tree and i replaced it with pothos and bromeliads. the CUC devour leaf litter pretty fast and i'm running short and because these plants don't produce waste on their own could the smell be because there's not enough food for the CUC? I plan to redo some parts of the enclosure to add some more plants for variety anyway but just wondering if anyone knows what's going on with my ecosystem

I know it’s hard to tell with video, however I’m building up my bioactive tank and found these little guys under the water bowl today. Any idea of what they might be? I have isopods and springtails in there but they don’t look like babies of either to me. I haven’t gotten a snake in yet so I want to identify them and address it incase they’re harmful before moving forward. Praying it’s not a problem, any advice on what you think they might be would be greatly appreciated :)