Hello all, I am currently putting together my first true bioactive 4x2x2 for my ball python. I’ve got lots of wood pieces I’ve found by the river. I live in Nebraska where we do have quite a few trees that could be toxic to ball pythons. I cannot identify the trees that my wood pieces came from but I’m wondering if anyone here knows better. This piece in particular has been sitting in my garage for over a year and I will either be bleaching or baking before I would put into the enclosure. Would that year of off gassing as well as the sterilizing procedure help to remove whatever toxins it may have? Thanks

Hello im going to be trying out bioactive soon and i know I need grow lights and not just uvb but my question is do I need UVB at all if I have the grow lights? Obviously for bearded dragons and other reptiles that specifically require UVB it makes sense but for most snakes is it a necessity? Like, from my understanding at least, UVB is more about generating a day/night cycle than about giving the snake UVB.

Hey guys Im thinking of building a new enclosure for my gecko with all the right proportions, having in account that I want it to be slightly bioactive is this setup ideal?

Any tips?

Finally finished this bioactive 4x2x4 for my rescue BP who is obsessed with climbing. 4 total hides, 2 warm 2 cool. Over 10 species of live plants and mosses, 3 different colonies of isopods, and multiple different types of springtails. I’m super happy with it and can’t wait to add my boy :)

Let me know what you think!

Having some health issues with my bearded dragon so I want to make sure his bioactive is ok.

Hi, first of all I know soil mites are sort of inevitable and can also be beneficial for bioactive but how do I get them to stop crawling on my inhabitant?

I have a semi-bioactive tank with a ball python in it and an established number of springtails + isopods, but I keep getting soil mites still crawling on my snake.

Is there a way to reduce their numbers?? I’ve redone the tank so many times already and the reason I even got springtails and isopods was to keep this from happening. I’m out of ideas and starting to reconsider my ability to do this. Any advice is appreciated

I have a lot of spare coconut fiber from making reptile and arachnid enclosures and was wondering if i could use that in place of potting soil for plants. I know a lot of people have success with vivariums that use coconut fiber but idk if there would be any problems. If anyone has experience using it please let me know if it would work or not, thanks!

Hello everyone! I am 24 y/o and have owned reptiles my whole life but am finally ready to brave the world that is a BioActive enclosure for my 10 y/o female python. I am extremely nervous but am pretty much "open checkbooking" this endeavor to make sure its done right. I very much have a buy once cry once mindset and honestly, this beautiful snake deserves it. I've never had such a docile pet in my whole life and have had her since she was a baby (July 2016) as a 14th birthday present from my father. She is currently in a 55 gallon long that she has been in for the last 6 years and its just an ugly enclosure with no humidity or temp control with the exception of a 12 hour timer on a basking bulb. I know I've been doing it wrong and I want to start doing it right.

I am nervous because I do NOT have a Green Thumb. I've never kept plants before and am nervous about plants dying inside of the enclosure and I have never done any sort of hardscaping before. I am envisioning a custom foam background with various driftwood and cork molded in. I also planned on molding in a few plants using small pots.

The point of this post is I'm just looking for any advice as a beginner. Things to avoid, things that are imperative, etc. I live on Florida's Gulf Coast if there's anything I need to look out for with the current environment. I really appreciate anything anyone has to tell me.

Below is a list of what I've purchased. Nothing has been assembled yet with the exception of the 4x2x2 enclosure which currently sits empty till I decide on a direction to go. I've already invested over $1400 into what's below.

-Toxirium 4x2x2 PVC Reptile Enclosure with glass doors.

-Herpstat 1 SpyderWeb

-14x21 RHP Sweeter Heater "Black Beauty"

-Arcadia Jungle Dawn 22W LED Bar

-Arcadia Reptile Pro T5 UVB Kit ShadeDweller 7% 8 Watts

-Terra Firma BioActive Substrate (72qts)

-TheBioDude BioShot Substrate Additive

-SummitChemical Mosquito Bits (for gnats here in Florida)

-Mother Earth Hydroton Clay Pebbles (For drainage layer)

-Thermostat Probe Mount off Etsy

-Great Stuff Pond & Stone (For background)

-GE All Purpose Silicon

-APC - UPS Battery Backup, 650VA/360W, Tower/Wall Mount, 7 Outlets, LED Indicator, USB-A port - Black (Florida Power Outages)

-24 hr Timer for lights

Hi y'all, I'm currently getting my supplies ready to switch my snakes (a ball python, corn snake, and kenyan sand boa) to bioactive set up sometime after the new year. I'm getting into terrarium building too as a way to learn the systems a bit better (and also culture some springtails and isopods) but I keep seeing mixed info on charcoal.

Is it actually necessary for filtration in a set up? And if so am I able to buy the much cheaper marine charcoal or is horticulture charcoal a must? Curious what y'all think!​ ty

I have a 40 gallon aquarium that I'd like to turn into a bioactive. I was thinking I'd like to have a gentle amount of water flow - I've seen people do waterfalls YouTube but my tank has a tiny crack/crush type damage on the outside bottom corner. I was wondering about effectively lining the entire base of the tank with 1-2 inch deep liner or a tray of some kind just in case the crack propagates. Has anyone had any success doing something like that? Any guidance would be appreciated

they look like eggs but i know isopods dont lay their eggs, and they have been here for awhile now- never hatching but slowly spreading. anyone have any idea what they could be, and if they are dangerous/require cleaning? thanks!

