How to setup a bioactive terrarium for Leopard Geckos. Self cleaning, self maintaining.

hey guys how's it goin me Josh foster owner and founder of the bio dude today I have a fun video that is looking forward to making for a long time I'm actually upgrading my leopard geckos vivarium and giving you old and more space and a lot of people been asking for either let me go video so here we go this is a 24 by 18 by 18 experts have as you can see on top here I have my 16 inch led that has the red and blue diodes in it that is being held up by the son my father dude LED prompt and as you can see here my plethora of things that I'm going to be using to construct the vivarium for starters is my hand crafted oil Hydra substrate Mike Harris Sahara this saucer is a one of a kind a lot of my clients and use it and I'm getting nothing but excellent feedback about it what makes this Clara so unique is that it's very dense in the fact that retains fall tunnels and burrows that your atom makes but it's been cons a maintained necessary air pocket from the very top of the substrate to the very bottom making sure air is going from point A to point B to prevent bad bacteria build-up as well as you know other gases and things that can be harmful and a compact student encourage humid environment the Sahara will always they drive the top but maintain its moisture levels in the middle of in the middle and bottom layers which is great for your life desert plants such as cacti succulent house things like that so the first thing that we're going to do is open up the baggy Sahara just for you guys know this bag right here is 41 pounds okay but worth every cent so what I'm going to do done let us take the Sahara I'm going to dump it into the rear right like now operating my tank now as you can see I'm using a lot of substrate a lot of people ask me why are you using so much substrate the deeper your bioactive substrate the more effective it's going to be and I'll show you guys that in about a minute or two but I'm going to get this even down or layer how I want it to be later the next thing I'm going to do is I'm going to take watering camp like this right now water my tank eventually now I'm doing this to react to hydrate the Sahara essentially and as the moisture levels in the middle to prevent your plants from going into shock so they activate a little bit better you can see how it's puddling at the top here that's exactly how it should work you're going to take your hand and your skin makes it right weightless you can also put it into the bag if you cute but it really depends on what wrap you want to do you don't need a lot of water because the Sahara is extremely good at staying dry on the top layers but moist in the middle and bottom layers and that's exactly what you want when you're dealing with a desert type of file because that's exactly what a desert viable so I like the consistency here how it's a good way to tell you can kind of see the moisture coming down here at the front and it will start creating moisture pockets and you can actually start seeing it at the bottom and essentially as the tank progresses this is what how it's going to be the next thing that I'm going to do is add in this my first biodegradable which is my new Zeon's diagnosable I'm going to open it up and I'm going to add some water to it the point is to get this mold wet but not driven now I have a lot of questions why am I using leopard geckos are famous for having issues in shedding because their toes and can have it is old shed can get stuck on there cut off the blood blood flow called fall same thing can happen to a lot of other lizards as well so it's important to provide humidity pockets in the soil not only for your leopard geckos health because as I said discussed in my other videos humidity pockets in sauna pockets in your vivarium to specific size of your vivarium they help with shutting respiration and hydration which with reptiles are pretty much our three most important things so I'm putting a layer up here like this this isn't how I want it to be I'm going to mix it now I get a lot of questions to this guy and pass my leopard gecko my answer to you is it will impact your life together if you do not take care of your leopard gecko there have been many studies published studies which I really need to put on my website in fashion in general what most lizards is caused because their immune system is suppressed and if their immune system get depressed things that they might inject that they would be able to typically in jet they're not able to does their bodies aren't functioning as well as they should what causes an a4 mune system from a captive red animal and casas environment for husbandry which I will get into their husbandry requirements in a bit but as long as you are keeping all of that study you shouldn't have any issues the next thing I'm going to look at with how this is properly mixed is what size do I want to have his humid env and what side is how the hot spot going to be the hot spot is going to be right here for my little one so so what I'm gonna do is put it I'm going to actually pull over them all back here in the corner right like that and I'm going to make this a little bit like that but concentrated the bugs are going to love it I promise next step is adding in our essential microphone