fat tail living viv?

[neubauer geckos]

i just got my first pair of fat tails,and i wanted to make them a living vivrium,but i have some questions.first,can i use all eco earth substrate so i can just plant the plants directly in the substrate?and would pothos plants and bromileads be good?any other advice is greatly appreciated!thanks in advance!

 

[acpart]

Here's what I've done: 2/3 of the tank has hydroton clay balls, layer of mesh and eco earth with plants put directly into the substrate. 1/3 of the tank (separated by a piece of plexiglass) has eco earth only with a UTH underneath and ceramic hides (that I made) with ceramic bottoms set into the substrate. Since I was going for less of a "tropical" and more of a savannah effect, I have used haworthia and jade plants. I tried African violets 3 times and though theoretically they should work, it failed each time. I'll include a picture of my viv as I made it about 2-3 years ago in a few minutes. It's changed a bit since then.

ALiza

 

[acpart]

Here's my fat tail viv:

Aliza

 

[neubauer geckos]

I will be going for more of a tropical look,even though they're from a more Savannah habitat.I was thinking I'll just put in some coco fibre for substrate.I'll only have a thin layer where the heat pad will go,and the rest will have enough to support 2-3 pothos plants.will this work?thanks!and your setup looks really nice,but is not quite what I'm going for.

 

[neubauer geckos]

And it will be in a 20 long for 2 geckos,by the way.

 

[acpart]

It should work as long as you can provide enough drainage for plants. In my second AFT viv I decided to just push the clay balls to one side so as to leave the other side with just coco fiber so the UTH heat will reach. I would really recommend drainage unless you want to mound coco fiber around potted plants.

Aliza

 

[neubauer geckos]

What Is the point of the drainage?if it's for the health of the plant,then it's unnecessary with pothos because I have had 2 pothos directly planted into Eco earth in my cresteds 10 gallon.they've been in there for a few months,and are thriving.I have also done this in various tarantula and scorpion cages without problem.

 

[HepCatMoe]

yah pothos dont need drainage, but it seriously helps if you want other species of plants.

 

[HepCatMoe]

p.s. i had haworthia in one of my tanks, and it looked awesome. its just the right size to make the geckos look like little dinosaurs.