Save Money on Creating a Bioactive Enclosure (Without Sacrificing Quality!)

1. Skip the Kits — Build Your Own

Pre-made kits are convenient, but you pay a premium for the convenience of getting a ready made kit.

You can DIY a very similar kit for yourself often for much cheaper:

• Creating your own bioactive substrate mix

• Leaf litter collected safely from outdoors = free!

• Branches and logs = free!

** Make sure you are gathering items from areas that you know are pesticide and fertilizer free!! **

2. Use Local Soil Sources for Your Base Substrate

Buy organic topsoil from a local garden center, instead of reptile branded soils.

It’s safe, cheaper, and behaves exactly the same once mixed with your sand/clay/coco.

Just be sure there are:

• No pesticides

• No fertilizers

• Ideally No perlite

3. Leaves are Free! 

Buying leaf litter online? Wildly overpriced.
You're paying for shipping a bulky item even though leaves weigh almost nothing. 

Collect your own: oak, maple, magnolia, or fruit-tree leaves!

You can bake them at 200°F for 20–30 minutes to kill hitchhikers if needed.

4. Hunt for Free Wood & Branches

Buying wood online can be a gamble, especially if you are paying for pieces that are randomly selected. 

Grab branches from hardwood trees (oak, maple, birch, beech).

Bake or dry in the sun to remove hitchhikers

Avoid Soft Wood Trees:

• Pine

• Cedar

• Anything with lots of sap

5. Culture Your Own Cleanup Crew!

A single $10 culture of dwarf white isopods or springtails can produce endless starter colonies.

Split it into multiple enclosures over time.

• Start with the affordable species

• Start your cultures as soon as you know that you want to make a bioactive enclosure to give them time to establish 

• "Harvest" from different cultures to not deplete an entire culture at once

6. Buy Plants Locally

Pet stores overprice small starter plants labeled “reptile safe.”

Regular houseplants are the same thing—just cheaper!

Budget-friendly winners:

• Pothos

• Spider plants

• Pepperomia

• Snake plants
  

Stick with "pet safe plants" for herbivorous reptiles that may take a bite, and avoid known very toxic plants entirely.

Make sure to rinse the leaves and remove all substrate then let the plant acclimate to fertilizer free, pesticide free soil. The plant will purge any chemical fertilizers during the quarantine process and then be safe for you to use in your bioactive!

7. Make Your Own Background

Expanding foam + silicone + soil works incredibly well as a background!

Use:

• Expanding spray foam

• A tube of 100% silicone (no mold inhibitors!) 

• Loose substrate pressed into the silicone

You can also try carving into an XPS foam board and painting with colored Drylok to create a rocky background!

8. Propagate Your Own Plants

One pothos cutting makes dozens of pothos.

Stick them in water or a plastic bag/container of damp spagnum moss in indirect sunlight, let them root, and boom—free plants for life!

It's basically an infinite new plant glitch!

By using these tips and tricks, you can effectively save a large chunk of money while creating your bioactive enclosure!