the back I hate thing the backbones your bio active ecosystem because there's a lot of other drivers that are just as important as they are but your cleanup crew they really help cleaning up the waste as well as essentially going through the soil creating necessary air pockets resulted root development plant growth as well as making your soil consistently essentially recycle itself so it's constantly staying full with nutrition so the first thing I'm going to put in here are my are my isopods so for the leopard gecko I'm using a combination I'm going with powder blue isopods I'm going with giant orange isopod and who are purple isopods and I'm going to dump them in here you guys can actually see some crawling in there on the leopard the leopard gecko going to try and eat them maybe they're there they're really not that big so these will populate in the vivarium and eventually maintain the tank boys are you still going to have to toss me in your electric extras included you're absolutely years.we you're going to have to get up in the first couple months but after your bioactive tank continue to stabilize you'll notice the eco magmatic being broken down significantly quicker leaving only your rates which don't eat socks so what I'm going to do is then work on our humid highs and I'm going to take my a piece of cork tube like this and then I'm going to get a key to the piece of cork bark I'm going to go then so I got to touch two types of height here you can go under to dig a tunnel or you can go right into here and have that back and be covered up so after after those isopods are in there and getting the human hai figured out I'm then going to put in my springtails springtails I use the giant white so you can see there they're really not that giant there very little see there's one right there there's a crawlin springtails breed a lot faster than I suppositories but they can never ever dry it is imperative that you are making sure that your substrate is maintaining the proper humidity pockets with level here you guys how to do that at the end of this video so after now that I can see that I usually put mealworms in here and there's actually one that current are actually going through and doing the job for me so I'm actually just going to leave them in there the next thing that I'm going to do is figure out where the other two PI's are going to be so I have a cool high that's going to be too humid high off as well and then I'm going to have another high such as the tubes it can be like this which is going to give my little one plenty of places to go which is important options are very very important when it comes to these guys - I like that I can dig it next thing I'm going to do again put my bio shot we've got a lot of people ask me Josh what is their stuff class shot is really it is a one kind or by lack of experience this is not released in a container like some people sell what this is is a 4 4 4 n PK % organic balance of macronutrients into pebble form that work with archaea and my core is all fungi that shall create the macronutrients excuse me the fungi and the bacteria create the macronutrients which are more easily taken by your plants your plants grow stronger happier healthier making a green thumb little bit bigger let's do this out then all you do they just spread it right in here then next thing we're going to do is I'm going to start I'm going to start to eat my favorite part so I started carrying carrying the water is just I really like them because they're really sturdy and they and they they don't look fake it looks like a natural water say again you know I'm you guys know me I'm down on down to that and I always put the water this year I always put a small piece of cork and the water discs for crickets so your crickets aren't drowning in your water dish polluting it if you feed crickets you can also on use these are great for feeding this is to feed your dubious and mealworms and things like that you can feed your leopard gecko out of the feeding dish I let my hunt on my mall mall now the natural to think I let them hunting tours unless I'm giving them burrowing insects in that case I would put it in the dish similar to this so I really like how this is looking I really do so the next thing is my favorite ghost years I've been trying I try to get the stuff and finally found and I'm so happy to offer sizes up to 32 inches long makes a really really nice really nice librarian I'm going to this they're mean I don't like that going to be better there we go and dig that a lot better I'm sorry about that scraping on the glass that what do you think that means we have a plants I got why the best selection a dozer plant for a forum you guys find a better source let me know because you know I'm down to carries best so for larger plants here you know my 8 inch cut out of the by the olives I love this one because how it grows and branches so in starting new baby pups here which I can literally just pull off and plant anywhere and they grow so I'm going to plant this one first and these plants don't start grown with anything there's it grown and really really well-drained soil I could get it out of the container here without making a big mess now whenever I skip plant yeah this is ridiculous I strike so whenever I shift lamp I shift them bare-root has better rooted I