# How often do you clean your vivariums!?



## JotnJosie (Apr 16, 2009)

Hello i was wondering how often you clean ur vivariums and be honest!
Every day
Every 2 - 3 days
Every 3 - 5 days
Every 5 - 7 days
Never (i should hope this is not chosen lol)
Mine are personally cleaned every 2 - 3 days 

Make sure ur honest! :2thumb:


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## mariex4 (Oct 19, 2009)

i spot clean daily, disinfecting spots aswell were they left a nice suprise then get a thura clean ever 5-7 days, depending realy how messy they are . i used to do it daily a thura clean but some of my leos are pretty clean and have 1 corner for poops and wee wee's


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## chrismc91 (Jan 31, 2011)

Spot clean min after he's pood(bearded dragon),replace newspaper.Then disinfect viv with casade reptile spray once a week.


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## JotnJosie (Apr 16, 2009)

i personally do full cleans every 2 days just works easier for me like that, but sometimes its 3 days lol (depends on how busy life is) i use reptile disinfectant also when cleaning


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## imginy (Jun 14, 2009)

I clean up in the vivs every day and then every 2-3 days hover out and fully disinfect with tamodine and replace carpet. : victory:


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## eddygecko (Feb 14, 2007)

Never, the bulk of my vivs are tropical with bioactive substrate, they've been set up for a couple of years and never needed to clean them, just wipe the glass occasionaly.


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## chrismc91 (Jan 31, 2011)

I feel like a scruff now will start doing it twice a week.


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## JotnJosie (Apr 16, 2009)

eddygecko said:


> Never, the bulk of my vivs are tropical with bioactive substrate, they've been set up for a couple of years and never needed to clean them, just wipe the glass occasionaly.


not actually heard of this method untill now! but sounds awesome its like a live substrate of bacteria which breaks down the poo, kinda cool  you learn something new everyday! lol


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## JotnJosie (Apr 16, 2009)

chrismc91 said:


> I feel like a scruff now will start doing it twice a week.


Haha! as long as the vivs clean and the reptiles are happy nothing wrong with cleaning it once a week if it is still tidy and doesn't smell


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## Ophexis (Feb 19, 2010)

Spot clean daily, full clean and disinfect once a week.


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## eddygecko (Feb 14, 2007)

JotnJosie said:


> not actually heard of this method untill now! but sounds awesome its like a live substrate of bacteria which breaks down the poo, kinda cool  you learn something new everyday! lol


I use the composty type soil you get in a nice untouched oak woodland. Get a few buckets of it, bugs and all and add a little sand for drainage. The woodlice, springtails, centipedes, milipedes, worms and the rest do great and break down any waste in no time and leaves no smell.


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## JotnJosie (Apr 16, 2009)

eddygecko said:


> I use the composty type soil you get in a nice untouched oak woodland. Get a few buckets of it, bugs and all and add a little sand for drainage. The woodlice, springtails, centipedes, milipedes, worms and the rest do great and break down any waste in no time and leaves no smell.


Lovely! what do you keep on it? leos?  just a guess at ur name :lol2:


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## chrismc91 (Jan 31, 2011)

JotnJosie said:


> Haha! as long as the vivs clean and the reptiles are happy nothing wrong with cleaning it once a week if it is still tidy and doesn't smell


lol the viv never smells, like i say the min he poos and he's stoped guarding it(am sure he's proud of his work)the whole newspaper is changed.Am a bit of a clean freak so will keep up with you guys lol,


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## JotnJosie (Apr 16, 2009)

chrismc91 said:


> lol the viv never smells, like i say the min he poos and he's stoped guarding it(am sure he's proud of his work)the whole newspaper is changed.Am a bit of a clean freak so will keep up with you guys lol,


u change the newspaper everyday? or every 2 days? and disinfect every week? this is a good routine and i dont see any problems with it to be honest :2thumb:


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## chrismc91 (Jan 31, 2011)

JotnJosie said:


> u change the newspaper everyday? or every 2 days? and disinfect every week? this is a good routine and i dont see any problems with it to be honest :2thumb:


 
I change his newspaper(ware he has decided to make a toilet next to his veg dish) everyday and disinfect his veg/water dish every day and ware he doesn't poo (warm side basking area etc).Once a week.


