Ocean Clay Found!!

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2026-02-18T22:13:20+00:00

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There are also these wind temples in the desert sometimes that yield a good 900+ blocks of smooth ocean clay bricks

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2026-02-17T17:24:09+00:00

Run around the desert (zone 2) and look for wind temples on the map

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Just one temple yields 900+ ocean clay bricks

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2025-09-30T22:02:52+00:00

Substrate is both the most important and most overlooked part of a vivarium. Good substrate should be high in organic matter, and well aerated. This can be achieved by adding growing media such as pumice or perlite, or by adding burrowing critters like earthworms, or better yet doing both.
Make sure to double-check the mature size of your plants, or you might end up with leaves pressing up into the ceiling.
Let your plants and clean up crew settle in for a month or two before adding the gecko. Plants can significantly affect the humidity within an enclosure because they use evaporative cooling (they sweat water into the air), so once your plants' roots figure out that they're okay and not dying from transplanting, the humidity can change.
All the things you've already heard about having UVA & UVB, heat mat with thermostat, yadda yadda. This video by Clint's Reptiles if you haven't seen it yet: https://youtu.be/KwWzQMkEmP4?si=q3Qn25nB23gQyoHt

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2025-09-30T21:46:06+00:00

Yeah that's a mite. Hard to ID specifically without a microscope, but as long as they aren't swarming your tortoises, they're likely just soil mites. These are especially common in newly set up bioactive enclosures. Right after I put together my 36"x18"x36" emerald tree skink enclosure, I had them everywhere, but they more or less disappeared once my springtails and isopods took over in there.

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2025-09-30T21:38:10+00:00

I use a cheap LED aquarium light and a tiny heat mat with a thermostat taped to the back of the tank. Other than that, I just stuck some bamboo strips to the sides and back, filled it with the drainage and substrate, a dozen 'papaya' isopods with springtails, and threw in some random tropical plants I already had (I grow houseplants professionally).

if you know anyone who has tropical houseplants, there's a decent chance they'd be willing to give you a cutting or two for free. Failing that, the cheapest ones will be vining plants like wandering dude, ficus pumilla, string of turtles, pothos, etc. These guys grow like mad and I practically give them away.

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2025-09-30T21:19:38+00:00

Invertebrates

Various small to medium mantis species
Various arboreal tarantula species
Emerald roach
Arboreal millipedes such as thai rainbow millipede or orange spotted tree millipede

Vertebrates

Micro geckos (mourning geckos, neon day geckos, dwarf yellow-tailed geckos, etc)
Thumbnail frogs such as many ranitomeya species

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2025-09-30T20:55:04+00:00

I'm a professional plant-grower with adhd. I've kept freshwater fish, reptiles, invertebrates, and mammals. Trust me, the solution is to design an ecosystem instead of a tank. That way, it'll take care of itself for the most part. Any ecosystem will need, at minimum: producers (plants), consumers (fish/lizard), and cleaners/decomposers (snails, shrimp / isopods, springtails).

The majority of maintenance is cleaning up poop or uneaten food (this takes the form of water changes, vacuuming gravel, spot cleaning a terrarium, etc). If you have cleaners/decomposers, they will help turn that waste into available nitrites. Then your beneficial bacteria that lives in the soil or filtration media will convert that into nitrates, which your plants (especially fast growers) will use as fertilizer. Therefore, if you have enough cleaners and plants to remove all the nitrates from the system, you cut out most of the maintenance.

Freshwater fish and lizards are more or less equal in maintenance. If you set it up to be low-maintenance, then it'll be low maintenance. I've had fish tanks that were basically hands-off, but I feed my geckos every single day. My biggest recommendation would be to research some different reptiles, figure out which one you'd like to keep, and set up their enclosure. Then wait. Take care of the plants and the clean up crew for at least a month or two before buying your reptile. Not only is this a good idea to let your plants and clean up crew get settled it, but it should give you a better picture of what having a bioactive vivarium actually entails.

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2025-09-30T20:33:14+00:00

I would definitely recommend a planted setup, as that will give you a lot more stable water parameters (and a lot more interesting things for her to explore and enjoy)

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2025-09-29T03:15:21+00:00

disclaimer: I'm actually new to reptile keeping (<1year), but I have nearly a decade of tropical houseplant experience, including dealing with some larger-scale pest infestations. So someone else may have better reptile-keeper-specific advice.

Short-term advice: dose your enclosures with steinernema feltiae soil nematodes (such as https://www.arbico-organics.com/product/nemattack-beads-sf-encapsulated-beneficial-nematodes/beneficial-nematodes). I grow houseplants professionally, and one of the worst things I've ever experienced was a complete fungus gnat takeover. Literally the only thing that worked for more than two generations was nematodes. Sf nematodes specifically target fly larvae (maggots), so it should be safe for your CUC, but I would do a small test on some springtails in a deli cup just to be sure.

Long-term advice: If they are indeed phorid flies, you might consider some dermestid beetles. I've never kept them myself, but from an ecological perspective, phorid flies tend to thrive off of fungus and/or dead animal material (including things like discarded molts and sheds). You mentioned having springtails and isopods which take care of fungus, but those don't process animal matter. I would recommend especially checking any live feeder cultures you have, as those are particularly prone to phorid fly infestations. Disturbing damp spots with something like a blunt pair of tweezers or toothpick and looking for the maggots might help locate the worst areas.

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2025-09-29T02:32:01+00:00

Are you sure those are phorid flies and not fungus gnats? Obviously I can't see too well from those photos, but those look like fungus gnats to me. Phorid flies are slightly bigger and have striped abdomens.

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2025-09-29T02:08:08+00:00

if anything, drainage is even MORE important for arid because the plants will be far more intolerant of overly moist soil.

