which substrate for a living vivarium?

[neubauer geckos]

i wanted to do a small living vivarium in a 10 gallon.what should i use as substrate?i REALLY dont want to impact my gecko.i have the other 10 in the rack,but this girl has some serious energy so she gets a tank.but i want it to look nice.any ideas?

 

[lovethelife07]

ive never done any "live" setups with leos but i did one for my crested gecko because for some reason the eco earth woudlnt stop growing mold! so what i did was take the clay balls (i forget what theyre called lol msg me if you want an exact name) and put screen over them then put about an inch of NEW eco earth and then put a few clumps of live moss in there (the guy has a selling in florida) it was sanitized and so so green anyway, ive had it for 6 months-no mold-no problems and its almost all grown together now
i understand that this would not work with a leo because of uth issues but its just an idea because no one else replied

 

[thegeckoguy23]

well use a thermostat and then use a uth and put a layer of hydro balls and then your eco earth on top with your plants in it and add your hides and everything and sense leos don't like moistuer take a syrnge with a needle ad a point and shove in the eco earth by your plants and thats good for watering so only the part that your gecko won't care about is damp.



Jake

 

[acpart]

It's a tough one because if you don't mist the eco earth sometimes it gets really fibrous and dusty. I do use eco earth for my AFT's but I mist daily. Here's another idea: set up a desert environment with fake rocks (there's a lot of info online about how to do this with styrofoam and other materials but you could also use ceramic tiles, natural looking hides and pieces of slate and other rocks). Put some succulents or other plants that like a dry environment in small pots and set up the rocks around that to "hide the plants". Or you could set a pot into a hollowed out rock. Maybe some air ferns, which you can glue to the rocks, would work as well.

Aliza