Too much drainage?

[u/Latter_Activity_5256]

Hello, my son caught a flat tailed gecko and two small toads recently and I bought the ‘Thrive Starter kit’ 20g terrarium on sale.

We made a nice substrate with reptisoil and some local decaying wood and leaves, and I ordered a 10 pound bag of leca balls.

I used about 2/3 of it, but now it seems like it’s not getting wet at all, and I think I overdid it?

Currently have about 2” of drainage and 2” of substrate, and the substrate is right up to the edge of the glass door. Thinking about removing an inch of drainage and adding an inch of substrate for the toads to burrow in, and better/easier planting. We hope to make this bioactive and have real plants grow in it to increase how much my 4 and 6 year old can learn from it!

Do you think we will be ok with just 1” of drainage layer? Right now it’s dry and the substrate is very moist. We are spraying it every 4 hours for 20 seconds with two misting nozzles, one on each rear corner of the tank spraying inwards.

[u/mikeu-mouser0508]

The drainage layer can be 1” for sure. More important would be a greater substrate ti drainage ratio, and screen mesh on the leca to prevent any digging and mixing.