Bioactive Substrate Calculator

Enter the floor size of your enclosure and how deep you want each layer. You'll see how much substrate and drainage material to buy.

How deep should each layer be?

• Substrate: about 3–4 in (7–10 cm) for most tropical setups. Go deeper (4–6 in) for burrowing animals or large plants. Arid setups often use 2–4 in.
• Drainage layer: about 1–2 in (2.5–5 cm) in humid enclosures. Many arid setups skip it.
• Leaf litter: a loose 1–2 in layer on top, topped up as the isopods eat it.

Bagged substrate is sold by volume. Sizes on US bags are usually in dry quarts, which is what this calculator uses (1 dry quart ≈ 1.1 L).