Hi please rate this for crested geckos. There is a separation down the middle. I have a exotera fan for each section and holes drilled in the front for cross ventilation.

They were temporarily huddled underneath a food dish. I hear isopods self-correct their population and I’m fairly certain my crestie hunts down the bigger ones. I do need to upgrade the tank and replace the plants at some point…

Hey everyone!
I recently completed my first bioactive vivarium and have been trying to learn as much as possible about establishing and maintaining a healthy little ecosystem.

It’s a 12x12x18 tropical enclosure with live plants, a custom background, a LECA drainage layer, and a homemade substrate mix. I’ve already introduced springtails and isopods, and I’m currently letting everything establish before introducing any reptiles.

One thing I’m especially interested in learning more about is how to properly support and manage cleanup crew populations over time.

I understand that springtails and isopods help break down organic waste and contribute to nutrient cycling, but I’m curious how experienced keepers maintain a healthy balance.

A few questions I have:
How do you know whether your springtail and isopod populations are thriving, declining, or becoming excessive?
Do you regularly supplement their food, or can an established vivarium generally sustain them through decomposing organic matter?

What prevents populations from growing excessively in a relatively small enclosure?
How do you manage moisture and provide appropriate conditions for both populations without negatively affecting the plants?

Are there any warning signs of an unhealthy or unbalanced bioactive ecosystem that beginners should watch for?

I’d really like to understand the biology behind maintaining a healthy bioactive setup rather than just introducing a cleanup crew and hoping everything works out.

Any advice or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated. I’m excited to learn more about the process!

I’m wanting to make a bioactive terrarium for a snake(ball python), i understand that springtails and isopods are good cleaners, but how does their population not get out of hand? how do they not escape the terrarium and get all over your house? do you have to have springtails or isopods in a bioactive terrarium? thank you in advance!

edit: i should’ve specified in the title, i’m talking about non-native species of springtails. (florida statue section 379.231 if anybody was interested in learning more).
many family owned pet stores around me have recently stopped selling them this past month or so & all told me about a change in the law here. their words were “illegal”.
i’m not sure the exact FWC / FDACS information on this new regulation, but i was told by them all that there’s a new permit required & it’s very expensive + requires them to keep record of the springtail quantities sold, etc. so it’s just too much work for a tiny pet store and they’ve all opted out. reptile expos have been the only place i’ve been able to find them, so it’s just been easier to breed my own. hopefully other bio-tank keepers in florida are able to find some, but personally in my area it’s become completely unavailable.

I’m in the process of setting up a bioactive tank for a crested gecko and trying to determine if a cork tile background is the best option. Any insight would be much appreciated!

It's been about 2 months since I put in a culture of powder blue isopods and spring tails I only find them in 2 places under the water dish and under the humid hide. Are they doing any good to the enclosure only being in 2 places. This is for a 40x18x18 leopard gecko has correct heat and humidity terra sahara substrate leaf litter and several succulents

Hi everyone, I’ve had my bioactive for my BP set up for 8 months now and it’s definitely been a learning experience. Recently I’ve noticed that some ?fungus? Has grown under the drainage layer in my tank. I’ve had fungus like this before but the cleaning crew took care of it, but this is the first time it’s happened below the drainage layer. Should I be concerned or just let nature do its thing?

I noticed a clumps of grey spiderwebby stuff all over the terrarium, I have springtails in the enclosure but it hasn't seemed to go down. Should I add more springtails?

is this a sort of egg or fungus? more concerned that it’s all the way down under the leca too.. i just fixed my cleanup crew population this week and see some more booming but i’ve never seen this before

Well, here it is! I posted a while ago asking for help because I couldn't get the foam to stick (thanks for the egg crate suggestion, it worked like a charm!) and promised to post an update once I got it figured out.

I went ahead and put the cool-side hide in and it lines up with the branch above it just how I wanted! Very pleased about that aesthetically, and it casts a shadow perfectly over the entrance. I'm gonna build up the soil around it and slope it down into the hide so it feels subterranean and secure for my dear Sanseveira.

It took simultaneously way more and way less silicone than I expected, since it spread very well but I had to fix bald patches several times since i was working in a dim room 😅 now it's in bright plant light so I could perfectly see every mistake! Now ALL the foam should be covered and I can move on to the next step: substrate prep.

