Help me get my vivarium back on track!

[summit]

Hi there, to give you a bit of a history I am new to vivariums, and reptile keeping in general but have always wanted to try it out. I did alot of research on keeping crested geckos and decided that was what I wanted, as I always want to give my pets the best possible home, I decided a natural vivarium would be the way to go without first looking into it, I just figured some dirt and plants, away we go! How wrong I was.

It is an exo-terra 12x12x18, it has been set up for about 3 months now, I put in a 3/4" layer of pea gravel with screen overtop for drainage, then a layer of exo-terra Jungle Earth about 4-5" deep. I rinsed the plants with room temperature water, and as well knocked as much soil from the roots as I could and rinsed them to assure there would be no fertilizers or pesticides, and I am using the exo-terra single CFL 27 watt lamp for lighting, I mist twice a day for my gecko, but do not water the substrate at all except for the intial set up of my tank, I was worried about stagnant water sitting in the bottom of my terranium in the gravel, and the substrate is too loose to hold the water, it just pours right through.

Basically to sum up my problems I have a pest problem, there are alot of very tiny bugs crawling around, they do not fly, but I could swear have wings on them, they are very tiny and appear to be a whiteish color, some others are more black. They do not seem to bother my gecko, but they are in its food all the time, and I worry they are doing damage to the live plants. My live plants are also dieing, my rubber plant is doing well, but the ficus and moss I put in there are dieing, where do I start?

Is the substrate I used not good for live plants? its basically like bark mulch, the water just seems to fall right through it, thats why I do not water the substrate as it just goes right through to the pebble layer.

How do I kill the pests? Or are they pests?

Where do I start to find out whats killing my plants?

[Sonslight]

Try this method from the home page of the site.
Eliminating vivarium pests - Vivarium Forum
Hopefully that will help.

If these are indeed pests and are damaging your plants. Someone with more experience than I should be able to help further.

[summit]

thanks, the problem is I am having a hard time identifying these due to the size and trying to tell if they are pests or if they are good, if they were pests would my rubber plant not be dieing as well? They just seem to be getting more prevalent

[Austin]

By rubber you mean a plastic one? Most bugs you get in a viv do not eat plastic/fake materials...

I didnt click on the link so I dont know if this was suggested but a common way to eliminate pests is to fill the tank with dry ice(of course taking out the gecko first).

You have to cover the top of the tank then put dry ice in a cup and pour water in it. The gas(forgot what it is called) given off by the reaction will take up all the space and there will be no more oxygen. Thus killing off any living thing inside of the viv, the plants to not need the oxygen and the dryice gas will actually help them grow.

I think I explained that right, if anyone has anything to correct/add feel free.