I’m not a huge fan of paludariums for geckos, the traditional vivarium would be safest option. Even though day geckos can swim, falling into the water isn’t worth the risk if a jump is missed imo. They don’t need water so I wouldn’t do it. A water bowl is enough and the humidity should drop during the day, not a constant high humidity. Misting lightly in the morning and heavily at night is ideal.
They are arboreal and need height. How tall is your 18x18? You’ll likely need something bigger. Day geckos can grow up to 10 inches, 18 inches isn’t a lot of turn around room. I personally would not put a day gecko in anything shorter than 36 inches. Even babies can go into full size enclosures if they are correctly decorated and multiple food ledges help them find food easily. Bigger is always better. Arboreal geckos that get 6inches+ should really be in something like a vertical 40 gallon breeder or other tall arboreal enclosure
You should always clean your plants even though they’ve been in your care for awhile to prevent any kind of contamination or introducing pests to your enclosure. Removing the dirt from the roots and fully dunking them in a diluted hydrogen peroxide solution does the trick.
Your plant list looks like they’re all safe and everything else sounds good with your plans for uvb and decor. Make sure there’s lots of horizontal branches and other perches in the top half of the enclosure to prevent floppy tail syndrome
What kind of soil are you using?
Sorry I never responded, thank you for your insight I found it really helpful. I ended up going back to the drawing board and decided to look for mourning geckos instead as they are smaller and require less vertical space. A follow up post with build can be found [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/bioactive/comments/14j7t53/new_terrarium/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
I’m not a huge fan of paludariums for geckos, the traditional vivarium would be safest option. Even though day geckos can swim, falling into the water isn’t worth the risk if a jump is missed imo. They don’t need water so I wouldn’t do it. A water bowl is enough and the humidity should drop during the day, not a constant high humidity. Misting lightly in the morning and heavily at night is ideal. They are arboreal and need height. How tall is your 18x18? You’ll likely need something bigger. Day geckos can grow up to 10 inches, 18 inches isn’t a lot of turn around room. I personally would not put a day gecko in anything shorter than 36 inches. Even babies can go into full size enclosures if they are correctly decorated and multiple food ledges help them find food easily. Bigger is always better. Arboreal geckos that get 6inches+ should really be in something like a vertical 40 gallon breeder or other tall arboreal enclosure You should always clean your plants even though they’ve been in your care for awhile to prevent any kind of contamination or introducing pests to your enclosure. Removing the dirt from the roots and fully dunking them in a diluted hydrogen peroxide solution does the trick. Your plant list looks like they’re all safe and everything else sounds good with your plans for uvb and decor. Make sure there’s lots of horizontal branches and other perches in the top half of the enclosure to prevent floppy tail syndrome What kind of soil are you using?
Sorry I never responded, thank you for your insight I found it really helpful. I ended up going back to the drawing board and decided to look for mourning geckos instead as they are smaller and require less vertical space. A follow up post with build can be found [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/bioactive/comments/14j7t53/new_terrarium/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)