can get them I mean I've had pretty good success though so let's take plant here how I go in the very back is up for I'm put this put it wave the back scared there and then I'm going to put put it around this like that so what's going to happen this part right here is going to get nice until I'll take up this back corner this thoughts going to keep rolling all over here so I need something to fill in right back in that corner and I got just the thing another one of these oxy that wasn't as messy here we go once again look at that root base with plants and monster and it's really nice when you put plants with extensive root base is in your vivarium because it really helps I mean it really helps with uh with retention of cones burrows for your animals what that it'll be a lot better once I built it so I got it I got it a crib campus or the start plant right here these are great because you can mount them you can put them in the soil or it be long as you wrap them in some moss clearly mountain that's what I'm going to do as far as maintenance on that goes you need to make sure that small spills and dry out is really easy because as long as you're missing your leopard gecko every single day we should be doing that they like to drink do early in the morning before they go back into their hole and right before the rain as the sun's going down as well but usually early in the mornings because that's when if there is any sort of moisture that's what it's going to be going to put that right like that now this plant is a new one Mexican basil smells real good great great for herbivores and omnivores those of they eat it it's just oregano but it smells good sue and he smells the other tank you take care of it all I'm going to go ahead and I think I'll put this now I know I know I'm going to get the comment that this looks busy I'm all about it nature is crowded I like to give my animals a lot of places to climb a lot of places high a lot of options thousand mother plant by far one of my favorites you see in here in this pot these are all being patted currying so here on the attention it just drops drop them into here and then group so eventually these can just drop all over the place and spread off and they're super Hardy even better so take this I'll put this right like this and I'm covering up the babies and I'm doing that good they're going to continue to grow anyway that's going to put a little bit of moss right on top a little bit to help I have pretty nice next thing I'm going to do is add the most important part leave water Leibler is a must in any natural terrarium in a day month because not only do your springtails and I suppose break it down into creating more soil more nutrients through the plants that also is extremely beneficial for hiding-places for your leopard gecko there if it's a big enough leap they will actually go underneath and hide in big burrows underneath will be and I always like to use Magnolia you can use oak for the leopard geckos of this problem but I like using Magnolia for these guys is super so these are a little bigger and it helps preventing them cooking the leaves when they catch their food if you let them help naturally like I do if they ingest I'm going to leave this it's plant matter it's not that you know called it as long as you're not using plant leaves that were collected from that area and to begin them from the new they're collected out in the middle of textbook and sliders dirt and other sticks in the bags without get them from residential areas so Presley what I'm doing here is kind of spreading my biodegradable with the best I can get this nice and gently distributed to help distribute my microphone oh and I'm really going to concentrate a gear on one the humid end because the humid end is where your microphone is going to concentrate initially and then after they get their populations established that's when you're going to start noticing them spread a tank of this size it's going to take a couple months and I'm still going to spot clean it but even if you you know with lose and in between up fruit and long as you have the Bible shop and as long as you have some semblance of spring table than that the bioactivity aspect and of things really does take here I could pretty much say that I'm digging this so I'm gonna - like Miss in here now does look human right now because they're missing but what I can tell you is that the humidity and that vivarium is never ever going to exceed 30 mm in here on the humid side down in under here it probably has the humidity I will know and of between 50 and 75 percent consistently ranging it ain't just exactly what you want if you have soft best way to check that is what I like to use our minds of the vivarium electronic on hygrometers and thermometers they're accurate 2.01 of a degree I really like them I have a lot of different people ask me how do I prevent getting hard water stains on the front of my glass so tap water is wait for this problem it is all the the heavy minerals and things like that in the water that leave their residual you can use the container breakfast date which takes out your core means your for use for Aicha chloramine on in your ammonia content turns into essentially like a senior water and it really does help if you're using a misting and you know regular listening if you don't