Help me out with my new Tokay enclosure

[john9721]

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Hello everyone! First time posting here. I've kept reptiles for the better part of my life, however I'm getting my first tokay gecko this Tuesday, and have a couple questions. First off, his enclosure is a Thrive 18x18x24 front door glass enclosure with 2 blocks of coco fiber as substrate. As of current, I'm having a hard time maintaining humidity levels. Temperature inside the enclosure is currently 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit, however humidity rarely rises above 55-60%. I have a few live vines and a plant, and I spray the terrarium down with water at least once a day (spray into the coco fiber, the walls and the d?cor) but it rarely seems to help the humidity. What's the secret? More misting? Adding a fogger/mister? I am home pretty frequently as I'm self employed, so misting most days won't be an issue, I just don't want to overdo it.

Secondly, I want to talk about live plants. Currently in the enclosure, I have a few Pothos vines, a few philodendron vines, and a aloe vera succulent planted in the substrate. Now, go easy on me, as this is my first time doing an enclosure with live plants. First off, are all of these safe to have in with a tokay? I know pothos can be toxic to cats and dogs, however I'm not sure about lizards, as everything I've read seems to suggest that they won't eat it to begin with. As far as the aloe vera plant goes, it seems that the leaves have some small barbs on them, they aren't over the top sharp, however it seems to be that it may be a cutting risk for the gecko (Roommate planted these while I was out, by the way. He meant very well, however I want to confirm the safety before the new guy shows up).

I am open to ANY suggestions and advice, like I said this is my first time doing higher humidity with live plants. Past experience has been a ton of leopard geckos, bearded dragons, ball pythons, large iguanas, etc. Thank you!!

[ScoBro]

The Thrive ones that I have seen had alot of screen at the top and on the sides. I know for my ExoTerras, I got some thin plexiglass (cut it to size) and used it to partially cover the screened top. Theoretically, you could even hot cement some plexiglass on the outside of the screen to help maintain humidity.

Are you heating it at all? Ceramic heat robs humidity as well.

[Elizabeth Freer]

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Consider a layered substrate. Periodically water the top layer. The water seeps through the weedblocker cloth into the hydroton. That significantly increases over-all enclosure humidity without adding mold.

• 3rd/top layer = sphagnum moss, Eco Earth's coco fiber, or a soil mix
• 2nd layer = Weedblocker cloth
• 1st/bottom layer = couple inches of hydroton hydroculture terra cotta marbles