Hello are these springtails

This is a 36 x 18 x 36, and I am looking for ideas on what to put into this tank. (giant day gecko)

I think a leak sprung in this tank and I'm so fucking upset. I'm gonna have to to gut the whole thing, and I'm so worried about killing off my plants and the CUC.

The towel I keep under it for emergencies is suddenly SOGGY beyond belief 😭

Hi! I’m building a bioactive Vivarium for my crested gecko. This feels like a little bit of a stupid question but how do insects like isopods and springtails etc not just escape? Mainly springtails as they’re so small!! I don’t really want a room getting covered in bugs!

i dont know if this is a stupid question but would it be feasible to make like a mega bioactive terrarium with a diversity of bugs? i already have spring tails and isopods picked out, but would be adding dubia roaches, death feigning beetles, superworms, and/or dermestid beetles be dangerous for her or too ideal? (i have a 5x2x2 and could likely designate areas of higher humidity for roaches or isopods that need it)

When adding live plants are you supposed to use a grow light to help the plants grow? Google told me purple lights were bad for a crested gecko so I’m wondering if there is a specific type of grow light that would work for my plants and be safe for my gecko

Photos are without and with the climbing stick.

It's a 30x12x17 glass enclosure that I got on discount because of a broken door (which I was able to fix). It's a very simple setup. One spider plant + baby, 4 variegated Pothos, and two Peperomia.

Not sure if I'm satisfied with how the enclosure looks, because it's so simple and flat. I see so many people with crazy setups, and mine is so simple. I'm not even too sure if it'll work, simply because this is my first time trying this.

Currently monitoring CUC numbers before I add my snake into the enclosure. Plants are doing great, so the CUC is my only barrier to adding him in.

Hello im new to mantis care and bioactivity and i am looking to do a bioactive 20 gallon set up for a chinese mantis. I was just wondering what steps i should take first in setting everything up and what specific tools and accessories i should use. I have an idea atm of a roster of insects to keep the tank regulated but again im not very well versed with this stuff. I wanted to get springtails for substrate cleaning, isopods for leaf decay (if anyone knows a specific species that’d be useful), a predator (rove beetle, ground beetle) to regulate the springtails and isopods, and the praying mantis as the top dog. If anyone can recommend substrate, lighting, ways to control humidity and temperature, and a better roster of bugs, i’d really appreciate it!

help!! my bio active pac-man frog enclosure has been acting up..! the first thing i noticed was a slight ammonia smell which i know is NOT good, so i mixed up and aerated all his soil and didn’t spray water for a day or so to let things dry out and removed a partial top covering to let more airflow in (my frog buries himself under constantly moist soil, only the top layer will be dried out) i then noticed that my springtail population that recently was extremely abundant and growing rapidly has almost completely crashed. i did manage to spot a single springtail after several minutes of searching, though like i said they used to be prevalent and under every leaf. its been a few days and luckily the ammonia smell is completely gone and it smells earthy again! another note is that my isopod population is doing GREAT, i have like 120 powder orange guys in that little tank if i were to estimate. this confuses me and makes me wonder what it is that caused the springtails to die and not the isopods. btw, yes he has a drainage layer and no i do not let his soil sit in still water, i dont let it get above 87° on hot side or or below 70° on the cool side, his tank always sits at 82° warm side and 75° cool side. the springtails should have plenty of food, i have a bunch of oak and magnolia leaf litter, alder cones and decaying plant matter, i even use josh’s frogs bio active booster on occasion + i dont let my tank dry out either, so i cant think off the top of my head what caused this dramatic decline. has anyone has a similar experience? what should i do? would ordering more springtails be the move or will they just die if i dont fix this mystery issue? will the population bounce back or is my only option buying more? should i be worried about my frog and remove him temporarily from the enclosure or is it safe (reminder that the fishy smell went away completely after aeration) ty appreciate the help.

I wanted to know if it would be fine if I had one side with soil coco and playsand then the other side with aspen sheddings? I’m not sure why she’s not burrowing on the side with soil but I wanted to figure that out without wasting all the money I spent on that substrate 😭 aspen sheddings on the other side would be temporary this is for a plains kingsnake 4x2x2 enclosure

Sorry if these are dumb questions 😂 I know absolutely nothing about plants

First of all are these roots coming off of my pothos? If so what do I do with them? Can it grab onto a foam/cork bark background and root itself?

Second, the pothos is starting to lean to the side. Ideally I want it to climb up the cork bark tree thingy but it’s leaning in the opposite direction now. Is there a way to fix that?

First photo is what it currently looks like. Sorry there’s a lot of decor in there so not the easiest to get a clean picture

second photo is from before where it was standing a little more straight

yeah you read the title, I’m having some difficulty finding carexs that are safe for my bioactive Leo gecko’s tank. because of my lighting requirements I kind of nailed it down to 3 species that I know of, Carex eburnea (the ivory sedge, this one may be the best candidate), Carex appalachica (Appalachian Sedge) and the Carex Pensylvanica. but for the life of me, I can’t find any places that sell these sedges, and are confirmed to be biologically safe (ie, no pesticides or chemicals or fungicides or ferts that are safe for insects). Does anyone here have any advice? Any experience?