Desert Bio-Active

[Prognathodon]

As mentioned in my thread about converting a 75-gallon aquarium, I’m starting my bio-active adventure with something a little more restrained - a 16” x 16” x 12” Exo-Terra style enclosure for one of my male sand boas.

The BioDude sells a desert kit, including succulents, but other sources say that succulents do badly in terraria, and other than Sansiveria, I don’t see much in the way of succulents at NE Herp or Glass Box Tropicals. I was going to poach from my succulent garden at work, but ended up getting some new ones last week that I have no attachment to and so I’m willing to sacrifice.

After looking at The BioDude and NE Herp, I decided to go with NE Herp’s supplies, augmented by Glass Box Tropicals, who are closer for shipping. I also decided to lighten up the enclosure by using a Matala pond filter as a drainage layer (BioDude used it in a video, has a very similar filter material for sale).

Tapatalk has been flaky and not allowing me to add additional images to a post without saving then editing to add another, so this might get broken up into a bunch of posts.

Anyhoo...

My springtails, dwarf isopods, and leaf litter arrived from Glass Box on Tuesday, the drainage layer arrived yesterday, and yesterday at lunch I went to Home Depot for clear acrylic to supplement the height of the litter dam on the enclosure, as it isn’t as deep as I’d like.

This picture shows the rigidity of the filter material (found on Amazon):



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[Prognathodon]

Drainage layer marked and ready for cutting. Notice the big yellow safety ruler, which is steel, with a cutting edge that’s about an 18” off the surface thanks to the non-skid material on the bottom of the ruler. I also have a couple short aluminum ones. I like the steel one best because it’s heavy, so it stays where you put it better than the aluminum ones. That hand guard is sooooo nice. If you cut a lot of stuff, you want one!

The filter material cut easily with the utility knife, a couple passes against the ruler, then I opened up the cut and finished it off. Looking at the edge I’d say the stuff is usually cut with a hot cutter. I cut it a little too long at first and had to take off about a quarter-inch, which was a pain, as the stuff isn’t completely rigid.

To get a single piece of the material big enough for the enclosure would have been stupidly expensive and left me with a lot of leftover, so I cut about a 1” strip to fill in the gap in width. That left about a 1” x 1” empty area at the corner.




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[Prognathodon]

Per NE Herp’s suggestion, I put a tube down through/past the drainage layer, so I can siphon excess water out with small tubing if necessary. I didn’t have 3/8” tubing handy, but I did have 1/2” PVC. I cut a piece to length, and took a 45-ish-degree bevel off the end, so it wouldn’t sit completely tight to the floor and make it hard for water to get into the drainage riser. My saw of choice is a Japanese-style saw, which cuts on the pull stroke. I usually use a pipe cutter for PVC, but they’re buried in the workshop side of the basement, due to making a path for a new washing machine. The saw, OTOH, was out and available.




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[Alter-Echo]

Sedum and ice plants do well in arid terrariums, but most others do not. Either way, you will need pretty intense lighting to keep them alive.

[Prognathodon]

Sedum and ice plants do well in arid terrariums, but most others do not. Either way, you will need pretty intense lighting to keep them alive.

The light is a very bright aquarium LED, that shouldn’t be a problem. My initial plants are aloes, which for me are nigh-on unkillable, but if those poop out I can get some sedums and ice plants and re-plant.


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[Prognathodon]

My initial plan was to run the supplemental litter dam all the way to the floor of the enclosure, but I cut the drainage layer a little too tightly, and didn’t want to trim it again. But it turned out for the best anyway, as the door jamb meant I needed to shim the litter dam. I got lucky again, in that the acrylic was a good thickness, and I cut them out of scrap from the litter dam.

I bought this cutter for rigid plastics. It worked, but not any better than a utility knife. Score score score score score some more and more and more and eventually snap.

The litter dam, shims, and drainage riser are held in place with Lexel left over from a batch of AP cages. I am not good with silicone, my hands were coated. I didn’t know where the Goo Gone was, but olive oil followed by soap and water did the trick - the Lexel tube said citrus-based cleaners or mineral spirits. I know Goo Gone is oily, so I figured I’d try olive oil before turning to mineral spirits.

Everything in place, after this picture was taken I filled the space around the drainage riser with drainage layer trimmings:





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[Prognathodon]

Front view. The drainage riser is in as the viv. will be sitting on a shelving unit, so front access is easier. I’ll probably plug the top of the riser so there are no exploring accidents - sand boas *will* climb! The round area on the left with the bright green fabric has a plastic plug for a cord race, but when we had a baby snake in the enclosure we added the fabric to prevent escapes. The “Wonambi, 80-95” label refers to a previous inhabitant, the low-end ambient temperature, and the max hot-spot temperature targets for her.



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[Prognathodon]

Drainage riser clamped lightly in place for the night. Bonus Disapproving Pippin disapproving from a damp towel where I spilled a glass of water. I’m not sure if the damp towel was cooler than the dry floor, or if he was doing the cat-like “it’s taller than the floor” thing.



I’ll probably cover the third side of the enclosure with more aquarium background. In the previous use that side was next to another enclosure, so I left the adjacent sides uncovered. My sand boa is currently in another identical enclosure, so once the plants and bugs settle in, I can just move him and the top from that enclosure, which already has his RHP mounted to it, over to this one.

That’s the infrastructure done, tonight or tomorrow I get to finish putting it all together and add the buggies! Whee!


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[Prognathodon]

Oops, forgot the picture of the cutting tool:



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[Apiratenamedjohn]

looks good so far, can't wait to see the finished product. I've always wondered what a sand boas bioactive viv would look like.