Your Favorite Substrate

[Danabug020]

Is there a reason for the layering of different kinds of substrates (ie river rocks under dirt etc.)?

[Wildcelt]

The rock provides drainage for the moss. The moss stays damp, but not wet.
This keeps the humidity fairly decent (along with mistings), but keeps it so that mold isn't an issue.

[CraniumDesigns]

i use the fake green carpet stuff people put out in front of their trailers. my geckos dont mind it and it makes the poop very easy to clean.

[cml3.0]

I have used paper towels, I haven't tried any natural setups. I like the idea when I set up a display cage someday but right now paper towels work great for me

[german ciliatus]

wow...looks like nerly every american is using paper towel. Here in germany it is pretty rare to use it for crested geckos.

[tunachris]

I have about 1 1/2" of aquarium gravel under my substrate in a "false bottom" set-up. The gravel is covered with window screen to keep the soil/coconut husk mix from dropping into the gravel and all the way to the bottom. This keeps the soil from becoming saturated, and helps to maintain humidity in the tank. The whole system is bio-active, and seems to have reached a balance which make maintenance very simple, all I do is clean the branches and glass once a week to get the waste off.

I do have some moss on top of the soil mix around the plants, again to keep everything damp and help to maintain humdity. I just tore down the entire tank this weekend to put in a new background and replaced the gravel. Over the past couple of years I had wanted to make some changes, so a complete overhaul was in order. I found 2 more eggs while doing the change over. I had a jungle scene photographic background on the tank, and was looking for more of a 3D background. I ended up getting 2 24"X24" Exoterra backgrounds and using those. This give the whole tank more of a 3D look, which is nice as the tank is in my family room, and anyone coming over can see it. I also re-arranged the plants, as I had added new plants from time to time after the initial set-up. Now the largest plants are in back and at one end which is covered over. The other end and front are open for viewing. I also got some air plants and some moss which I stuck onto the background.

I recently bought the largest Exo-terra tank for my larges babies, and in the future I am going to change it over to a naturalistic tank. Right now it has a coconut husk/planting moss mix as a substrate. I was given some small computer fans which I like to use for air circulation. I will put one of them and a grow light on this tank, use a gravel bed false bottom and the same substrate mix , and then plant this tank.

Chris

[RiddleN]

I use coco-fiber (the expandable brick kind) and I love it. I mostly feed my gecko CGD, but I give her crickets once a week. They are dead, canned crickets dusted with CGD/Calcium and I feed them to her by hand. So I don't ever have to worry about impaction.