Wanting to go bioactive

[nikkubus]

I'd steer clear of most lights meant for plants because of the brightness and heat. Even a 15w led (~100w equivalent) is a lot brighter and hotter than I would trust for a BP and plastic tub. Some of the really cheapy led gooseneck ones like 10-20$ range that are meant to just be spotlights really close down to young plants might be low enough wattage to be okay.

[Neko_snake]

I'd steer clear of most lights meant for plants because of the brightness and heat. Even a 15w led (~100w equivalent) is a lot brighter and hotter than I would trust for a BP and plastic tub. Some of the really cheapy led gooseneck ones like 10-20$ range that are meant to just be spotlights really close down to young plants might be low enough wattage to be okay.

Makes sense. I have some low watt led lights in there for now. It doesn't produce much heat at all. I'm going to see how the plants and my snake does in that then figure something else if it doesn't work.

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[TofuTofuTofu]

There is a nice post on vivarium lighting at NEherp, but it's quite involved and hard to get through if you don't enjoy reading technical stuff. I will try to just explain what I've done with my environments below.

I have a 6500k, 34" T8 fluorescent bulb in my desert terrarium; the terrarium is 18" high and the light is probably like 12"-14" from my plants as seedlings, getting closer as they grow more. I have it on a 13-hour cycle. That being said, my snake is not moved in there yet.

My husband's Japanese rat snake's enclosure is bioactive, which I set up for him over the summer. The enclosure is 36" x 18" x 24", and the bulb is a 6500k 24" long bulb--I think it's on 12 or 13 hours per day. This enclosure is more like temperate and has mid-range humidity, with spike moss (not a true moss, but Selaginella) as a groundcover as well as some lucky bamboo (not real bamboo either! The weird bamboo-looking plant you can grow in just water that people give as gifts), planted directly into the bioactive soil. The substrate mix was from NEherp too, but I later added worm castings to it because it didn't have the consistency I wanted for these plants. The two plant varieties I mentioned are doing super well in his enclosure and have been growing really well (we do have to trim them). I bought the isopods on eBay, and the springtails just... showed up without us buying any, lol, so they were in the NEherp mix even though we didn't ask for it.

I should mention that, regarding the above, this amount of light isn't stressful to this snake. I don't know if it would bother a snake in another type of setup, but he has a ton of cover in his terrarium. The bamboo obscures a good amount of the light, creating a sort of shaded forest kind of environment. It has a UTH, which I think is kind of useless? But maybe keeps up the humidity in the bottom drainage layer and saves water? I don't know. It is pretty self-sustaining and requires super infrequent watering despite having a mesh top; we water fewer than once per week and the soil stays at an even moisture.

I saw you had pothos, and I think that should be fine in just ambient room lighting. I have a few around my house, and it just probably won't grow much without light, but it shouldn't die. If you're going to put it in his tub (dunno if you have just paper towels or a substrate), maybe you could bunch up a towel or sweatshirt around the plant pot to stabilize it; it would help keep it in place and I find our snakes love soft stuff like fabrics, so it could add enrichment in that way too. And you can just clean and reuse the towel or whatever, and it will help contain any plant moisture or dirt bits from the bottom of the pot? Adding the plant in there wouldn't really help or harm anything, but I think it'd be good enrichment for your snake and also to see how he reacts to it. (I'm assuming a plastic pot? I would hesitate a little about a heavier ceramic pot just in case it gets knocked over and could crush a tail or something)

Oh, and about starting it early: You could start the isopod colony separately. That's what I did before we finished setting up the enclosure. I bought literally like 8 isopods from eBay, got a small shoebox-kind of tub, and made an isopod substrate (you can look up how, but I basically sterilized leaves from my yard, as well as sterilized some worm castings mixed with sand, clay, and coconut coir). Give them scraps like peas, corn, whatever, and they will start reproducing. The springtails, like I said, just happened and we didn't propagate them, but they propagated themselves pretty quickly and are doing fine.

I'm really into growing plants indoors and stuff, so, if you have more questions now or whenever you start setting up yours in the future, feel free to send me a message about it. I only have like a year of experience in bioactive with my desert terrarium, but I've learned a lot and I find them really rewarding! I wouldn't say they are easy, but I only say that because most people can't take care of plants or observe changes. I did not find it challenging for myself, but rather just interesting and fun... But they aren't for everyone, I guess.

