How To Build A Crested Gecko Vivarium
By: Jason
Last Updated: March 31, 2023
You want to create an enclosure that mimics the natural environment for your pet cresties best quality of life, but getting everything set up correctly can be challenging. What must you include to make a crested gecko vivarium a self-sustaining environment that won’t harm your pet?
A bioactive enclosure resembles the native environment of its inhabitants and relies on live plants, invertebrates, and fungi to help control waste products. A crested gecko tank can become a beautiful, low-maintenance home with the correct lighting, vivarium substrate, and a handful of plants.
This article will cover the advantages of a vivarium, the necessary components, and how to set one up properly.
Advantages of Bioactive Enclosures
A vivarium is a terrarium housing one or more animal species. This type of living option has numerous benefits for you and your pet.
Naturalistic Environment: A bioactive enclosure replicates the natural environment of crested geckos, which helps to reduce stress and promotes natural behaviors such as climbing, hiding, and hunting.
Self-Sustaining: The living organisms in the tank create a self-sustaining ecosystem, which reduces the need for frequent cleaning and maintenance. This can save time and money for a crested gecko keeper and create fewer disruptions (because you need to reach in for cleaning less often), which reduces stress for the eyelash gecko.
Health Benefits: The plants in a bioactive setup can help to improve air quality, control humidity, and absorb waste. Plants freshen the air by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen into the tank. They also release water vapor, helping maintain humidity.
Aesthetically Pleasing: A bioactive enclosure can be visually appealing and provide a more natural and beautiful environment for everyone to enjoy. Larger enclosures occupy more space, making your pets’ home a focal point. Lush moss and beautiful plants make for a miniature indoor garden for you to enjoy when its four-legged occupant is hiding.
Enriching: The familiar environment provided by a bioactive living space promotes natural behaviors in pet reptiles, such as foraging and burrowing. This helps keep the crestie mentally stimulated and reduces the risk of behavioral issues such as aggression, depression, and stress.
A bioactive enclosure provides a more natural, autonomous, and enriching crested gecko enclosure, promoting overall health and well-being.
Components of a Crested Gecko Terrarium
A few essential components are needed to replicate the natural habitat of crested geckos at home.
The tank is the first and most crucial component; a good one is more than just a glass box. The tank should be tall, at least 20 gallons, and made of glass or plastic. The tank should also have a way for air to circulate. Some plastic reptile enclosures have vents along the sides, but airflow most often comes through screen-top ventilation.
Next is the substrate, or the material that lines the bottom of the tank. In addition to choosing bedding that is crested gecko safe, a bioactive substrate needs to support the “crested gecko cleanup crew” and plants, retain water and drain effectively. Some popular choices for layers of substrates in bioactive tanks include mixtures of coconut fiber, sphagnum moss, and reptile bark. The BioDude brand Terra Fauna is a well-draining soil that is a pre-blended mix designed for the biomes like this.
One of the defining features of a bioactive tank is the clean-up crew. Typically, this would include isopods and springtails, but it can also have millipedes and earwigs. These organisms use soil, plant roots, and waste matter to help keep the habitat clean.
Live tropical plants are another must. While artificial plants are sufficient for climbing and creating a temperature gradient, they do not assist with humidity, and they don’t help combat mold and bacteria that will eventually develop. Some species of plants are better suited for crested geckos’ temperature, humidity, and lighting needs, while other decorative plants won’t survive for long. Some good, hardy plants with sturdy leaves include pothos, Chinese evergreen, and elephant ears.
Proper lighting is essential for the plants in the tank to thrive. The plants should get what they need as long the bulbs provide bright lighting in the visible range. UVB lighting is optional for crested gecko habitats but isn’t problematic for them, provided they have plenty of hiding places. The benefits of UV lighting are most directly related to a body making vitamin D3, which is linked to the proper absorption of calcium.
Decorations such as rocks, branches, and plants can be added to give the tank a natural background and make the tank more visually appealing. Choosing decoration items that are safe for crested geckos and do not contain harmful chemicals or pesticides is essential.
With the right tank, plants, lighting, decoration, substrate, and isopods, you’ve got the needed items for a bioactive gecko setup.
