Half and half?

[Daisy!]

This is daisy! She’s currently gravid so I made her a dig box of eco earth and repti sand 50/50. I can see she really loves it and digs at every chance she gets. I’m thinking of going half loose substrate with this mixture and leaving the other half with the PVC mat. as the picture suggests. I’m thinking of also planting both strains of haworthias cooperis and renwartii as well as aloe. My question is does half and half make sense? Or should I just go all loose substrate. I’m not worried about impaction as the mix I have doesn’t clump together and it’s fine enough where I know it’ll pass through her. I also don’t plan on having a clean up crew as I’ll be swapping out the substrate every month. Is there a specific shop vac that people use to suck up all the substrate when I deep clean the enclosure every month? It’s a 120 gallon 4x2x2 tank so I don’t want to move the tank around when I clean it. Also, when I buy the plants to settle into the tank should I buy repti soil to settle them in? I won’t use pear lite or pumic because daisy will eat those. If anyone who uses loose substrate can chime in that would be awesome! Without pearlite or pumic how would the plants aerate? Or would they die if I dont use organic top soil?

Thanks all!

 

[AHBD]

Hi there, I don't know how your plants would do so I'll let someone else can answer that. As for the mix being half the tank, it will probably end up all over eventually ,probably might as well do it all. I've used all sand or sand/soil mix in the past, I've avoided the Repti sand because it clumps + can turn to sludge in their stomach and some beardies like to eat it. Children's play sand is safer and much less expensive, especially if you're going to do full changes for cleaning.

Nice looking dragon and set up though, she looks healthy and content.

 

[Chris.]

Hey there. I agree that going all loose substrate would work better and look nicer. Spliting it will give you different hights as well but you could split the kind of substrate. My tank is one half sand/clay mix and the other half playsand/reptisoil
Those plants will be fine ether way as long as you put them in a good spot in the tank. I had those planted right into the clay mix and they did awesome....until Luis tried to get some shed off on the succulants anyway Aloe will grow anywhere (given the right care) as well and is more likely to get destroyed by Daisy.
As for cleaning, I change my substrate twice a year and just desinfect the spots where he poopes plus once a week I disinfect everything (I give everything a light mist with F10 and let it dry).

 

[Chris.]

Sorry for the bad pic, I'm at work and that's how it looks from the webcam

 

[Daisy!]

Thank you all for the suggestions and help! This is the finished product. The haworthias and aloe are both put in potted when it’s time to clean the enclosure in 3 months time. I also left a bare spot where her food dish is! Thanks again all!

 

[Chris.]

Looks really cool. Daisy will sure come to like it a lot!