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  1. #1
    BPnet Veteran BallPythonWannaBe's Avatar
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    Thoughts on Bioactive enclosures for reptiles/snakes?

    I have recently stumbled onto bioactive setups during my searches for a new addition to my pets I would love to hear peoples thoughts on bioactive enclosures for reptiles (Crested Geckos, Gargoyles, ect.) and more so for snakes (Ball Pythons especially!). I know that Ball's are tough on their decor since they are so heavy bodied but I found a site that sells plants based on animal species so its easier to find hardy and safe plants for a specific animal. I suppose that bioactive enclosures wouldn't really have a ton of benifits for the animal and would mostly be for the enjoyment of the keeper. And if anyone on here has bioactive enclosures please share!
    "It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live"
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  3. #2
    BPnet Veteran BallPythonWannaBe's Avatar
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    Re: Thoughts on Bioactive enclosures for reptiles/snakes?

    No one?
    "It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live"
    -J.K Rowling Sorcerer's Stone
    Long time no see, back at it again in my white vans.

  4. #3
    BPnet Veteran Ax01's Avatar
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    i built a bioactive 12x12x18 for my Phants but they're tiny little geckos like the size of your thumb so they don't really trample plants like what i imagine a BP would. i was meaning to get around to putting together a DIY thread for it and there should be ideas that u can apply to a bioactive snake enclosure. anyways a few quick things i've noticed, observed or learned...

    1. u will not be able to provide belly heat. heat will need to come from above - either a bulb, CHE, RHP, etc. i guess if u want the more natural setup, this is more natural as the sun radiates its (light) and heat from above.

    2. u will need drainage. so if u have a bioactive that means it will have plants and plants need watering. a way to drain excess water is a must. it's important for the plants and to maintain humidity and control mold/mildew, etc.

    3. glass enclosure is preferred but i think u can get away w/ a nice sealed transparent plastic/PVC/plexiglass, etc. like an aquarium, it needs to be able to retain water at the base. the glass also helps to measure water levels.

    4. bugs. be ready for bugs. even the helpful springtails and isopods still make my skin crawl but they are necessary for bioactive enclosures.

    5. my Phants leave teeny tiny poops and urates that the bugs can take care of. (actually i prefer to remove the urates i find) but there is still some maintenance for larger animals and the waste they leave behind.

    6. don't go overboard w/ plants IMO. i did and i think it made it makes it harder to find crickets. i image for a BP, u don't want them destroying your investment. just enough clutter for security and decor.

    good luck and i hope to see a thread on your bioactive build.
    RIP Mamba
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    Wicked ones now on IG & FB!6292

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  6. #4
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    I recently converted my ball python's cage to bioactive. The big impetus for me to do it was that we had a really hot summer and I have no A/C; so using deeper soil with burrows dug into it gives my snake places to retreat to that stay at least somewhat cooler than before.

    It hasn't been established for long enough for me to feel like I can give a complete report on its success, but so far I'm pleased. I didn't have a spare vivarium to let everything grow in for months before putting the snake in; I just rearranged his tank and then put him back into it. So it will definitely be awhile before the CUC (cleanup crew) has multiplied to where it can handle snake poop and shed skin, and I expect to still be spot cleaning for a good while. But other people who have bio setups for ball pythons say that once they're well established the CUC really can take care of that stuff, as long as you feed the CUC in between poops since ball pythons don't poop often enough to keep them fed.

    Some of the plants had been in there before in containers, and I grew the others in pots to get them well established before subjecting them to nightly trampling. I have spider plant, pothos, wandering jew, and peace lilies in there. The wandering jew has definitely gotten snaked on and pieces broken off, but other parts of it are growing well and it bounces back pretty well. Pothos is basically the universal un-killable house and vivarium plant. The spider plant has lots of broken-over leaves, but it also bounces back and grows new leaves and seems happy. I'd like to get some other kind of low creeping ground cover type thing at some point too.

    I've put in springtails and several kinds of isopods; we'll see which isopods eventually breed. That will take awhile though, so we'll see how it goes. I do kinda get a kick out of the variety of different colorful cool isopods you can get, though!

    Since I did the conversion, the humidity has been staying pretty steadily high even though the surface is dry, although the real test will be how it does in the winter. I expect it to keep the humidity stable more easily though. The other thing that remains to be seen is heat, as my house gets pretty cold. I had been using a UTH on the cool side to keep the temperature from dropping too far, but that won't do much now. I have a RHP as a main heat source. I've added a small fan inside the enclosure to help circulate the air over to the cool side and keep it warmer over there, which seems to be working although again it hasn't really gotten cold yet.

