What's needed for bio active substrate?

[Vincentuanluu]

I've been thinking of trying doing bio active substrate to two of my enclosure and wondering what's needed and how to set it up?
This is my setup now that currently working on.
I got the idea from my local pet store since they just started carrying Isopods and other cleaners.

I'm housing a female veiled and a wc Fischer.

 

[guanagator]

First thing you'll need is a deep bin to hold the layers with some holes in bottom for drainage. I use expanded clay balls for the bottom layer to save weight vrs rocks but either works, a piece of landscape cloth over that, a deep sand layer for females or just a few inches for males then a 4-6" layer of bioactive soil, I use springtails and 2-3 types of isopods, it takes them about a month to fully populate the soil if your starting from cultures. Spread some leaf litter over the soil layer and that's it! When I see a fresh fecal I flip the leaf over and let the little bugs enjoy. Over the last year I've transitioned all my panthers and quads to bioactive, will have to update the progress thread this week since I just hatched a Panther clutch that was laid in a bioactive substrate.

 

[Extensionofgreen]

Bio active can mean different things to different people. The drainage layers, as described above are reasonably good advice, but sand isn't an ideal media for planting plants in, so it depends on if you plant your plants in the substrate or not.
Isopods and springtails are great, but can be expensive to procure in large volumes, in larger enclosures. Your size wouldn't be so costly, but mine would cost 100s of dollars to populate.
The other component of "bio active" is the bacteria and normal fungal populations that manage nitrogenous waste ( chameleons poop ), and create a favorable environment and relationship with the plant roots. To inocculate your soil, you can use HollyTone or PlantTone, by Epsoma, available at and garden center or box store. Literally use it like table salt and "salt your soil" generously and then turn the top layer over a bit. You may see some white mold at times and that's normal and perfectly safe.

 

[brownie64]

Take a look at these guys it's who I buy from.http://www.neherpetoculture.com/

 

[Vincentuanluu]

Take a look at these guys it's who I buy from.http://www.neherpetoculture.com/

Wow that website has lots of things I want but don't think it ships to Canada..

 

[Vincentuanluu]

Bio active can mean different things to different people. The drainage layers, as described above are reasonably good advice, but sand isn't an ideal media for planting plants in, so it depends on if you plant your plants in the substrate or not.
Isopods and springtails are great, but can be expensive to procure in large volumes, in larger enclosures. Your size wouldn't be so costly, but mine would cost 100s of dollars to populate.
The other component of "bio active" is the bacteria and normal fungal populations that manage nitrogenous waste ( chameleons poop ), and create a favorable environment and relationship with the plant roots. To inocculate your soil, you can use HollyTone or PlantTone, by Epsoma, available at and garden center or box store. Literally use it like table salt and "salt your soil" generously and then turn the top layer over a bit. You may see some white mold at times and that's normal and perfectly safe.

I was thinking of planting some plants into soil. What kind of soil do you think I should use that most common found in garden stores? Want something that's good for plants but not toxic for chameleon if anything happens.

 

[Vincentuanluu]

First thing you'll need is a deep bin to hold the layers with some holes in bottom for drainage. I use expanded clay balls for the bottom layer to save weight vrs rocks but either works, a piece of landscape cloth over that, a deep sand layer for females or just a few inches for males then a 4-6" layer of bioactive soil, I use springtails and 2-3 types of isopods, it takes them about a month to fully populate the soil if your starting from cultures. Spread some leaf litter over the soil layer and that's it! When I see a fresh fecal I flip the leaf over and let the little bugs enjoy. Over the last year I've transitioned all my panthers and quads to bioactive, will have to update the progress thread this week since I just hatched a Panther clutch that was laid in a bioactive substrate.

What kind of bio active soil can be found at local hardware stores or garden stores?

So if I put about 2-3 inch of clay balls with aluminum mesh on top and add 5-6 inch of "bio active soil" or can I use organic soil from garden supplies ?
I should of thought of bio active first when I did the framing because kinda don't want a big bucket inside enclosure since it looks bad.
Is there another solution instead of using a plastic tub?

 

[Extensionofgreen]

How much and how often are you misting? Many soils that people like to use, because they are organic or "safe" are not suitable for use, as is and result in unhealthy plants, dropping leaves and rotting roots.
Do you plan to have chameleons laying eggs in the soil?
These are things is need to know, before making a recommendation. Also, what sorts of plants will you be planting?

 

[Extensionofgreen]

For reference, here are some shots of my soil surface, with remnants of insect remains and feces partially broken down. I never added any isopods or springtails, but the soil bacteria and fungi take care of business. Any good compost based mix will have these organisms, as will plant roots. Using mixes too heavily based on peat moss will impede decay, due to the acidity, but this also is good for odor control and people use peat moss in composting toilets, if they shun modern plumbing for some reason.

 

[brownie64]

Wow that website has lots of things I want but don't think it ships to Canada..

That sucks! Sorry about that, but they do got a lot of information on their site that explains what you need, and how to do it. Did you get to check that out?

 

[Vincentuanluu]

How much and how often are you misting? Many soils that people like to use, because they are organic or "safe" are not suitable for use, as is and result in unhealthy plants, dropping leaves and rotting roots.
Do you plan to have chameleons laying eggs in the soil?
These are things is need to know, before making a recommendation. Also, what sorts of plants will you be planting?

I just setted my time to
8am - lights on
8am - 10mins
12pm - 10mins
3pm - 8mins 30seconds
6pm - 10mins
And since I don't have ultrasound right now I'm misting overnight but only for 45-1min to keep humidity up to 60-70% overnight since it drops to 40-50% at night with no misting
8pm - lights out
10pm - 45seconds
12am - 1min
3am - 45seconds
5am - 2mins

So it's going be heavy misting and hoping the plants I plan to plant down there would last.
For the veiled side, yes I do plan on her laying the eggs in the soil but not for my fisher side.

 

[Vincentuanluu]

That sucks! Sorry about that, but they do got a lot of information on their site that explains what you need, and how to do it. Did you get to check that out?

Yeah got useful informations but stuff they recommend, I can't find it in my locals

 

[guanagator]

With that much misting you'll need something that drains well, I plant live plants into mine and they seem to do fine in the sand ( pothos and shefflera) sure I would get more growth if it was all soil but the sand drains well and doubles as a laying medium for females. I have a few with almost all soil and the ones with sand drain much better in my experience. When starting I only purchased 3-4 starter cultures of the different types isopods and one thing of springtails from Josh's frogs. Used them to start more cultures myself to keep costs down those little bugs can be pricey! Any organic soil mix will work as a base, for the leaf litter on top use a tree with larger leaves that won't be picked up if your Chameleon shoots at a bug on the ground.

 

[Extensionofgreen]

You could use sunshine mix #4 as a base and cap it with compost to cover the perlite, though it's so small, it's not likely to cause a concern in adult chameleons, unless the are actively eating the soil. Use a layer of lava rock or leca stones underneath the soil, sprinkle on the PlantTone or HollyTone, add your isopods and springtails, and stick with ficus, scheffleras, pothos, and the usual plants found in chameleon cages. Avoid hibiscus, as few of us have enough light, regardless of what we think we have.