have access to to reverse osmosis or distilled water all the time as far as lighting notes for my leopard gecko there's a couple different things that I'm going to be doing here and I'm actually going to play with this to see what's going to work out that for what my little ones so but a lot of clients of mine like to uses the recta therm on your high schooler by zoom that I really like these because they are reliable now when you look at the back here tells you to put it at the bottom but you see a picture of the table being hollow with the poor going underneath if you put this underneath to tanks and cause the cord get pinched which would happen in the exoteric and the zoo bed you think do med wouldn't do that it actually can ruin the huge completely and ruin the intended efficacy of the unit itself so I always have had success putting it rape on the side of the vivarium so with me I would actually put it on the back right like this so when I have it also see it up against here I put it all the way down so the heat is going to push this way since the units in the fact it's going to push through the substrate which is going to help create a sauna which is really important when it comes to your leopard geckos in an elder desert animals that get dehydrated so something gets hydrated quickly but they are used to not having access to water constantly so housing small humidity areas in there really help them essentially they hydrated have good helps with respiration the whole nine yards another way that you can eat if the you're using the under time heater and it's not doing the job it's only giving you a nice nice ambient of about 90 to 94 you know you could always go you know with the with the nano pictures and I love these these are great for I've used them with all five sizes of my tanks of super energy efficient and I always use a ceramic heat emitters you never want to use the red bulbs for reptiles reptiles can see that spectrum of that red and it really messes with their sleep cycles and it kills me that you big people sell it because they shouldn't because it's just terrible um so that's one thing you can do pretty heating I am going to be providing UVB and my LEDs do not emit any UV v yes but I will be using the zoom ed naturalistic very impressive Sun pencil I will be changing out this CFL bulb every six months of all the UVB sources this is my least favorite however given the fact that he is he has active to beat UVB from under six inches away I am more than confident that he is going to get what he needs from this particular fixture however he was going to be this far away all the time from the UVB well then I would consider getting something a little bit better like this like the t5 that has a little bit more going down as far as feeding ghosts I did mention to you guys how I see my leopard gecko but I like to supplement the curriculum Nubian worms I always dunk them I always use the pink label and blue label switch them out never dream at the same time so that can mess with absorption what makes this so good is that it has something called beta carotene in it and what that is what beta carotene is that is a carotenoid that leopard is one of the carotenoids that leopard geckos need to synthesize one of the most important vitamins vitamin A as far as your your vitamin c PG all the good ones the vitamin A is the main driver of Romeo stasis for them and it messes messes and maintains their vision it maintains their balance and maintain their ability to breathe and maintains goes just the saliva Rangers name with cat food so it's extremely important that you're you know dusting your feeder insects with this every meeting on to every other feeding depending on how often you feed and I usually do the herp delight which is a great multi plugin with the beta carotene in it that that you can use about once a week and that is how I compliment and you guys can take a look here I'm actually going to close down actually leave this open water in here and then I'm going to go drop I'm going to grab the little one put them in you I know dude is wet it's dagonet I think honestly I have a feeling he's really gonna like the go-to it up here because this is where the best things going to be so he'll be able to bath right in here zorp his UVB right here and then when he wants to get away he can retreat back here once I monitor the temperatures I will most likely put my feet mat back here with the Supplemental feet up top just to give him a ton of options but I look I'm really happy with it I've had nothing but really really good reviews from my clients that have tried this their notice main differences with their geckos I noticed differences with my geckos why like No I don't want that trash I want to goliath worm anyway guys thank you all very much for your continued support with my business I can't wait to show you guys my entire showroom wants done again my name is Josh falter I am the owner and founder of the bio dude you can visit my website www.chesterlaw.com Eon YouTube Disney divide

Channel: The Bio Dude

Views: 350,561

Keywords: Leopard Gecko, Leopard Gecko BioACtive Terrarium, terrarium, leopard gecko terrarium, bioactive terrarium, bioactive, springtails, isopods

Id: NtA2JQh4z6o

Length: 26min 45sec (1605 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 09 2017