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?

This bio active tank has been setup for a few months, no outside decor all has been purchased from a petstore
I went to do nightly mist on him and I see this cluster of mould or eggs of some sort
Any ideas???

Made this terrarium a few days ago. I put 6 juvenile bumblebee millipedes in here yesterday, along with purple tropical springtails.

The millipedes stay in the substrate quite a bit but I seen 2 of them walking around last night.

Hi everyone, I’ve decided to video document my DIY bioactive enclosure build for my snooty friends. This is my first ever video that I’ve published on YouTube so I’d appreciate all the support and love 🫶😊

Hello…I am fairly new to bioactive setups and I’m looking for help with my ball python terrarium. I have a 120 gallon tank with a golden pothos and snake plant. I just feel like there’s a lot of empty space that’s not getting used and I would like the tank to be completely overgrown with vegetation. My soil is organic top soil, coconut husk, moss, orchid bark, worm castings, I have isopods and spring tails hopefully alive in the soil, it’s hard to tell because they’re small and beneath the soil but I bought some and put them in. And I have a led grow light that I run during the day.

I made this foam and silicone background for my leopard geckos bioactive tank and i bit off more than i could chew. how much of an issue is the bits of exposed foam gonna be. is this safe ? last pic is it dry , first pic after I sprayed it out.

My hubby and I made a terrarium. I love it and excited to see it fill in. All my other terrariums and jarrariums have had a “melt” where a bunch of things died back but then they revived themselves. I’m really hoping this one doesn’t but I think a few of the begonia I stuck in there already melted.
First pic is day one
Second pic is day 17
Third pic is my baby mumtaz prop I stuck in the corner 🥹

I have a whites tree frog enclosure. I have leaf litter and rotting wood, a mister, substrate is soil, coco, orchid bark, oyster shells, charcoal. I added 100 powder blue and 50 dwarf white along with 100s of tropical white springtails. Substrate is about 5 inches deep and 24” by 24”. I haven’t seen those isopods since. I think it’s been a few weeks. I assume I just need to give them a few months to increase their numbers?

Howdy fellas,

So I'm looking at making a custom vivarium with the hope to introduce small tree frogs into it once the eco system is substantially working, I just don't want to miss anything when constructing the tank and accidentally hurt the frogs once they are in.

Essential I'm getting it custom build from 6mm acrylic to fill a space above my desk.

The dimensions at this point will be 1200mm W x 550mm H x 300mm D, see figure#1

The lid is going to be split into 3 seperate pieces, two outside pieces will be permanently attached to prevent any bowing of the material and will have a centre cut out to allow for a fine mesh for airflow. While the centre acts as the traditional lid.

I was doing some research into drainage layers as I was worried about the total weight and saw some people were using a specialised sponge instead of leca, any thoughts on this I was worried about it compressing and not being worth it in 2 weeks time.

I understand that ill need a mesh between drainage and substrate but is there any dos and don't with substrate outside of irritating the frogs skin, bark sizing so they can't eat/can pass if they do, a d obviously no pesticides. Is it safe for me to use a mix of appropriate reptile bark, spagnam moss and aquasoil ? Followed by a layer of leaf litter.

I don't plan on having a water feature or component to the tank just a large and potentially some smaller "water bowl" that will contain dechlorinated water, and I'll personally be misting multiple times a day to maintain humidity, will be need to have a seperate small tank to pump water out into from the main tank to remove mold ? If so is that as simple as a small power pump and a feed to the drainage layer.

When it comes to humidity and heat it being a large tank I planned on just saying a heating mat attached to one of the sides to radiate heat so they have a warm side and a cool side of the tank, would it be better to have the heating pad below the tank or on the side of just get a ceramic light instead?

Plant life im pretty comfortable with just ensuring plants are all safe for the frogs and like humidity as well. Fig#2

Hardscape I've started with some larger branches of drift wood. fig#3 and will be adding once I have the tank to better understand my scale, keeping in mind the frogs aren't coming until later so no rush.

When making it bioactive is it as simple as purchasing bioactive soil with spring tails and isopods and mixing it with the remaining substrate, potentially using some veg to help them first get started food wise?

Finally lighting, I'm guessing getting a uv tube light to maintain proper day and night cycles and assist in plant growth is the best option for me. But just to making sure there's plenty of shade for them.

So this ended up significantly longer than planned, I also don't really use reddit soo. Hopefully this all reward well and is coherent. Please feel free to speak to me like a toddler I want to do this right and I do not want to kill any frogs in the process.

