[braNikto]

hello, recently I have set up tropical terrarium for my ptychozoon. There is a polystyren background, around 2 cm of black tropical substrate, numbers of thick tree branches and few real plants (I am planning to add much more) and generally I want to maintain it pretty much natural.

However, my question is - how often should I clean this terrarium ? By cleaning I mean, to change substrate, to wash branches, trunks, background. To spray them with antiseptic ? I really don't want to do it too often, because ptychozoons are quite stressed and they do not like to be distrubed at all. On the other side I don't want some diseases and dirts to be spread in the terrarium. Can you advice me, how do you clean (how often and what is the procedure) your terrarium ? Thank you.

[jpstodwftexas]

i don't
i let nature do it

[hofud]

If you remove poo every second day and distill the water to avoid limescale, You don't have much to do. Maybe sometimes its good to change substrate but it also depends the substrate. (I haven't change mine for more than a year).
There are people who use natural cleaners like springtails and do almost nothing.

[aquapimp]

May I add that since I modified my vivaria design to include LECA hydroponic balls as a base layer for drainage, maintenance is reduced to spot-cleaning of fecal matter and dead feeders. In moist or wet environments (Uroplatus enclosures) the drainage layer is invaluable!