Setting Up A Vivarium
To correctly assemble the crested gecko vivarium setup, follow these steps.
1. Select your enclosure. A larger tank will require more contents but offer more options and a more robust living environment for your pet.
2. Install a drainage layer. The drainage layer serves several functions, including capturing water, preventing saturation of the substrate layer, supporting a healthy microfauna population, and maintaining stable humidity levels in the enclosure. Consider lava rock, LECA, or gravel. Lava rock is naturally porous, ideal for drainage, and reduced weight, and is a very popular option. Gravel is popular because of its low cost, but its weight is a downside and it can crack a tank. Lightweight expanded clay aggregate (or LECA) solves the weight issue and comes in evenly-sized spheres which fit nicely together.
3. Add a screen layer. Something must keep the substrate layer from reaching the drainage layer but still allow water and air to pass through. Use a non-toxic fine mesh screen, whether a pre-cut piece or a weed barrier found at most hardware stores. The screen layer should be cut 2-3 inches longer on each side to ride up each tank wall, preventing soil from going over the sides.
4. Put in the substrate layer. Vivarium enthusiasts debate the topic of vivarium substrate, which must be carefully chosen. A proper substrate needs sustainability for plant and microfauna life, the tank inhabitants and resist long-term breakdown. The industry standard substrate is the “ABG” substrate, created by the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. ABG substrate includes two parts of tree fern fiber, one part peat, one part charcoal, one part sphagnum, and two parts of orchid bark. The layers of substrates should be a few inches deep, which is needed for the root structure of the plants, but smaller than the screen layer running up the sides.
5. Introduce the clean-up crew. Add whatever isopods, springtails, and other critters will manage the waste.
6. Position the plants. When placing the plants, you create a home that works for your pet and space with the desired aesthetic. Experienced keepers put larger plants in the corners and toward the back, creating safe hiding places. Mid-sized and smaller plants fill in the center, often with the smallest specimens closest to the front, to keep your view clear. Plants can be kept in their original pots or transplanted into the substrate.
7. Add a layer of leaf litter. The forest floor is an always-changing landscape covered in decaying plant matter. Leaf litter provides a few significant benefits to a live vivarium, including providing smaller inhabitants hiding spots and adding nutrients to the plants and the clean-up crew as they break down.
8. Pour in water. Place a shallow water bowl or two somewhere you can reach to fill it as needed. Trickle purified water over the plants until it soaks into the drainage layer. Fill the water dishes with a bit of water; enough to have a little puddle but not enough for a bath. A larger water dish will help maintain the humid environment, but it isn’t a great trade-off if it takes up too much of the tank’s floor.
9. Arrange the decorations. Sticks, branches, hides, logs, rocks, feeding ledges, and other crested gecko tank accessories can all go in now. Create as much height as possible, with lots of places to climb. Since crested geckos are arboreal reptiles, they prefer to spend their time higher in the tank amidst plants and branches. As you create an arboreal environment, leave a way to reach in and out of the enclosure. Water dishes must be filled regularly, plants watered, and waste cleaned. When my daughter and I created a stunningly attractive but wholly impractical habitat, we were both incredibly sad and frustrated as the days and weeks passed.
10. Mist. Spray the tank down.
11. Wait. This is quite possibly the most challenging step in the process. A vivarium has so many interacting components you want to give everything time to settle and reach equilibrium. You’ll want to wait a few days before you introduce your pet.
12. Crested Gecko. The time has come to introduce your friend to its new home!
13. Monitor. After introducing your gecko, it’s time to monitor the environment and ensure everything functions correctly. Check your substrate for mold, which can be caused by too much water or a lack of ventilation. Check the plants for signs of distress, such as yellowing leaves or wilting stems. If the humidity is too low, mist more often and adjust the water levels accordingly.
Conclusion
I sincerely hope you consider using a bioactive habitat. Keeping pets in more natural ways is incredibly rewarding for everyone. While it takes more time and resources to set it up initially, the results are well worth it.
Creating a crested gecko vivarium is a fun and rewarding hobby and provides a safe and comfortable home for your new pet. With the right setup and care, your gecko will thrive in its little tropical paradise. So get creative with your vivarium design, and watch your gecko’s personality shine through!