[Neko_snake]

There is a nice post on vivarium lighting at NEherp, but it's quite involved and hard to get through if you don't enjoy reading technical stuff. I will try to just explain what I've done with my environments below.

I have a 6500k, 34" T8 fluorescent bulb in my desert terrarium; the terrarium is 18" high and the light is probably like 12"-14" from my plants as seedlings, getting closer as they grow more. I have it on a 13-hour cycle. That being said, my snake is not moved in there yet.

My husband's Japanese rat snake's enclosure is bioactive, which I set up for him over the summer. The enclosure is 36" x 18" x 24", and the bulb is a 6500k 24" long bulb--I think it's on 12 or 13 hours per day. This enclosure is more like temperate and has mid-range humidity, with spike moss (not a true moss, but Selaginella) as a groundcover as well as some lucky bamboo (not real bamboo either! The weird bamboo-looking plant you can grow in just water that people give as gifts), planted directly into the bioactive soil. The substrate mix was from NEherp too, but I later added worm castings to it because it didn't have the consistency I wanted for these plants. The two plant varieties I mentioned are doing super well in his enclosure and have been growing really well (we do have to trim them). I bought the isopods on eBay, and the springtails just... showed up without us buying any, lol, so they were in the NEherp mix even though we didn't ask for it.

I should mention that, regarding the above, this amount of light isn't stressful to this snake. I don't know if it would bother a snake in another type of setup, but he has a ton of cover in his terrarium. The bamboo obscures a good amount of the light, creating a sort of shaded forest kind of environment. It has a UTH, which I think is kind of useless? But maybe keeps up the humidity in the bottom drainage layer and saves water? I don't know. It is pretty self-sustaining and requires super infrequent watering despite having a mesh top; we water fewer than once per week and the soil stays at an even moisture.

I saw you had pothos, and I think that should be fine in just ambient room lighting. I have a few around my house, and it just probably won't grow much without light, but it shouldn't die. If you're going to put it in his tub (dunno if you have just paper towels or a substrate), maybe you could bunch up a towel or sweatshirt around the plant pot to stabilize it; it would help keep it in place and I find our snakes love soft stuff like fabrics, so it could add enrichment in that way too. And you can just clean and reuse the towel or whatever, and it will help contain any plant moisture or dirt bits from the bottom of the pot? Adding the plant in there wouldn't really help or harm anything, but I think it'd be good enrichment for your snake and also to see how he reacts to it. (I'm assuming a plastic pot? I would hesitate a little about a heavier ceramic pot just in case it gets knocked over and could crush a tail or something)

Oh, and about starting it early: You could start the isopod colony separately. That's what I did before we finished setting up the enclosure. I bought literally like 8 isopods from eBay, got a small shoebox-kind of tub, and made an isopod substrate (you can look up how, but I basically sterilized leaves from my yard, as well as sterilized some worm castings mixed with sand, clay, and coconut coir). Give them scraps like peas, corn, whatever, and they will start reproducing. The springtails, like I said, just happened and we didn't propagate them, but they propagated themselves pretty quickly and are doing fine.

I'm really into growing plants indoors and stuff, so, if you have more questions now or whenever you start setting up yours in the future, feel free to send me a message about it. I only have like a year of experience in bioactive with my desert terrarium, but I've learned a lot and I find them really rewarding! I wouldn't say they are easy, but I only say that because most people can't take care of plants or observe changes. I did not find it challenging for myself, but rather just interesting and fun... But they aren't for everyone, I guess.

I'd love to hear more about your enclosures and how you got them started/any tips and tricks you would suggest to a newbie.

I have read that post before and even after reading it I'm still confused on the lighting. I figure part of that will just come with experience and rereading as needed lol. So far the plants have last a month or more in my care so I think I'm doing it correctly lighting wise. Is there anything in particular you look for for an unhealthy plant?

Right now I have my ball python on a thin layer of substrate on top of a towel that I've added the plants on top.

I'm really curious about bioactive but I'm conflicted because of the heating situation. I can do a small substrate layer and my UTH works great but if I do too thick of a layer then how do I provide heat for him. This isn't totally a problem right now as I'll only add just substrate.

