Bioaktivt bottensubstrat

Hejsan!

Förlåt på engelska, men jag kan inte prata mycket svenska :)

I am currently setting up my first terrarium for a ball python, and i want to go naturalist/bioactive (either with or without CuC, not sure yet). However, i do want to keep live plants. I bought plant growth lights, but am kind of stuck on the appropriate substrate mix now.

I purchased Coco Soil, Sphagnum Moss and ReptiBark. In which quantities/percentages should i mix these? Do you think there is anything missing for the plants to grow well and to achieve healthy, uncompacted soil? If i should decide to add a CuC, would i need anything additionally besides plant litter?

Tack!

I have stoped adding Coco soil to my mix, since it quickly breaks down and compacts.

Would anyone be able to help with this? I tried looking up some bioactive vivarium tutorials, but sadly none of them use the same components as me. I ended up purchasing plant litter too, and am considering adding coconut husk material as well. But i am still really unsure when it comes to the mixing quantities..

You need at least a couple of years experience with a mix before you can know for sure If your mix is good enough in your conditions. Most likelly you will change it after that time and try another mix. We all do it, and we are always looking for something that works better in our conditions and with our animals.

My mix worked ok for 3,5 years, after that I needed to switch. This was done partially at 4 years old and partially at year 5:

youtu.be/eGLicVwQ9TE

I still have a quarter of the substrate to replace and still have the same question as you have. Anyway, I am sure that there are not one perfect mix for all aplications. Not for every plants, every animal nor every keeper.

Just start experimenting and try to find out what works best for you.

/M

If I only had coco fiber, sphagnum moss and reptile bark to use, I'd do 100% reptile bark, 0% coco fiber and 0% sphagum moss :) Maybe I'd consider adding like 10% of the other materials (coco fiber and sphagnum) or something, but I really don't see the point of mixes that are based on sphagnum or coco fiber since it often gets saturated and breaks down fairly quickly.

I currently use a mix of roughly 60% reptile bark, 30% pumice (pimpsten in Swedish) and 10% biochar, but I've also had a lot of success using solely reptile bark in my humid dart frog vivariums.