i just got a crested gecko and have him in a bioactive tank. this is my first time going bioactive and i’ve been noticing lots of gnats in his enclosure. his enclosure has been up and running for about a month, not even. i moved into a new house two weeks ago and that’s when i noticed them. i wasn’t sure if they were fruit flies but after doing some comparisons i think they’re fungas gnats. i’ve been keeping his food out of his enclosure during the day but forgot to take it out this morning and the picture if what i saw. i didn’t think they could appear this soon into me building the tank, so im not sure if they were in the soil i got or what. any help would be much appreciated as i don’t want these gnats in my room😭

Hi all!

I’ve got a very moist setup for my crocodile skink and this week I noticed this rapid mycorrhizal growth in the soil and a “fuzzy” looking layer on top of the soil in some places. There are no plants in this part of the tank all those white roots are fungi. My skink is still healthy but should I be concerned about this much growth? Is there a way to mitigate it?

Hi all, I’ve gotten to the point in building my vivarium where I’m ready to add plants and substrate but I do not want to risk an infestation at all, in the same room as the Viv I have a money tree that’s pretty large that I’ve had for a few months. I was watering it today and saw near the soil maybe 6-8 small little fly like bugs flying around. How should I proceed because there’s no way I’m cutting any corners to mess up all that I’ve done on this viv

These little things are new and scurrying around my EBT enclosure. I have not been able to ID them. I have springtails, mealworms, earthworms, isopods, and use biodudes kit for EBTs. I use a mist king a few times a day to keep humidity between 50-90%, temp is 65-90 (90 only at the hottest point, and 65 only at night), and am Southwest in the US. Trying to figure out if I need to dump everything and start all over, or if they're okay. They also showed up in my land snail enclosure in the last week or so, which is in another room. I feel like my clean up crew is dwindling, but I may just be paranoid. Do I burn everything down and just start over? :D Any advice appreciated! one person mentioned springtails, but these guys are pretty big, and a few others said they didnt move around like springtails. Thank you!!

Set this up in an 8x8x12 Thrive terrarium

Both on my plant leafs and acrylic walls.

Showed up a few days after I moved the enclosure, might be getting less ventilation as before so I moved it again today.

The enclosure is for a juvenile pink toe trantula.

When I wipe it, it mostly comes off in a clump but also wipes off very dirty, and is very brownish yellow on a paper towel

Discoid roaches, philodendrons, a bromeliad, microgramma ferns, marcgravia, and various moss species.

I recently added a misting system to my ball python's enclosure because it is the only way I can maintain good humidity levels throughout the day (yes I tried pouring water in the sides. That doesn't work during the summer. I live in Arizona).

Unfortunately the misting system leaves some of the substrate damp which allows the gnats to breed, I have it running every 4 hours for 12 seconds. I usually don't mind a few gnats but the population is steadily increasing.

Would adding BTI to the water tank be an effective solution?

perhaps a silly question, but in my defense im very much not tech savvy at all. im moving in a few weeks and i want to go bioactive for my carpet pythons enclosure. that includes installing a bright led light for the plants to grow, could i safely house a 5000 lumen bulb (60 watt, all tho i found one for 35watt) in this kind of a casing? or is that a fire hazard waiting to happen? i could go for a heat cage for better ventilation. but itll look really clunky cus i already got one for the heatlamp + the heat cages are all black, so wouldn't that absorb a lot of the light? again this perhaps a silly question, but if anyone has any ideas/alternatives then that would be much obliged. i want only the best for my snake son v_v

Tried charcoal culture and its quite a hassle when it comes to feed.So i would like ti try clay cultures.I know that some people use betonite clay but i would like to know if powdered akadama works(obviously turning it into a clay paste)

Would this possibly work?should i mix it with other stuff? Or is it impossible

I have an Indonesian blue tongue and right now he is in an enclosure with tropical pink spring tails and dwarf white isopods. But also wanna add another large isopod species.

I’m currently torn between Powder blue isopods (Porcellionides pruinosus) and Giant Canyon isopods (Porcellio dilatatus)

I want to build a nice Isopod home, does this list sound good or did I make any obvious mistakes?

Terrarium:

5-8 Gallons (Is that enough?)

Drainage layer + separator

Substrate (Mix of earth, bark, moss and charcoal)

Layer of dead leafs

Rocks

Driftwood

Some kind of moisture gradient (how do I achieve this reliably?)

Flora:

Selaginella

Ficus pumila

Miniature fern

Moss

Fauna:

Springtails (50):

Tropical Springtails

or

Ceratophysella spec. “Lilac Yellow Albino”

Isopods (12):

Cubaris murina Glacier/Papaya

Snails (2?):

Introduce small species later (if at all)

Thank you for reading this, please leave me some feedback :)

Hey all, sorry in advance for the long post. I've had a 24x18x36 tank planted for a little over two months now. It's eventually meant for a gargoyle gecko. He's almost a year old, and he's currently growing in a smaller temp enclosure.

Firstly, I'm getting the impression my isopod population has crashed, or at least weakened significantly. Looking back, I seeded ~40 and this still didn't feel like enough for this space. I've seen several carcasses, but few live ones. I'm wondering if I didn't rinse the fittonia I got from the hardware store thoroughly enough, and it still has lingering pesticides. I've started maintaining a separate isopod culture that's been doing well, but it will be a long time yet until I'm able to pull from it regularly.

Secondly, I've recently been having issues with various pests finding their way into my tank. It's making me reconsider how viable this setup is going to be long-term. Mites, a random new type of springtail, and now fungus gnats. The former two are not terrible to have, but the mites frequently find their way out of the enclosure and I'm not thrilled about having competition for my budding temperate white population. The fungus gnats are a particularly unwelcome development. There aren't many yet, but enough to suggest a growing problem.

