Advice on Bioactive setup for Hognose

[goku12qw]

Hey Everyone!

I had posted last month on advice about bioactive set ups and got replies that were really useful! I have decided to go with a bioactive tank for a hognose and was wondering what my steps would be to do that. I heard that bioactive tanks work only with really humid environments but hognoses prefer dry habitats so wondering if it would work and if there was any way to get around it. I was thinking of setting up the tank with a drainage layer then have soil with plants of pothus and a bonsai tree. Then have worms and isopods within this layer and have loose soil mixed with sand on top to allow for burrowing for the hognose. I was thinking of doing spot clean up for big chunks of feces and letting the isopods and worms clean the rest as well as just watering the plants regularly than having the tank humid. Would this work? Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Goku

[Cyclops]

I think so, if the drainage layer drains the water and does not leave to soil to wet or anything.

[goku12qw]

Thanks! Also do you think a 10 gallon tank is good enough for a baby hognose?

[Skipper7]

The 10gal in certainly big enough, but I'm not sure if a 12 inch tall tank will be big enough for bioactive.

[TRD]

The species of 'clean-up crew' that work for tropical bio-active won't work for species that need to be kept dry. You need to get your hands on European woodlice that can take dry, wet, hot, cold. Springtails are out of the question... some people advise cockroaches but since those are a pest themselves I wouldn't do so. Some mealworms and their beetles would work in dry but I heard the beetles may annoy your snake. I'm looking into bio active for an arid terra myself but I got a hard time to get a proper working clean-up crew in such conditions.

A drainage layer is generally not needed in a arid/desert setup as there shouldn't be any large amount of water dumped in there in the first place. Plant species which can survive such conditions will rot when roots are kept wet. You need to provide a ton of bright light for most succulent plants to survive in long term. Not providing enough light and the plants won't grow, not growing plants do not pull nitrogen and whatnot from the soil which defeats the whole bio-active purpose. Succulent plants can play perfectly dormant for many years, so they are tricky to use for bio-active setups unless you can get them to grow. Most soft leave plants and bonsai will not survive in arid/desert setups - too hot, too dry.