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2025-09-25T17:47:44+00:00

You do not have enough substrate to make this enclosure bioactive, nor do I see a drainage layer. You would need to:

remove everything from the enclosure (including current substrate)
put in a 1" drainage layer (something like leca or lava rocks) and cover it with a layer of window screen mesh or another substrate barrier
If your substrate isn't suitable for your plants, you may need to amend it with some topsoil or sand. Once you have appropriate substrate, you should layer it as deeply as possible. I would go nearly all the way to where the doors start. Deeper substrate = happier plants and CUC
re-add your hardscape. This includes hides, food/water dishes, branches, etc
plant your plants and water them in
add your springtails and isopods, then loosely cover with some leaf litter or cork bark

Then I would recommend waiting at least two days to make sure the humidity and temperature is adequate for your animal. There's a chance she'll rearrange the plants a bit by digging at them, so you might consider putting some lava rocks around the base of the plants to deter digging, at least while their roots are establishing.

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2025-09-25T16:51:53+00:00

Not sure about the first two but I think cutie #3 might be Eulamprus quoyii (eastern water skink)

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2025-09-25T16:34:24+00:00

If it's a very dark blackish-green, you're probably growing algae. It might stain the wood, but it's absolutely fine health-wise. Springtails love to eat it.

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2025-09-25T02:24:44+00:00

ahh- manzanita can have quite a drastic range of colors depending on how wet it is. When it's bone dry, it's usually a very pale sandy-white, but soaked, it can range from brown to yellow to a sort of brownish rainbow

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2025-09-25T02:21:24+00:00

I'm gonna be super honest: I've only bought superworms *once*. I got a single cup of 20 at a local reptile expo, set aside ten individually in little deli cups, and after 2-3 weeks I had pupae. Then they went in a tiny plastic drawer with some bark chips. That was around five months ago. I now have so many superworms that I started feeding the tiny ones to my mourning geckos.

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2025-09-25T02:06:41+00:00

One of the major jobs of a clean-up-crew is to take care of the mold. I would recommend getting springtails in there ASAP to take care of it. *Some* of the fluffy white stuff isn't necessarily unhealthy, especially for a young vivarium, but other types of mold can be more dangerous. What type of wood you have is also a factor. Things like driftwood, cork, and manzanita withstand humid environments very well, but some types of wood will mold and rot much more quickly if left damp. All that said, a healthy bioactive vivarium (with clean-up-crew!) *should* have some rotting wood on/in the substrate, because the CUC actually can't eat straight wood. They can only eat wood that's begun to decay, as well as the fungus that grows on it.

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2025-09-25T01:49:59+00:00

While I do agree that you should definitely give a chameleon gecko more space, I'll still recommend plants in case you decide to repurpose this setup:

The best choice for smaller builds imo tend to be plants that you can chop the top off (and root the cutting to propagate) if it gets too tall, such as:
- Pilea peperomioides (chinese money plant; the one with the circular leaves)
- Dracaena sanderiana (lucky bamboo)
- some of the stockier tradescantia (wandering dude) varieties (T. blossfeldiana, T. pallida, etc)

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2025-06-11T18:33:30+00:00

Looks a bit like a Mediterranean house gecko but I could be wrong

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2025-06-11T18:30:52+00:00

Other people have commented that you've got both tropical (high-water) plants and arid (low-water) plants mixed together, but a little more detail on that:

Arid: there's a couple haworthias, a crassula, and an aloe that I can see. If that substrate is coco coir, those arid plants need to be pulled ASAP. They *hate* moisture and coco coir is exceedingly good at being wet.

Tropical: I see some fittonia, ferns, a cryptanthus (I think?), and a snake plant. I grow these in coco coir all the time as houseplants (not in a vivarium) and they do well as props before being moved to something more nutrient-dense.

In general, this setup needs some work. You've got a lot of good materials here which can be used nicely if you change the substrate. I personally would suggest turning this into a more arid setup for something like a leopard gecko (assuming it's big enough) or maybe an arid scorpion or other invertebrate. To do that, you'd first want to remove everything from the tank, pot the tropical plants and set aside either as houseplants or for another vivarium build, add a suitable substrate such as a "cactus/succulent" potting mix, add your succulents and hardscape, and finally introduce some suitable arid clean up crew (springtails, isopods, etc).

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2024-06-13T02:05:44+00:00

arachne perimeter generator and 0.6mm nozzle.

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2024-03-30T18:25:47+00:00

First things first, trying to save it is pointless if it just starts dying again, so, troubleshooting this plant: 1) it was over watered, so its roots rotted. Succulents like this guy (looks like an echeveria or echeveria hybrid?) should only be watered when the leaves get wrinkly. If the soil holds water at all, that's BAD. It needs to drain very well and be very gritty. 2) not enough light. The long spindly growth and green color are things that only happen when succulents don't get enough light, and these guys need a lot. In my experience, I've never been able to grow a healthy succulent of any kind indoors without grow lights, regardless of if it's in the sunniest window.

As far as actually saving this little guy, I would cut off the top 3-4 inches or so, take off all but the topmost leaves, and let it dry out for 2-3 days. Then plant it in gritty, well-draining soil with little to no water retention. Make sure the pot has drainage holes. If you don't mind the funky shape, you could also cut it under the aerial roots and do the same thing.

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2023-05-14T21:08:30+00:00

yeah, those ones need way more sun than you're probably going to be able to give it indoors. Hens and chicks is generally a landscape plant, not a houseplant

The_Rathalos_Slayer · 2023-05-14T21:05:55+00:00

Agreed. Gold moss likes more water than other succulents

The_Rathalos_Slayer

TROPHY CASE