However when you have a bigger enclosure, I know for bioactive you have a drainage layer, a screen layer, and a substrate layer so I guess my question is how do you heat that?

I've seen some solutions. Bioactive soils that don't need a drainage layer, putting the UTH on the side, using a CHE for heat. I'm just curious what you use and I'm sure I'll be researching more and more before I jump in and buy his big enclosure.

I don't know if you'd know the answer with this but I'd also appreciate if someone could guide me on when I should upgrade him. He's in a 29 gallon now and is about 100 grams.

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[TofuTofuTofu]

I'm really curious about bioactive but I'm conflicted because of the heating situation. I can do a small substrate layer and my UTH works great but if I do too thick of a layer then how do I provide heat for him. This isn't totally a problem right now as I'll only add just substrate.

However when you have a bigger enclosure, I know for bioactive you have a drainage layer, a screen layer, and a substrate layer so I guess my question is how do you heat that?

I've seen some solutions. Bioactive soils that don't need a drainage layer, putting the UTH on the side, using a CHE for heat. I'm just curious what you use and I'm sure I'll be researching more and more before I jump in and buy his big enclosure.

About the drainage layers: My arid one doesn't have one, and doesn't need one because of its limited water and faster draining substrate. Japanese rat snake's does, and we got the "deep" version of the enclosure. I think from the surface where the snake touches, down to the clay ball things on the bottom, it's probably 6"?

Regarding the UTH I have in my arid enclosure: I do actually want to heat part of my substrate in my case, but this is to encourage my blue death-feigning beetle larvae to do well. I have about four inches of substrate there, and I don't think much of the heat reaches the top. However, I did build underground "caves" for my snake, one of which should be heated because it touches the bottom or almost the bottom of the substrate. (I don't know if bps like underground hides or not; I don't have much experience with them?) I may need to adjust this once my snake is in it, though, if it isn't enough heat. If that's the case, I will either go with a ceramic heat emitter on top (I have one that I had used for my iguana in the past, but no longer need), or I will try another UTH on the side. I'm also thinking about doing a UVB bulb in the future to encourage basking, but I'm not sure if the low-UVB bulbs for snakes emit any heat; I am guessing they probably don't, unlike the stronger heat-UVB bulb combo I use for my iguana. So I may end up adding some more bulbs and stuff, if my snake needs it.

In your case, I think the easiest thing to try would be a side UTH? This seems the best way to heat an area without having it obscured by substrate. I would think it would still help with the heat needed for digestion, but just wouldn't be directly under them. I know some people also use radiant heat panels or heat tape, but I don't have experience with them. I think RHPs go on the top?

I'd love to hear more about your enclosures and how you got them started/any tips and tricks you would suggest to a newbie.

So far the plants have last a month or more in my care so I think I'm doing it correctly lighting wise. Is there anything in particular you look for for an unhealthy plant?

I think the best advice would be to set it up without the snake first. Both of the enclosures existed without the animal in it for a while first. Mine has beetles in it but no snake yet, like I've said, but my beetles will have lived in there for one year on Halloween (not because I think it needed to be this long; I just didn't find my snake till recently lol). The more typical bioactive one for our Japanese rat snake, which has the isopods, springtails, drainage layer, planted plants, existed for I think at least a couple of weeks to a month without the snake (and I had the isopods for 2-4 weeks in their own plastic container before then). I had wanted the isopods to get settled in there, and also wanted to see if the plants would live. In addition, I wanted the bamboo to root itself so if the snake climbed on it, the bamboo wouldn't fall over.

The NEherp site tells you to "process" plants with a diluted bleach. I... didn't do this... but what I did do, was completely submerge the spike moss in a bucket for a day, which I figured would kill any insects on it (obviously, I also removed all of the soil from the plant.). The lucky bamboo, I just grew in some water in the kitchen for a while to see if any pests appeared on it, but that plant was an exception because they don't need to be grown in soil (they are growing in soil in the enclosure now, though, but it was good to not have to worry about the soil). I dunno if this was advisable or not--like not "processing" the bamboo with bleach--but for the spike moss in particular, I thought it would damage it because it's a sensitive species.

