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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