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## JotnJosie (Apr 16, 2009)

chrismc91 said:


> I change his newspaper(ware he has decided to make a toilet next to his veg dish) everyday and disinfect his veg/water dish every day and ware he doesn't poo (warm side basking area etc).Once a week.


Then like i asid its a good routine so dont change it , aslong as its kept clean its all good


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## sambridge15 (Nov 22, 2009)

never clean my viv its a bioactive viv i have various springtails(Seira,Tomocerus longicornis,)a fair few variation of other locally harvested springs some woodlice(Trichorhina tomentosa,Porcellio scaber,Oniscus asellus) worms Eisenia foetida, Eisenia andrei, Eisenia hortensis and Dendrodrilus rubidus as well as a ton of other isopods and invertebrates i collect from local leaf litter not to mention a millions of microorganisms acts to clean my viv 24 7 so i guess i peronally never clean my viv but by custodian bugs never stop :no1: has the great advantage of both never needing to be cleaned as well as constantly smelling of the rainforest its also a planted tank so the waste broken down becomes fertiliser for the plants...also helps with the nice fresh smell....the small bugs also make for a nice variation in diet for my frogs as well as encouraging natural hunting behaviour not to mention ispods make THE best feeders due to being very high in calcium as they are actually tiny crustaceans rather than insects 


if your interested in setting up a bioactive viv most the bugs are available from dartfrog.co.uk


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## Ged (Nov 9, 2009)

I clean out all my vivs weekly, but if I see the odd dead food or poo I will clean that up during the week


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## pinacalada (Jul 21, 2009)

eddygecko said:


> Never, the bulk of my vivs are tropical with bioactive substrate, they've been set up for a couple of years and never needed to clean them, just wipe the glass occasionaly.


I have this too, very good substrate! For the rest of my reps I spot clean everyday.:2thumb:


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## Phil3822 (Mar 8, 2010)

As some others I deep clean weekly with F10 and steamer etc and spot clean daily or when needed.


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## sargie (Nov 28, 2010)

as and when required, so usualy daily and then a good clean once a week.


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## SarahandRyan (Oct 17, 2010)

I spot clean 1 - 2 days, weekly spray a bit of disinfectant and get the vacuum out. Monthly take everything out and scrub them to death lol.


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## maddragon29 (Oct 16, 2008)

I change newspaper/spot clean substrate every 3-4 days. If theres mess under the newspaper, the rubs get disenfected and wiped down. The substrate filled RUBS get disenfected when the substrate is changed (About once every 4-8 weeks).


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## Nix (Jan 23, 2008)

Ophexis said:


> Spot clean daily, full clean and disinfect once a week.


This


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## Mysterious_121 (Feb 18, 2010)

sambridge15 said:


> never clean my viv its a bioactive viv i have various springtails(Seira,Tomocerus longicornis,)a fair few variation of other locally harvested springs some woodlice(Trichorhina tomentosa,Porcellio scaber,Oniscus asellus) worms Eisenia foetida, Eisenia andrei, Eisenia hortensis and Dendrodrilus rubidus as well as a ton of other isopods and invertebrates i collect from local leaf litter not to mention a millions of microorganisms acts to clean my viv 24 7 so i guess i peronally never clean my viv but by custodian bugs never stop :no1: has the great advantage of both never needing to be cleaned as well as constantly smelling of the rainforest its also a planted tank so the waste broken down becomes fertiliser for the plants...also helps with the nice fresh smell....the small bugs also make for a nice variation in diet for my frogs as well as encouraging natural hunting behaviour not to mention ispods make THE best feeders due to being very high in calcium as they are actually tiny crustaceans rather than insects
> 
> 
> if your interested in setting up a bioactive viv most the bugs are available from dartfrog.co.uk


yall right sam  can you send me a step by step guide to this im determined to make one live viv if its the last thing i do - i didnt put a good drainage in last time and bogged my viv 

Spot cleaned dailly. Tank trashers get fully replaced every 2 days. Most of them get a full disinfect 2x a week. I use Beaphur, Ark Klens & F10.


