bioactive substrate

[MRCliplef]

I'm about to build a bioactive set up for my cherry heads. I have two questions about the substrate.
1. What is the best
2. Does it need a drainage layer

 

[jsheffield]

I'm sure that you'll get a lot of responses, but I thought I'd offer my amateur's opinion.

I bought some rollie-pollies, or pillbugs, about a year ago. I ordered them from Ebay, and distributed the order (maybe 50 of the bugs), between my enclosures. and forgot about them. They seem to congregate under the tile I feed them and under their water bowls, and to have reproduced like crazy.

I recently bought some big worms and started them off in a small plastic container with tiny hold drilled into it and they're fed on, and living in, a mix of grass and leaves and eggshell and tomato and carrot scraps. They seem to be doing well and reproducing, and I've added clumps of the worms into each of my enclosures; my hope is they'll do as well as the pillbugs.

I use a mix of cypress mulch, orchid bark, and little chunks of coconut husks, whatever I can get at a good price in bulk at my local supplier (or from Amazon). I think as long as the enclosure has adequate food and water for them to live on that they'll do fine.

Jamie

 

[Golden Greek Tortoise 567]

My favorite substrate and what many people recommend here is fine grade orchard bark. It keeps in humidity quite well.

 

[jaizei]

It depends on how wet you keep it; if you're able to keep it moist without having actual standing water in the bottom then you can make it work well without drainage layer. I.e., spray/mist more often vs dumping water in substrate. If you let the bottom layer stay wet/standing water, without the drainage layer it can get nasty