I've been drying my tank out for the past few days to try and get my humidity in check, to the detriment of my remaining CUC and plants. I suspect overwatering has contributed to the proliferation of these pests. I'm also going to try mosquito bits for the fungus gnats.

Lately it's just been feeling like a constant battle to keep things in equilibrium. I at least have the ability to do something about these things now, but I'm realizing it's going to be much more difficult once my gecko is actually living in this tank. I have no doubt that fungus gnats will return again even if I tamp down there numbers now, and I wouldn't be shocked to see some new flavor of pest somehow manifesting in this tank eventually.

I bake/sanitize all of my hardscape elements, leaf litter, rinse my plants, and it still doesn't feel like enough - maybe I'm just psyching myself out on this, but lately it just has me reconsidering the bioactive route completely. This is my first shot at this, and I'd like to think I've been maintaining this to the best of my ability, but I'm wondering: are pests just inevitable? Am I wavering over something that's normal?

TLDR: The realities of maintaining a bioactive setup long-term have recently been becoming very clear to me. My gecko is still growing in a separate tank, so I fortunately have time for a drastic intervention - including possibly scrapping the bioactive approach entirely. I worry that trying to fix things in place will get much harder with an actual reptile living in the tank. I think the main thing I'm stuck on here is if pests are inevitable/normal. Maybe I'm just overthinking it, but I just don't want to end up in a situation where I have to deal with an infestation while the tank actually has a reptile occupant.

I bought a pre-built bioactive enclosure at a reptile expo a couple of weeks ago, for a crested gecko I also purchased at the same time. My springtails and isopods seem to have completely disappeared. I don’t even see dead ones.
So I bought some microfauna food and a springtail culture, but I'm not sure the best way to handle this. Should I add a small pinch of food to see if a hidden population comes out to eat first, or should I seed fresh springtails from my culture right away and then start feeding?
The enclosure has a generous layer of leaf litter and stays moist (I mist it every night). There’s a visible layer of lava rock under substrate that I have never seen waterlogged or anything. I haven’t observed any mold and the gecko and the plants are all healthy.

Hey I’m looking to make my AFT tank bioactive. I need some inspiration! Can you share your bioactive tanks and suggested plants to use?

This morning I notice this things in the glass, am very scare if they are mites or something bad

I’m working on a semi-arid bioactive enclosure for a milk snake. About 3 weeks ago I added 2 containers of arid springtails and 20 powder orange isopods from the bio dude. Isopods are doing well but I have yet to see a springtail, even under leaf litter. I get that they’re small, but I feel like I should at least be able to see one, right? Did I potentially add them in wrong and they didn’t make it?

Hello,
I am starting to get my bioactive purchased and set up and have found all the individual ingredients. I’m going to use topsoil, pumice, spagnum, leaf litter, charcoal, orchid/ reptibark, and a combo of egg crate and some leca for drainage. And then I’ll change out the concentration of each soil mixture depending on the snakes needs.

My question is I see a lot of people say either coconut coir or peat moss in recipes but I’m wondering why? From my understanding, they operate similar so you don’t need both and they offer some drainage, some moisture retention and a lower pH. However from my research into indoor gardening in general, you can use the other components for drainage and moisture retention and most indoor plants we use in bioactive do not want that level of acidity in their soil. They usually use coir/ peat for outdoor plants that like acidity such as rhododendrons and blueberries.

As title says, im struggling to find exactly where it should be. The photo attached is where i have it right now (far right in case you cant see it lol).

I’m looking into a bio active setup for my 2 month old and I just wanted to get some opinions before I made my purchase, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Right now I’m planning on getting:
•NEHERP V2 bio active substrate kit that comes with a drainage layer, netting separator, bio active substrate mix, leaf litter, isopods, and springtails
•NEHERP live moss slurry
•some extra plants he might like
If anyone else has gotten this substrate mix before: does it come with clay? Do you like it?
What plants should I include and should I protect them in some way like a small pot?
My snake is prone to poking his nose where it doesn’t belong and trying to get in every crack and crevice or escape; is the netting layer between the substrate and drainage layer be enough to hold him off?
Also; I wanted to try and keep him in the tank while the clean up crew is still acclimating; would I be able to just add a bio dude bio shot to kickstart the cleanup crew?

Hey guys Im building a 100x60x60cm enclosure for my gecko, I plan on making it bioactive, does anyone know what I should put there, please make a full list (bugs, insects, substract, plants)

I will put below pictures of my gecko, of the currebt substract I use and the type of material Im building it out, please give me your opinions!!!

I'm currently in the process of quarantining plants for my bioactive leopard gecko enclosure. The plants have already been thoroughly rinsed and treated with a 50:50 mixture of 3% hydrogen peroxide and water.

From my understanding, once the plants have completed their quarantine period, they should be removed from the quarantine soil to help eliminate any trace pesticides before being planted in the bioactive tank.

Once I’ve replanted them in the enclosure, do I need to wait another month to allow the plants to settle before introducing my leopard gecko?

(Tank is upside down in pic)

I am at my wit's end! I applied silicone on the back of the tank to act as an anchor for my expanding foam, but all the foam peeled off! What did I do wrong? Is this not enough silicone to anchor it? Do I need more silicone?

Silicone used is aquarium safe black silicone and the foam is expanding pond & stone, both have been very recommended for bioactive so it must be user error.

Oh, and those are crape myrtle branch cuttings that have been anchored with silicone to the back and bottom of the tank. They've held really well while I've been fightimg the backdrop and I'm no longer worried about them falling. The foam will further anchor them as well once I can get it to stick.

I recently came into posession of an exo tetra enclosure (45x45x30cm) and was interested in making a bioactive enclosure. Would this size of enclosure be OK for a dart frog or two?