# Help me save my 3-week-old Bioactive Terrarium



## Angel697 (May 4, 2017)

Hello!! I'm a brand new member of dendroboard!  I normally post in pangea forums, but came here because I messed with my 3 week old bioactive setup and need a few tips and advice to help me try and save it. It's an 18x18x24 ZooMed enclosure.

Basically, I removed and replaced the soil I seeded with isopods and springtails. TWICE. 

The first time I did was because all I used was the Eco Earth coco fiber. I learned quickly that Eco earth alone gets compacted and rots quickly, which is overall harmful to the entire ecosystem within the enclosure. The entire floor had a blanket of mold; too much mold to find it appropriate. The roots of my plants were also rotting when I pulled them out. To solve this problem, I bought a bag of Josh's Frogs ABG mix and mixed it with some of the eco earth THEN topped it off with the rest of the same eco earth. I pretty much just removed the moldy part of the soil and added ABG mix on the bottom because I thought if I throw out the eco earth, I throw out most of the isopods and springtails.

So the second time, I just had to remove most of the top layer of eco earth because it was too deep and water seemed to kind of sit on just the first 2 inches of soil and the rest remained dry. It was a total of about 3-5 inches deep of just the substrate (about 5-8 inches including the drainage layer).

I assume this much disruption during such a delicate time heavily affected the isopods and springtails within the soil and are all pretty much gone. I don't see any of them, nor do I know how to spot them since they're so tiny. I didn't want to entirely get rid of the eco earth because that's where they all are 

So, my questions are:
1. My soil is now about 50/50 ABG mix+eco earth coco fiber, with a total depth of about 3-5 inches including the drainage layer. Is that going to work?
2. Given this situation, should I grab more isopod+springtail cultures and reseed or should I wait and see if they'll proliferate?
3. What could I have done different in this situation? Should I have just left the enclosure alone?


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## Gibbs.JP (Feb 16, 2016)

Hey, welcome to the forums!

1. I would get rid of the Eco Earth all together and just use the ABG mix alone (on top of the drainage layer of course). I think your main issue is that the Eco Earth is not allowing enough drainage. Using just the ABG mix should help solve that issue.

2. It's always good to have lots of Isopods and Sprintails, both in your vivariums, and in cultures outside that are producing more. It's hard to really know the populations inside the tank because they are usually hidden. Also, most frogs you put in there will eat them, so it's usually nice to have more on hand to add in as needed.

3. You were right to take out the substrate if it wasn't draining and causing excessive mold. I assume it was pretty soggy when you took it out? There are many different products and materials out there that work well for substrate in a bioactive environment like a vivarium, but the key factor is that it drains well and quickly. It should always be damp, but never soggy. 

Good luck! Post some pics of your setup if you need more advice. This forum has an enormous wealth of knowledge in all things Dart Frog and Vivarium related!


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## Angel697 (May 4, 2017)

Yes, it was super wet and compacted, it was obvious it wasn't going to work. I also forgot to mention that the inhabitant is actually a crested gecko.  That's what I thought, I just don't know what to do with all this dirt now lol. I feel like I could somehow strained the isopods from the soil.

Thank you for your help! I feel a little more like I know what I'm doing now, and I'm definitely learning a lot from all these errors. Just wish it wasn't so expensive 

I'll post an update sometime soon!


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## rjs5134 (Feb 1, 2017)

I would remove all of the existing material and reinstall just the ABG as Gibbs suggested. I would put the Eco Earth in a Sterilite container of appropriate size and monitor to see if there are any springtails or isopods still remaining. If so you can use this to start new cultures. Add some leaf litter, brewers yeast and fish food and check back in a few weeks.


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## Angel697 (May 4, 2017)

How will my plants do with being pulled out so many times, though? And how should I go about starting over? Should I just add clean up crew to the enclosure after I've switched my substrate? Or would you recommend keeping them in tupperwares first to give them time to reproduce, and then just dump them all in? Can my crested live in her beloved enclosure during all this?

Sorry for the bombardment of questions, I just want to make sure I don't misinterpret anything and somehow mess this up again.


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