    My snake took the conversion pretty well; I put most of his same furnishings back in most of the same places to help him adjust. He's been in and out of his new burrows and after a few days of upheaval he went back to his old habits.

    I did put a thin drainage layer in mine, although some people don't. The drainage layer is basically insurance against over-watering. I have fluorescent UVB lights which provide enough light for the plants, although at some point I do want to add supplementary light for the plants that are in the shade of the larger platform.

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  8. #5
    BPnet Veteran Spoons's Avatar
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    Re: Thoughts on Bioactive enclosures for reptiles/snakes?

    There's an awesome Facebook page just for this purpose! It's called Reptiles and Amphibians Bioactive Setups I believe. They have a ton of files with information and how-tos regarding everything you could ever want to know and a lot of really knowledgeable people there. I've just got all the stuff I need to make a bio setup, I just have to get the time to put one together!

    Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk

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  10. #6
    BPnet Veteran Ax01's Avatar
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    Re: Thoughts on Bioactive enclosures for reptiles/snakes?

    Quote Originally Posted by Coluber42 View Post
    I recently converted my ball python's cage to bioactive. The big impetus for me to do it was that we had a really hot summer and I have no A/C; so using deeper soil with burrows dug into it gives my snake places to retreat to that stay at least somewhat cooler than before.

    It hasn't been established for long enough for me to feel like I can give a complete report on its success, but so far I'm pleased. I didn't have a spare vivarium to let everything grow in for months before putting the snake in; I just rearranged his tank and then put him back into it. So it will definitely be awhile before the CUC (cleanup crew) has multiplied to where it can handle snake poop and shed skin, and I expect to still be spot cleaning for a good while. But other people who have bio setups for ball pythons say that once they're well established the CUC really can take care of that stuff, as long as you feed the CUC in between poops since ball pythons don't poop often enough to keep them fed.

    Some of the plants had been in there before in containers, and I grew the others in pots to get them well established before subjecting them to nightly trampling. I have spider plant, pothos, wandering jew, and peace lilies in there. The wandering jew has definitely gotten snaked on and pieces broken off, but other parts of it are growing well and it bounces back pretty well. Pothos is basically the universal un-killable house and vivarium plant. The spider plant has lots of broken-over leaves, but it also bounces back and grows new leaves and seems happy. I'd like to get some other kind of low creeping ground cover type thing at some point too.
    what are the dimensions for your bioactive BP enclosure?

    Quote Originally Posted by Coluber42 View Post
    I've put in springtails and several kinds of isopods; we'll see which isopods eventually breed. That will take awhile though, so we'll see how it goes. I do kinda get a kick out of the variety of different colorful cool isopods you can get, though!
    i know i didn't realize this was a thing and it's pretty neat. i bought regular ol' Isopods but this lady i bought them from had like 40 different morphs.


    Quote Originally Posted by Coluber42 View Post
    Since I did the conversion, the humidity has been staying pretty steadily high even though the surface is dry, although the real test will be how it does in the winter. I expect it to keep the humidity stable more easily though. The other thing that remains to be seen is heat, as my house gets pretty cold. I had been using a UTH on the cool side to keep the temperature from dropping too far, but that won't do much now. I have a RHP as a main heat source. I've added a small fan inside the enclosure to help circulate the air over to the cool side and keep it warmer over there, which seems to be working although again it hasn't really gotten cold yet.
    what does the UTH heat? does it really have an impact and what are your temps reading? i had a Coxi in a covered lid-on tub with thick Eco Earth subtrate. i put it on a regulated UTH and the UTH didn't warm the substrate all that much, but it created heavy condensation and humidity from the moisture in the substrate. i imagine it would be worse if there's a drainage layer w/ water at the bottom of a tank.

    Quote Originally Posted by Coluber42 View Post
    My snake took the conversion pretty well; I put most of his same furnishings back in most of the same places to help him adjust. He's been in and out of his new burrows and after a few days of upheaval he went back to his old habits.

