Do I Regret Going Bioactive?

When I first got Marbles, I was excited to make her enclosure bioactive. But, being as frugal as I am, I wanted to do a DIY because I thought it was going to be cheaper- and it was at first. I ended up having to spend lots of money replacing plants and what not.

I actually ordered some springtails to be the decomposers of the enclosure, and the package said to dump the rubber feeling charcoal in there and it'd be fine. Well, my springtailes didn't make it because  I didn't realize you had to feed them things like cucumbers slices. So now I have no clean up crew and just lots of charcoal looking things mixed into the substrate- when I change the substrate here in a few weeks I am gonna get all of it out so the charcoal goes away. It doesn't hurt Marbles and she doesn't eat it, its just annoying and doesn't flow with the aesthetic of the tank.

Before

After

Ball pythons like to bulldoze things. Marbles is four for four on destroying the plants every time I redo her enclosure. I bought some fake vines and put them up high just for now. I really like them because its more green than I have ever put in the pots on the wall and it looks cool hanging down. They're the All Living Things Medium Hanging Terrarium Plants 12". They came with suction cups on them, but I have a dirt and foam background so I just planted them as I would a real vine.




All in all I do not regret trying a bioactive enclosure, I love the idea of it, it is just hard to maintain with a reptile that destroys everything. The next reptile I get in a few years once I am in my own place, most likely a lizard of some kind, I might try going bioactive.