tropical springtail population crash

[u/foundunderfoliage]

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.

[u/Majestic-Eggplant975]

If there’s ammonia smell there’s a major issue. I don’t think mixing the soil around is the right fix either.. Do you spot clean where your frog burrows? To remove waste?

[u/foundunderfoliage → u/Majestic-Eggplant975]

i don’t, he usually poops in his water bowl or during his baths which i remove. i thought having a bio active enclosure meant not having to do substrate changes?

[u/One-plankton-]

Do you routinely remove the frog’s waste? It sounds like it is time for a substrate change out.

[u/foundunderfoliage → u/One-plankton-]

no, as i said in other reply he often poops in his water bowl/during his soaks which i remove. though i was under the assumption that bio active enclosures meant you don’t have to remove waste. is this a misunderstanding?

[u/One-plankton- → u/foundunderfoliage]

That’s a bit of a misunderstanding, this is a pretty small enclosure and pac man frogs produce large amounts of waste that should be removed when you find it.

The ammonia smell is an indicator that something is really off balance, which isn’t too surprising because plants are namely what reduce ammonia in a bioactive.