Most plants that will do well in a vivarium for a bp are pretty easy houseplants, like pothos and other resilient plants. These are usually taken care of pretty well at garden centers, but sometimes look bad in big-box stores if they have had them for a while. I would guess those have lots of chemicals on them to prevent pests, and usually they look sad because they aren't getting enough light or water. I would "process" these according to NEherp just in case? But, if you have had the plant for a while (I would say, over a month, but some may disagree), I wouldn't bother with it, especially since you said you cleaned yours off. Plants do expel pest treatments, which is why they need to be re-applied at the greenhouse and stuff, although I don't know exactly how long that takes. No matter what, I would remove as much of the soil as possible from the roots--rinse under water and pick off soil from the plants before putting it in the bioactive.

If you look at lists of plant species sold on bioactive sites, like NEherp, Josh's frogs, you can get some good ideas for plants (or even buy from them, if you can't find them locally). Weirdly, I don't recommend the BioDude's selection of plants, not because they're bad quality or whatever, but because most of the ones I saw on their site or in their pre-made kits will grow to be way too big? It confuses me.

Just a general tip: water less than you think you'll need to. Pothos are good to start with because they will "guttate" (make a water droplet on the edge of the leaf--not to be confused with like mist droplets if you just sprayed it lol), and this will show you that you definitely don't need to water it yet. When first planting both of my terrariums, I poured an entire gallon of spring water into them to hydrate their roots; then I think it was once every couple of days for a week or two. Plants take 1-2 weeks to establish their roots and settle in, but after that point, watering should be pretty infrequent for adult plants (less than once per week, for ours anyway). You can literally just tug on the roots and see if they are rooted or not! And that will let you know you can cut back on the waterings and see how it does.

I don't know if you'd know the answer with this but I'd also appreciate if someone could guide me on when I should upgrade him. He's in a 29 gallon now and is about 100 grams.

People may argue this point, but I don't think snakes can have "too big" of an enclosure. If you put a younger snake in an adult-sized enclosure, just make sure you clutter up the enclosure a LOT; this will give him more places to explore and will let him feel safe. In nature, there are lots of places to hide despite being mostly unlimited space. My only general advice would be giving him time to be comfortable in his current place first, though--again, idk how long you've had him so far? But maybe after 3 months or something? There may be other advice on this timeline, though. I personally like to direct my efforts into one nice permanent enclosure than several steps transitioning to it, but I understand some people have circumstances like limited space or specific housing situations that wouldn't allow it yet.

For sure though, it's much preferable to have the bioactive tank set up first and then move the snake into it. This way, the plants and isopod/springtail colonies can establish, and you can get to a point where the plants do not need to be watered as frequently. I'd say having it without the snake for one month is good, because that way you can troubleshoot without the animal in it and learn if you need to tweak anything.

[Neko_snake]

About the drainage layers: My arid one doesn't have one, and doesn't need one because of its limited water and faster draining substrate. Japanese rat snake's does, and we got the "deep" version of the enclosure. I think from the surface where the snake touches, down to the clay ball things on the bottom, it's probably 6"?

Regarding the UTH I have in my arid enclosure: I do actually want to heat part of my substrate in my case, but this is to encourage my blue death-feigning beetle larvae to do well. I have about four inches of substrate there, and I don't think much of the heat reaches the top. However, I did build underground "caves" for my snake, one of which should be heated because it touches the bottom or almost the bottom of the substrate. (I don't know if bps like underground hides or not; I don't have much experience with them?) I may need to adjust this once my snake is in it, though, if it isn't enough heat. If that's the case, I will either go with a ceramic heat emitter on top (I have one that I had used for my iguana in the past, but no longer need), or I will try another UTH on the side. I'm also thinking about doing a UVB bulb in the future to encourage basking, but I'm not sure if the low-UVB bulbs for snakes emit any heat; I am guessing they probably don't, unlike the stronger heat-UVB bulb combo I use for my iguana. So I may end up adding some more bulbs and stuff, if my snake needs it.

In your case, I think the easiest thing to try would be a side UTH? This seems the best way to heat an area without having it obscured by substrate. I would think it would still help with the heat needed for digestion, but just wouldn't be directly under them. I know some people also use radiant heat panels or heat tape, but I don't have experience with them. I think RHPs go on the top?




