# Naturalistic set ups/bio active enclosures



## Bug (Feb 25, 2016)

Do any of you keep your Tegus on bio active substrate and/or in a naturalistic vivarium? I'd love to see pics of your set ups for inspiration. I'm planning a naturalistic bio active viv for when my currently small Extreme Giant Tegu grows into the designation.


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## beardeddragon111 (Feb 25, 2016)

Infernalis1 on youtube has great videos on his bioactive cage for savannah monitors. I'd assume any live plant would be torn to shreds by a tegu.


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## chris00144 (Feb 25, 2016)

my 4 year old female tegu in her outdoor enclosure two days ago can't get more bioactive then that lol her first frozen rat of the year


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## chris00144 (Feb 25, 2016)

They will destroy any plants you put in your enclosure especially a extreme giant lol


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## Bug (Feb 25, 2016)

Lol I don't necessarily mean planted when I say naturalistic. Just like not all mulch and log hides and stuff. Like dirt and logs and rocks etc


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## chris00144 (Feb 25, 2016)

Yeah I know what you mean just hard to do anything to naturalistic indoors unless you build something huge


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## Bug (Feb 25, 2016)

I'm doing 8x4x4 with a few additions, but am prepared to build larger if my critter outgrows it.


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## chris00144 (Feb 25, 2016)

In my older indoor enclosure I had a nice mix of like 6 bags of organic top soil couple 5 pound bags of play sand and couple bags spagnom Moss with leaf litter from my backyard


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## beardeddragon111 (Feb 25, 2016)

epic looking tegu cage if you want inspiration.


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## Jorgo (Oct 2, 2019)

Welp, going for the bioactive, got most things going...but I just realized a potentially large mistake, and hoping any vivarium users might got some answers or thoughts.

I bought charcoal briquettes, as it charcoal is supposed to be very good for vivariums. However I just found out that some briquettes potentially use lighter fluid in their mix....should I just toss the whole mix out, is there a way to wash away these potential chemicals? Or is it not much to worry about?
For full disclosure, I had gotten Home 360 classic charcoal briquets. It is not in the enclosure.


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## beardeddragon111 (Oct 2, 2019)

Jorgo said:


> Welp, going for the bioactive, got most things going...but I just realized a potentially large mistake, and hoping any vivarium users might got some answers or thoughts.
> 
> I bought charcoal briquettes, as it charcoal is supposed to be very good for vivariums. However I just found out that some briquettes potentially use lighter fluid in their mix....should I just toss the whole mix out, is there a way to wash away these potential chemicals? Or is it not much to worry about?
> For full disclosure, I had gotten Home 360 classic charcoal briquets. It is not in the enclosure.


Only use pure 100% natural lump wood charcoal, not the briquettes. The brand I use is called royal oak, you can get huge cheap bags of the stuff at Home Depot. If you want to be extra careful you could just use horticulture charcoal.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Jorgo (Oct 2, 2019)

beardeddragon111 said:


> Only use pure 100% natural lump wood charcoal, not the briquettes. The brand I use is called royal oak, you can get huge cheap bags of the stuff at Home Depot. If you want to be extra careful you could just use horticulture charcoal.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Well darn it >.> Well better safe than sorry. ha, spent the whole day trying to crush the stuff, and read about this! Thank you for the input


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## LuvmyTeggie (Oct 17, 2019)

beardeddragon111 said:


> epic looking tegu cage if you want inspiration.


I'm amazed at the beautiful plants in there. I assume they are live? I just don't believe that a larger tegu would rip the plants to shreds. Anyone have any input on using live plants like this? Thanks!


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