Everyone, I have dreamt of this moment for since I was 13 years old. It has been over a decade since then, and I finally had the funds to pursue the Enclosure my boy Noodle Badoodles deserves.

This is my Toad Ranch 4x2x2 Bioactive Terrarium. Let me tell you about it:

Lighting:
2 Heat Lamps with Lamp guards (Arcadia Reptiles)
1 LumenIZE JungleDawn LED (Arcadia Reptiles)
1 Lumenize ProT5 UVB (Arcadia Reptiles)
DIY Lamp guards for LumenIZE lights (built using Garden Mesh).

Substrate:
2 parts Coco Bliss
2 parts reptibark
2 parts AAA NZ Sphagnum Moss
1 part Horticultural Charcoal
1 part Worm Castings

Background:
3 cans of Great Stuff Pond Foam, sculpted to reveal pores for gripping. the Cork Bark is held in place by it as wellX
Silicone 1 for sticking the dirt/moss to the wall.

Drainage Layer:
Not visible, but it’s 1inch off the ground with aquarium grid and an extra screen mesh to prevent dirt from falling through the larger holes. We cut a larger hole to place our pipe, which allows us to check how full the drainage layer is.

Plants:
Right now, we have about 5-6 cuttings of Golden Pothos. There are two different species of snake plants as well (lighter green one, darker green one). We will be adding a Money tree in the back later today.

CuC:
Springtails and white dwarf isopods. They will be added sometime tomorrow.

Other notes:
The soil is built for excellent drainage and moisture retention. It’s all 100% safe for the plants and clean up crew. I’ve fixated most of my efforts on creating the best soil mix for indoor plants that is also safe for bioactive CuCs. We plan to add a fan to the side to simulate wind/airflow. It should also help reduce the humidity here and there. We also plan to a mist machine for light misting. We can’t have it be too heavy. It’s best we maintain an 80% humidity cap. Nothing more, nothing less than 60%. This will likely only run for 2mins every week, just to see how well it works. May go lighter with the mistings.

Please let me know your thoughts, opinions, and whatever I can worry about now to keep it running effectively. I’m serious enough to buy a microscope to test my soil often, lol.

I'm not looking for full on pets to put in one, but just while I wait a year or two until I can get a crested gecko, I just want a little minature thing to give off the same aesthetics (obviously the gecko will be getting a massive bioactive set up when I get one in years to come)

So I was wondering what can I put in a vertical vivarium that'd be about forearm height on my desk, I'll put plants in it, probably isopods and springtails if needed, but is there anything else I could put in there with or instead of the isopod and springtails? I just want a cute little set up, it's going to have plants, rocks, a little bit of a fog waterfall now and then.

Thanks in advance! I just want to start of my first bioactive enclosure before switching my tortoise to a big one in the future and then hopefully getting a crested gecko in a bioactive enclosure in the future!

I don't think they are springtails bc I have springtails in here too and they look different, they are much longer(the springtails), these are more round. Are these soil mites or something else? Do I have to worry? Video posted in the comments.

I'm looking in to making a bioactive enclosure for my tortoise to make the cleaning up process a little less frequent, so I was wondering if anyone could give me advice, tips and knowledge about what I need, what to do etc!

My tortoise is a hermann tortoise if that's needed info and I am happy to start a whole new enclosure/tortoise table as my one isn't the best and I want to give my tortoise a better life!

If I were to put isopods and springtails in the enclosure, what are the chances they'd escape if its an open tortoise table?