I think the best advice would be to set it up without the snake first. Both of the enclosures existed without the animal in it for a while first. Mine has beetles in it but no snake yet, like I've said, but my beetles will have lived in there for one year on Halloween (not because I think it needed to be this long; I just didn't find my snake till recently lol). The more typical bioactive one for our Japanese rat snake, which has the isopods, springtails, drainage layer, planted plants, existed for I think at least a couple of weeks to a month without the snake (and I had the isopods for 2-4 weeks in their own plastic container before then). I had wanted the isopods to get settled in there, and also wanted to see if the plants would live. In addition, I wanted the bamboo to root itself so if the snake climbed on it, the bamboo wouldn't fall over.

The NEherp site tells you to "process" plants with a diluted bleach. I... didn't do this... but what I did do, was completely submerge the spike moss in a bucket for a day, which I figured would kill any insects on it (obviously, I also removed all of the soil from the plant.). The lucky bamboo, I just grew in some water in the kitchen for a while to see if any pests appeared on it, but that plant was an exception because they don't need to be grown in soil (they are growing in soil in the enclosure now, though, but it was good to not have to worry about the soil). I dunno if this was advisable or not--like not "processing" the bamboo with bleach--but for the spike moss in particular, I thought it would damage it because it's a sensitive species.

Most plants that will do well in a vivarium for a bp are pretty easy houseplants, like pothos and other resilient plants. These are usually taken care of pretty well at garden centers, but sometimes look bad in big-box stores if they have had them for a while. I would guess those have lots of chemicals on them to prevent pests, and usually they look sad because they aren't getting enough light or water. I would "process" these according to NEherp just in case? But, if you have had the plant for a while (I would say, over a month, but some may disagree), I wouldn't bother with it, especially since you said you cleaned yours off. Plants do expel pest treatments, which is why they need to be re-applied at the greenhouse and stuff, although I don't know exactly how long that takes. No matter what, I would remove as much of the soil as possible from the roots--rinse under water and pick off soil from the plants before putting it in the bioactive.

If you look at lists of plant species sold on bioactive sites, like NEherp, Josh's frogs, you can get some good ideas for plants (or even buy from them, if you can't find them locally). Weirdly, I don't recommend the BioDude's selection of plants, not because they're bad quality or whatever, but because most of the ones I saw on their site or in their pre-made kits will grow to be way too big? It confuses me.

Just a general tip: water less than you think you'll need to. Pothos are good to start with because they will "guttate" (make a water droplet on the edge of the leaf--not to be confused with like mist droplets if you just sprayed it lol), and this will show you that you definitely don't need to water it yet. When first planting both of my terrariums, I poured an entire gallon of spring water into them to hydrate their roots; then I think it was once every couple of days for a week or two. Plants take 1-2 weeks to establish their roots and settle in, but after that point, watering should be pretty infrequent for adult plants (less than once per week, for ours anyway). You can literally just tug on the roots and see if they are rooted or not! And that will let you know you can cut back on the waterings and see how it does.



People may argue this point, but I don't think snakes can have "too big" of an enclosure. If you put a younger snake in an adult-sized enclosure, just make sure you clutter up the enclosure a LOT; this will give him more places to explore and will let him feel safe. In nature, there are lots of places to hide despite being mostly unlimited space. My only general advice would be giving him time to be comfortable in his current place first, though--again, idk how long you've had him so far? But maybe after 3 months or something? There may be other advice on this timeline, though. I personally like to direct my efforts into one nice permanent enclosure than several steps transitioning to it, but I understand some people have circumstances like limited space or specific housing situations that wouldn't allow it yet.

For sure though, it's much preferable to have the bioactive tank set up first and then move the snake into it. This way, the plants and isopod/springtail colonies can establish, and you can get to a point where the plants do not need to be watered as frequently. I'd say having it without the snake for one month is good, because that way you can troubleshoot without the animal in it and learn if you need to tweak anything.

Thank you sooo much for all this information. I really appreciate it.

I've had my snake for about 2 and a half months now. So typically I could switch him sooner than I thought. However I haven't gotten him a bigger enclosure yet so he can stay in the smaller one until I budget it out. I really want a nice PVC enclosure so I'm going to definitely need a paycheck or so lol.

I definitely want to have the tank running for a while before putting him in. Make sure all the temperatures and humidity are correct for him. Also make sure the plants and whatever clean up crew I get are established.

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