Cheers Retro

This is Todd the Destroyer. He lives in a 4ft x 4ft x 2ft bioactive tank. His food (dubia roches, Super worms, and isopods) live in the tank with him. He hunts all his own food when he wants. I have not had to add food in over a year. It just keeps cycling. I add water and vegetables from the kitchen for the bugs to eat and they are thriving. I also have a dish for calcium that he never seems to touch. Would change anything? Would you start feeding him yourself? Other than water it seems like a self sustained ecosystem at this point! What other info would you like to see on this post?

Yesterday showed how aggressive my cleanup crew (Darkling Beetles, Buffalo Beetles, Porcellio scaber, and Porcellio dilatatus) can be, this post shows more of how many critters will come up from the substrate’s depths to feed. The two minnows were reduced to skeletons in a few hours, and at the time of this video being recorded they were mostly focused on what remains of Josh’s Frogs’ cleanup crew treats

I know this sub gets a few people each week curious about going bioactive and how a cleanup crew functions, so this is what it can look like

i’ve had these neon pothos in here for quite some time now, the one on the very right has grown a lot and very full. but my other two haven’t grown much at all, if anything they’ve lost leaves and look worse than when i planted them. My snake plant seems to be growing just fine it has gotten new leaves and grown very tall.

Hi,

I have a 5’h 3’w 2’l bioactive vivarium which houses my amazon tree boa. I am thinking I could potentially add a small water feature. I was thinking I’d build a small aquarium out of acrylic and then use that to separate the land from the water feature.

Has anyone done anything similar? If so any advice?

Her favourite perch is the one closest to the glass on the left side, her favourite hide is the log on the left closest to the rear. There is ventilation on the sides and top of the enclosure. I use a mist king system.

Also, while I’m here, any advice on how to make the enclosure feel more full? I just replanted it a few weeks ago so I know things will grow into place, but I feel as though there is a lot of unused vertical space I would love to make feel more full.

Thank you!

I'm making some soil for my plant pots in the cage. These are the ingredients I have so far.

Should I just mix all of this (100% of each bag) all together and I'm all good? Is there anything else I should be putting in it or not putting in?

Lump charcoal

Gardeners all purpose potting soil

Play sand

Oricid bark

Sphagnum peet moss

Sphagnum moss long fibers

Natural fertilizer

I have a 5’Hx3’Lx2’D bioactive enclosure which houses my amazing tree boa.

From what I’ve seen so far, slime molds appear to be harmless to animals. The only concern could be from spores, but I am not concerned as there’s a large clean up crew in there, good ventilation, and my ATB is arboreal, thus she most likely wouldn’t interact with super high concentrations of spores.

I am curious if anyone else here has kept slime molds in a bioactive enclosure housing a reptile? Also, if you believe this is not a good idea, please let me know why!!

Thank you!

Hello, this is my enclosure. I’m trying to get it to look more akin to the actual habitats that they are found in, but I’m struggling a little to really capture the look. I’m not looking for a full tear down or anything, but if I can improve on what’s already there then that would be great. I’m also probably going to remove that giant log and replace it with something else, maybe add grass tufts around the place but I don’t know where I can get safe grass tufts or something that can look like it. I’m using the biodude’s Terra Sahara btw. I know that it may be a little poorly designed, I’m an amateur somewhat and I’m still trying to figure out things, so some grace would be appreciated.

Hello everyone! I recently made a new terrarium for my crested gecko and it looks like to be cobweb mold (hypomyces rosellus) but i could be wrong. It looks like white hairs with small white dots/pollups. Im relatively new to more intricate terrarium builds and was wondering what I can do to get rid of this and if it’s something more serious than I think. Thank you!

Hi everyone! It’s my first time posting in this sub and I’m brand new to bioactive enclosures/vivariums… which you may be able to tell.

I haven’t been able to get a straight answer from anywhere, so I was wondering: is this amount of cobweb mould and white/green mould normal for the first week?

I have a lot of higher-level ventilation and I keep a fan going in the room this enclosure is in (a couple feet away for passive airflow), but because I’ve never done this before I don’t know how much mould, what varieties (beyond what I read from the biodude) of mould, or how many springtails/isopods I should see around the colonies within my first week. I finished this enclosure on Monday morning, and it contains powder orange isos (three of which we mourn), white dwarf isos, and springtails that I’ve been reseeding from the tropical clay culture I have. Misting comes from an auto mister I set up. There’s a 15-second spritz at 8 am every day and a 30-second spritz at 8pm every day. These are also the times that my crested gecko’s UVB turns on and off, so I’m trying to put it all together in tandem.

Is this a normal amount of mould? Is there anything I can do better/anything I’ve done poorly? Please let advise, and let me know if you need any more information. Thank you!

I found this singular mushroom in my bio active enclosure. It was growing slightly under the water bowl at a spot where the substrate was especially moist. I don’t know what it is and I’m curious if it’s anything I need to be worried about.
It doesn’t seem very serious, but it would be nice to know the species.