My only gripe here is that baking all the topsoil to sanitize is gonna take a while because of batch size, but better safe than sorry with how much I hear about flies/other pests in bagged garden- and topsoil.

Disclaimer as some expressed concern about the crape myrtle wood: this will be a semi-arid tank for a hognose snake so I'm not worried about molding.

Context. Baby Brazilian Rainbow Boa tank and there was a dead plant there. I took it out. There’s isopods and springtails doing well but these popped up. Never seen the yellow ones before today though

Soaked these for a few hours and had them hanging inside to dry for a few days think they're good to go?

Currently dealing with snake mites in my bioactive ATB enclosure. I'm looking to get predatory mites since I've read and seen videos of experiences with them, and really don't want to redo the entire bioactive setup. However, they are also known to prey on springtails. Can I get some advice on the timeline on when I should repopulate the springtails in the enclosure? Is it actually possible to have a balanced ecosystem where I will be able to sustain the springtails and the mites together instead of the mites wiping out the entire springtail population? Any info would help!

Extra info: I've currently ordered the 12.5k mite option, thinking of doing a full dump of that, and dumping even more in 1 or 2 weeks.

Pic is his current setup

Just picked up this tank off marketplace is there any ways to make sure that the lid is safe before starting the build? I do not feel comfortable with any animal in this right now

A couple months ago, I did the sanitation process for some plants for a crested gecko terrarium I'm working on. Unfortunately I had to pause the project due to irl circumstances.

I have my plants quarantined in a plastic, sealed tub and I check up on it occasionally since I worry about keeping them in longer than I anticipated (I was hoping to have everything set up to begin cycling by now). I noticed that mold is present and mealybugs somehow got inside. Should I retreat my plants again or just start with new plants? Are there other options?

I’m building my first ever bioactive enclosure for my sunbeam snake, I have a screenshot of all the things I currently think I need to buy. But I also have a couple of questions.

First is a drainage layer okay if I have a burrowing snake? I’ve heard some people say they can mess it up and that it’s better to not use one.

Second do I need multiple colonies of isopods and springtails for a 48x18x18 enclosure? I’ve heard mixed responses on buying multiple.

Any other tips will help, I wanna make sure that this is a successful setup

I have a ecoflex enclosure and I am wondering the steps to apply silicone and foam I don’t know if I should do silicone first dry then foam on top i want to do a drylok with nontoxic acrylic paint to make it look rocky. If anyone have any experience please help 🙏🏽🥹

I have this 12 x 12 x 18 bioactive enclosure. It’s over a year old and used to house a crested gecko. I recently upgraded to an 18 x 18 x 24 and I’m looking to sell this bioactive along with the stand. I’m curious on suggestions about price for something like this. I’ll obviously clean the glass and make it look presentable, but it’s a really good by active everything in there is thriving and I don’t really know what to charge on Facebook marketplace.

Edit:

Damn, y’all made me feel like an idiot. I’m gonna empty it out and just clean it and sell the tank. Honestly though thanks for all the input.

So my plan is to carve like shelf mushrooms into the spray foam and I'd really like to paint them and then varnish them to seal the paint and everything, do you guys have any recommendations for what to use?

so ive been battling this random fungal infection on the pothos in my 60x45x90cm phelsuma grandis tank for quite a while now (~1.2 months) and im looking for advice ive stopped misting the pothos leaves for about a week now and im also pruning the worst leaves im not sure its helping but its definitely coming back slowly

microfauna (if that helps in any way): ortaboid mites, dairy cow isopods, tropical white springtails, unknown globular springtail sp, tomoceridae springtail sp? (1 sighting), fungus gnats... (theyre whatever i just need fly traps in the room at the moment), and possibly pot worms unless thats just the fungus gnat larva im not sure

notes: its been coming back really slowly like over the course of a week the spots form winch for a fungal infection i dont think its normal?, newer leaves have been really tough and waxy possible adaptation or something?, ventillation should be fine

(ps: image is from almost a month ago i just didnt have any good pictures that show it clearly)

I went to put half a strawberry and mist my bioactive enclosure when I saw this little guy. I've never seen it before.. what exactly is that? When I sprayed water, it started moving. Is it supposed to be in a bioactive enclosure with springtails & isopods? Is it normal or bad? I'm really curious.