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## Trice (Oct 4, 2006)

With the beardies. 2-3 days.
Snakes (unless they've done a poo) every feed.
Leos usually 3-5 days.


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## Jeffers3 (May 18, 2010)

Spot clean at least daily, often more than this. This is the important clean for beardies in particular. Remove poo and soiled substrate as soon as possible, so spread around the viv is avoided.

Medium clean every few weeks. Big clean (and disinfect) once a month.


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## cerysrogers03 (Feb 24, 2011)

I clean spot clean my beardies and geckos daily. But I gave a full clean for my beardies every saturday (messy buggers) and my geckos every other saturday! X


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## Nike_T7 (Jun 14, 2010)

I take poos out everyday but sieve all the sand twice a month. If its starting to smell, i take sands out and put new sands in... : victory:


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## Spikebrit (Oct 23, 2006)

The geckos on a standard substrate get clean out weekly and disenfected. 

The majority of my colelction are in planted habitats and so they never get cleaned out as the custodians do this job for me. I do occasionally remove some large leaves, if they start to look messy but thats about it. My longest runningn one is now about 5 years. 

Jay


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## Gemstone Dragons (Jul 29, 2009)

I spot clean/sieve my adults bran throughout the day and empty, hoover out, disinfect and replace with new bran weekly, sometimes twice weekly.

My baby enclosures have Lino bottoms so are emptied even of the Lino and cleaned with disinfectant daily then spot cleaned during the day too.


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## JotnJosie (Apr 16, 2009)

From all the replies looks like its pretty much a tie on all of the options!


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## fiesta599 (Jun 11, 2009)

i spot clean every day


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## stephenie191 (May 29, 2007)

There should have been a 'spot clean' option.

I spot clean and then clean the whole viv out once every few weeks. I mean, with corns they poops once a week and thats it. 

I clean water bowl out every day or so. : victory:


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## bumbleyjoe (Feb 5, 2010)

My answer of never is not strictly true but there wasnt the option for me. I spot clean as and when needed and as for full cleans i do these as and when needed too. There is no way im going to do a substrate change and full disinfect for my boscs viv every couple of days that would be stupid, insane and really expensive! As for the others i do not believe disinfecting every day or every few days is very benificial for your reps. Even if you use reptile safe or non toxic disinfectants there will still be some residue left behind that can cause your reps problems. Nobody goes round in the wild spraying disinfectant round their teritorys every couple of days!


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## si-man (Aug 25, 2010)

Cleaned mine the other week ready for it being planted. At the moment, check every few days the back ground and give the glass a wipe where I can see it, substrate is left as its got a woodlice culture and loads of springtails in there, with coco fibre, orchid bark and oak leaves as substrate.


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## MP reptiles (Dec 30, 2010)

mt geckos are on display in exo terrs so see the poo whenever they do it and as a result they get cleaned whenevr they have poop which is almost every day


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## Taz/claire (Nov 6, 2010)

every 5th day i clean her out as in sive the sand. and then at the end of the month i give her a big clean down top to bottom all out clean and back in.


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## Carlenedrago (Aug 21, 2011)

i spot clean everyday and use reptile cleaner where he has been toilet and wash food bowls out with water daily and reptile cleaner weekly also clean glass weekly and wipe all decor with reptile cleaner once a week my bearded dragon is only 3 months so not on any substrate at mo so its alot easier and qiucker to clean :2thumb:


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## Junior13reptilez (Oct 17, 2010)

I don't know why I chose never as I clean mine out every 1-2days ( spot clean ) and about 2-3 weeks 'proper' clean out.


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## kirky1980 (Apr 4, 2010)

beardie and leo spot cleaned everyday my other two vivs never there bio-active aswell one rainforest and the other arid ish lol but seems to be working so far really : victory:


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## nsn89 (Jun 11, 2011)

Everyday, i hate mess!! lol.


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## woodrott (Sep 14, 2008)

6 days a week with f10 sc
one day a week with bleach,f10 degrease then f10sc
with every two weeks a total uvc clean


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