    I did put a thin drainage layer in mine, although some people don't. The drainage layer is basically insurance against over-watering. I have fluorescent UVB lights which provide enough light for the plants, although at some point I do want to add supplementary light for the plants that are in the shade of the larger platform.
    how did u reinforce the walls of the burrows? did u bury a hide box or something?

    it sounds like u have a very cool bioactive rig. i would to see pix and know more details.
    RIP Mamba
    ----------------

    Wicked ones now on IG & FB!6292

  11. #7
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    Re: Thoughts on Bioactive enclosures for reptiles/snakes?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ax01 View Post
    what are the dimensions for your bioactive BP enclosure?
    Non-standard dimensions because it's a custom build, but it's PVC and 44"x20" floor space, 24" high. It has two large platforms at different heights, and a RHP mounted underneath one of them, which helps heat more evenly and creates an additional warm zone on the platform above the panel in the winter (not so much in the summer, when the panel doesn't come on much). There are also UVB lights up top, and I recently added a fan inside (above the upper platform) to circulate air and help the heat get to the far side. The RHP is the main heat source, and the thermostat probe for it hangs down to just a bit above the ground under the panel.

    i know i didn't realize this was a thing and it's pretty neat. i bought regular ol' Isopods but this lady i bought them from had like 40 different morphs.

    Yeah, it's crazy. I have four species of isopods plus some mix of springtails in there now. Some people go totally nuts on the variety of CUC.... I probably won't venture too far down that rabbit hole anytime soon though. I might add compost worms at some point though.

    what does the UTH heat? does it really have an impact and what are your temps reading? i had a Coxi in a covered lid-on tub with thick Eco Earth subtrate. i put it on a regulated UTH and the UTH didn't warm the substrate all that much, but it created heavy condensation and humidity from the moisture in the substrate. i imagine it would be worse if there's a drainage layer w/ water at the bottom of a tank.
    More complicated stuff about construction, but the whole thing is built around the bottom of a large plastic bin, so the substrate essentially is in a tray that's removable and leak proof. The UTH is between the bottom of the tray and the PVC viv bottom. At the moment, it's not doing much of anything. Before this, I had thinner coco substrate and the UTH was just boosting the temperature on the cool side during the coldest part of the year, since my living room gets down below 60° in winter at times. Without it, even with the RHP set so that the floor under it was around 85 and the platform above it was 90, the far corners of the viv would be 70 according to my temp gun. We'll see what happens come winter. But I figure that if the UTH is set for 77 or 80 or so at the bottom of the drainage layer, even the drainage layer is still cooler than it was when the whole house was 90 !@#$-ing degrees. We'll see how it goes in the winter. I have guesses, but it's a whole lot more thermal mass than before and a much thicker insulating layer. I do suspect the UTH will make a difference for the burrow on that side, since it's pretty deep and the room temperature will be 15-20 degrees colder than what the UTH is set to. Oh, the joys of keeping a snake in a house that swings nearly 40 degrees over the year.

    how did u reinforce the walls of the burrows? did u bury a hide box or something?
    One of them is a half-buried Exo Terra hide that he had before, the other is a half-buried cork flat. So far he's used the plastic one, but not the cork one. But he takes a pretty long time to warm up to new things, so that's not surprising.

    it sounds like u have a very cool bioactive rig. i would to see pix and know more details.
    Thanks I'll try and post some pics. They never really show what it's really like to my satisfaction, but oh well.

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    Re: Thoughts on Bioactive enclosures for reptiles/snakes?


    I can’t figure out how to put more than one picture via tapatalk, but here’s one anyway. The curtain overhang thing in front is part of the insulating panels I have around the whole cage. The panels that insulate the sides are held on with velcro, and they can be peeled back to expose the vents (which also have sliding PVC covers) so I can adjust the insulation and ventilation between winter and summer.
    The curtain thing does give that top platform a little more privacy for basking on, too.


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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    BPnet Veteran Ax01's Avatar
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    ^ wow that's like a Willy Wonka bioactive! and i mean that in the best way possible. it's def a cool and unique and i'm glad that it works. where did u get such colorful PVC pipes BTW?
    RIP Mamba
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    Re: Thoughts on Bioactive enclosures for reptiles/snakes?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ax01 View Post
    ^ wow that's like a Willy Wonka bioactive! and i mean that in the best way possible. it's def a cool and unique and i'm glad that it works. where did u get such colorful PVC pipes BTW?
    Thanks
    The colorful PVC is from www.formufit.com. Sort of silly, but fun. The plastic tubes are these: https://www.amazon.com/Ware-Manufacturing-Tunnels-Small-Inches/dp/B001LUMU9M/
    The top platform has a removable tray that I built out of smaller-thickness PVC to fit the space, which is determined by the size of the RHP. There's some insulation and an air gap so the surface of the top platform doesn't get any hotter than a hot spot should, even at times when the panel is running at higher power. The lower platform is just a shallow plastic bin. Both can hold substrate and hides and are removable. The snake definitely makes full use of everything in there.

    The bioactive substrate is new; the rest of it has been up and running like this for a couple of years and works pretty well.

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