Quote Originally Posted by kitedemon View Post
Not read it myself. The book I read speaks about a space under the substrate that is a water layer. He suggests using water and material from a well established aquarium filter as a starter. It seems logical to me especially if it is a well balanced tank you are starting with. He speaks of watering the substrate (actually a hole to the lower layer) and this water reservoir holds the bacteria that make their way up into the substrate. My friends in germany run the small tank systems this way. The problem they speak about with snakes and insects are you need a lot of insects to deal with snake poop and the system cannot support that many with out steady food, and well snakes don't poop enough. Creasties and bearded dragons are different they poop more and smaller amounts so less insects. I have not done this myself so I am just parroting those with more experience than I. It seems sound to me. the german guys I know don't change the substrate much or all, once a year they remove some but not all of it. It the lowest maintenance once established.
I planned on using a "drainage layer" but had never heard of using aquarium filter particles or watering straight into either. Like you said it all makes a lot of sense though. You've got me very intrigued, I'm gonna spend my weekend finding that book.