# Newbie questions for green iguana viv



## BeagleJimmy (Oct 24, 2012)

Hello; 
Im planing to build a planted viv for green iguana in my room (room is big) /basic









Now, i have few questions..
1) Is it possible not to change the soil ever?
2) Howmuch % (based on soil) of hydroton i need?
3) If this is possible, what to add between bricks and soil, so i dont get moisture into bricks and room wall?
4) What and howmany insects should i add to viv to clean a feces, and not overpopulate since ig/ig is herbivore?
5) How to clean huge log from woodworms?

This should be all for now... thx in advance

If you help me with this, ill do any graphic request for you!


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## BeagleJimmy (Oct 24, 2012)

Bump :<


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## fatlad69 (Oct 22, 2009)

Don't worry about overpopulating with insects they will self regulate.


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## BeagleJimmy (Oct 24, 2012)

Well thank you Sir! 4 to go!


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## Salazare Slytherin (Oct 21, 2009)

This is some project! I will be interested on hearing the end result.

Can I ask why you have went for the bioactive substrate approach has something inspired you, have you used one before? 
:2thumb:


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## BeagleJimmy (Oct 24, 2012)

Actually this would be first viv ive ver build, and iguana first reptile. Ive been planning for months, both collecting money and informations. Since its gonna be a "planted viv" i thought of soil as a good idea(i know its 80% humus), although i'll have to read more about bioactive vivs be4 i completly decide. Anyway what do you think i should put as a substrate? I really like animals, and when i see lizards in such a small and "decoration poor" tanks, it makes me sad. So i wanna make as much confy as possible for my future iguana.


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## fatlad69 (Oct 22, 2009)

The substrate we use in the phib section is a mix of Ecco earth, soft tree fern, orchid bark, peat moss and I add cork pieces to hep with drainage. Plants just love it. Make it up in buckets, add you insects, keep it moist not wet and feed the insects fish food. The fish food will grow mould and they eat the mould. Then when you viv is built you have a live substrate ready to eat the lizard dung!
I would advise some sort of tap so you can drain any excess water. If you are worried about the brick work just cover it with pond liner.


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## Salazare Slytherin (Oct 21, 2009)

BeagleJimmy said:


> Actually this would be first viv ive ver build, and iguana first reptile. Ive been planning for months, both collecting money and informations. Since its gonna be a "planted viv" i thought of soil as a good idea(i know its 80% humus), although i'll have to read more about bioactive vivs be4 i completly decide. Anyway what do you think i should put as a substrate? I really like animals, and when i see lizards in such a small and "decoration poor" tanks, it makes me sad. So i wanna make as much confy as possible for my future iguana.



Hi, well I certainly think it is different, the use of a substrate in truth takes a little bit more work and knowledge of the animals nvolved, I have used substrates myself, each with varying differences. Often you will read that impaction is a possibility through injesting substrate particulates with these guys, in truth though, something has to actually be wrong to cause that behavior in the first place, so providing everything is spot on, nutritonally, heat, space, etc that should never happen.

I have to be honest a bioactive substrate in an enclosure that size raises some question marks for me, iguanas are very inquisitive, and whether they get bored, or just investigate something out of curiosity the outcome of injesting live insects is very real and therefore could be harming your vegetarian lizard in the long run?, one example of that would be a keeper who offerd a pond and his iguana swallowed a gold fish, and then another where in a mixed room of snakes, varying lizards, chelonia, and toads the owner was greatly misinformed and his iguanas actually climbed up toward the window to be fed insects, what they like eating is very different to what they should eat, so try not to confuse that issue. I have an iguana dieing from kidney damage now through that exact way of thinking.

In big zoo exhibits and huge room sized walk in enclosures this usually wouldn't be a problem the space would mitigate alot of the behavior, the enviroments are more enriched, decorated, planted out, heated and what ever else, but in an enclosure like the one your describing for a vegetarian lizard I see question marks raising on the overall substrate around a very oppurtunistic animal, if it was an insectivore I would be totally with it, but iguanas like any other animal are oppurtunists, and in enclosed spaces you kind of encourage more and more unatural behaviors if that makes sense..

You don't have to use a bioactive substrate in order to live plant out an iguana enclosure, most potted palms do quite well in them, and they are great for humidity also, but then again, remember iguanas grow to be big lizards, and so live planting perm might not be the best idea, they will climb and ruin absaloutely everything in their paths due to sheer weight, and in many cases will eat them too.

I have used reptile bark, [email protected] bark, topsoil, bark and soil mix, bark soil and leaf litter mix, anything that gives a good forest effect and will hold in humidity quite well and allow good traction and floor locomotion, but I would be concerned about introducing insects in with them personally unless the space was much larger, that is just me.

So you could infact actually acheive a good naturalistic setup , and provide live plants, without introducing insects, provided the substrate is spot cleaned regularly, replaced as needed (iguanas also tend to poo in their water trays/dishes so you may very well, hardly if ever need to change that substrate, so it is entirely up to you, and if you do go with the bioactive substrate approach I wish you luck with it, and getting some ideas of what to add into it, as already said may warrant some expertise from the amphibian section.

Ultimately for me, iguanas are just far too oppurtunistic for my liking to add in bugs and that is my honest opinion. I think the likes of these adding in bugs with iggys etc should be left to the proffesionals who fully understand the benefits, behaviors, and the risks. : victory:

Either way that works out, I think it would be ace, but it is entirely up to you to way out the varibles.


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## BeagleJimmy (Oct 24, 2012)

Now thats an answer! Ty vm!


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