Thinking about going bioactive

[sockSnek]

I've been doing some research on switching to bioactive for my corn snake, and I have a couple questions that you guys might be able to answer.

1. Whenever I try a search, the company Genesis Exotics is always up there in the results, but I can't find any reviews of any of their products or really anything about the company itself. Can anyone tell me anything about them? Are their substrate mixes any good? Their starter kit for a 40 gal terra firma is 144.95.

2. Speaking of which, how much should I expect to spend on this (excluding plants)?

3. I've found a lot of guides of what to use and how to set up one of these enclosures (some of this forum), but there's a lot of information and I'm still left with a lot of options for substrate, plants, drainage layer vs no drainage layer, etc. What's your favorite guide to follow what has worked out for you?

[Piggybuns]

I'm curious about this too, honestly. I've seen a lot of people lately on Tumblr stating they were swapping over to this and that it's a self-running kind of enclosure, but I'm fuzzy on some deets.

I'm actually off to gawk at Genesis Exotics and check them out, myself.

[eminart]

My personal tips:

1. Don't overcomplicate it. It's just dirt. Some topsoil and sand from home depot, mixed with a little soil from your yard to add micro organisms is fine.
2. Use a drainage layer (pea gravel works fine, despite what some might say).
3. The internet is a stupid place. Talk to a couple of reasonable people who have done it. Read "The Art of Keeping Snakes".
4. The micro fauna do nearly all the work. Springtails and isopods are nice, but most of the waste is broken down at the microscopic level.

[Andy_G]

+1 to everything Em said. I would mention that I have used pea gravel and clay balls, and I prefer the clay balls simply because of the fact that they're more lightweight, but that's it.

[eminart]

+1 to everything Em said. I would mention that I have used pea gravel and clay balls, and I prefer the clay balls simply because of the fact that they're more lightweight, but that's it.

I agree about the weight. But, for a corn snake sized enclosure, I'd probably go with the cost savings of gravel over clay balls.

[sockSnek]

Haha, I think I need a better understanding of dirt. I know nothing about microorganisms or soil or what plants need. I have the opposite of a green thumb (a black thumb with clear signs of necrosis?) and my biggest worry about all this is keeping all the non-snake things alive.

I'm gonna read up on some of that and then follow your advice and keep it simple.

[eminart]

Haha, I think I need a better understanding of dirt.

No, you really don't. That's my point. If you go read all the bioactive pages on facebook, or wherever, some of the people will have you believing it's complicated. But, it's really not. The microorganisms are everywhere. All you have to do is put the dirt in your enclosure. Adding some dirt from outside might help speed them up, but it probably isn't needed as long as you don't use some sort of sterilized soil mix.

As far as plants, whatever you want that will live in the type of light/soil you provide (assuming it isn't toxic).

I'd really recommend the book I mentioned above for more info on plants.

[Piggybuns]

If it's seriously that easy, I might make that my project tomorrow. Go out, get some dirt, and throw in some dead leaf litter. (I'm not doing live plants, I don't think I need much of a drainage layer, if at all, right?) If so, I could have everything swapped over lickity split before the winter freeze.

[akane]

You can go the expensive route or just go somewhere you know hasn't been sprayed with chemicals, dig a hole, discard the top plant matter and any bulbs or major roots that could regrow, mix the resulting soil, critters, and probably a few roots with enough sand or clay to "taste" for your setup. Sometimes you want something that drains more and sometimes you want something that holds more. Sometimes some larger particles like small gravel (natural colored aquarium versions work well), crushed coral, crushed lava rock, etc... can help provide more structure so it doesn't compact but my desert tank for my rosy boa is mostly white quartz sand (~60%) with coconut compost. Various composts and organic materials can be used for increased nutrients for plants and for critters. Plus compost is usually fairly loose material so it helps avoid compacting on it's own and by having things wander around eating it. Various dried leaves, often partially crushed and sometimes collected off the ground wet to gain more critters, is usually added to at least part of the tank for critter food and more organic matter. You may get mold or fungus depending what you use and how wet your setup needs to be kept for its inhabitants but the soil critters will take care of those eventually.

The drainage layer may or may not be necessary and may be simple or complex. In my desert tank it is not necessary. There is not enough moisture collecting to have standing water and it drains rapidly away from the top. Low humidity tanks take special care to setup areas for your isopods and soil critters that stay moist and have organic material. Light, soft wood works great. In my bullsnake enclosure I made a very deep, heavy substrate of mostly yard soil and coconut compost with several inches of playsand under that so I just stuck a layer of river rock in there with no divider. In my smaller Dekayi enclosure I found my soil fell through my thinner drainage layer filling in the lava rock on the bottom and I could not get the thing dry in our humidity. I redid it with plastic craft mesh as a divider and some sand with the rock to help allow the water to drain out and the soil to stay separate. The soil layer is also much thicker partially planned and partially I just didn't realize how much was living in his previous enclosure so I ended up wanting to use it all. You can see it in my Dekayi thread in the general colubrid section. I took one pic with flash so the divider and rock would show up at the bottom.

I've got all sorts of centipeds and milipedes, some regular worms, some white thin worm things, some isopods, I think the springtails were killed by predatory mites but normally springtails would take over with plenty of leaf litter or organics to eat, of course as said I have various soil mites... Sometimes it's fun to just look at the critters after dark with a flashlight and see what's come out to move around on top or loosening up the soil from the middle.

It's as easy or complicated and as cheap or expensive as you want to make it depending how creative you get with materials and the drainage design you follow. Plus what your inhabitants are going to do to it. Some burrow extensively and others don't. I set the bullsnake in thinking he'll find a rock hole to hide in and nope he slipped right down in the soil and all you saw was this little trail of disturbed surface soil disappearing under the rocks and wood. I was warned my layering might just become a mix eventually. I placed base rock like you do in saltwater tanks with deep sand beds so that the animals can't dig under the surface rocks and crush themselves. Then you put your decorative rock on top of the cheap base rock at the top of the substrate layer.