Right before you bring your leopard gecko home, you must arrange its tank and accessories, and setup its terrarium. Make sure to take care of everything before your leopard gecko arrives, to make everything go as smoothly as possible. In this post, we will cover how to setup a leopard gecko terrarium easily. You will be able to find a step by step guide on preparing essentials and tips on setting up a terrarium correctly. At the end of this post, you will also find a shopping list for a leopard gecko.
To build or buy a terrarium for a leopard gecko?
Of course, it is easier to buy a ready terrarium for your leopard gecko. Commercial reptile terrarium will have an installed air screen, raised bottom, ventilation holes, closable inlets, front opening doors for an easy access, waterproof base and more.
If you plan to build a DIY leopard gecko tank, you will need plan all of these features yourself. Front opening doors are a big plus because leopard geckos tend to freak out when you put your hand in the tank from the top.
DIY leopard gecko terrarium
- One of the ideas for a DIY leopard gecko terrarium is to get an 15-20 gallon aquarium. Make sure there are ventilation holes (see below).
- On the bottom, have stick on feet to lift the aquarium up from the table to ensure air flow. This is important when using an under tank heating pad – you can burn the table and crack the tank if you don’t lift it. Some UTHs have stick on feet.
- Add the substrate.
- Get an under tank heating pad.
- Then, you will need to get a top air screen made of mesh for air ventilation).
- Add decoration – 3 hides (warm, moist, cool), branches and plants
- Place food and water bowls.
- Use a non-toxic aquarium sealant to waterproof tank’s edges.
Please note that an aquarium can’t really make a good habitat for a leopard gecko. The problem is with ventilation, and most aquaria don’t have any ventilation holes apart from the top. To have a proper ventilation and to facilitate heat distribution, an aquarium or other tank should have proper ventilation.
Good ventilation in a terrarium include one from the front and the top (as in commercial terraria). Satisfactory is to have ventilation from the side and the top side. Unacceptable ventilation is having holes from the side only, or the side and top middle.
How to setup a leopard gecko terrarium?
Step 1: Get a terrarium
You will need to buy a terrarium for your leopard gecko. The best size terrarium for 1 adult leopard gecko is 20 gallons. 30 gallons is ideal for 2 leopard geckos. Some owners choose to house their leopard gecko in a 10 gallon terrarium, but there won’t be much space for your leopard gecko to move around.
A 10 gallon tank is good for babies of up to 5 months old. It will be also hard to create a temperature gradient in a 10 gallon tank. A terrarium for a single leopard gecko needs to be at least 18 inches long.
Your leopard gecko needs a horizontal terrarium for more floor space. Leopard geckos are not the best climbers and need more walking space.
One of the best terrarium choices for a single leopard gecko is this small wide tank by Exo Terra, which is 18″x18″x18″, or roughly 25 gallons. If you have two leopard geckos, a medium wide tank by Exo Terra (24″x18″x18″, or roughly 33 gallons) will be perfect. If you are making your own tank, don’t forget to add an air screen.
Step 2: Get the substrate
After getting a terrarium, you will need to add the substrate in the tank. The best substrate for leopard geckos include paper towels, reptile carpet like this and slate tiles. If using tiles, don’t glue them to the floor, as you will need to take them out for cleaning.
You must not use sand as a substrate, as it is dangerous and can cause impaction. Even other loose substrates are not recommended because they can cause impaction, but some owners choose to make bioactive substrate with coconut fiber (for example Eco Earth). While leopard geckos like digging, you can fill the moist box with loose sphagnum moss to allow some digging.
You can even place two types of substrates in the tank – for example half with slate tiles, and half with reptile carpet or coco fiber.
But bioactive substrate is not a must because most leopard geckos poop in one spot, making cleaning easier. This is unlike crested geckos, who poop anywhere and soil the tank flooring and glass.
So it is better to stick with paper towels, carpet or tiles for your leopard gecko. Babies of up to 4 months will do best on paper towels. If getting a reptile carpet, it is a good idea to have two of them, so you can swap them when cleaning.
Find more information on leopard gecko’s substrate in this post.
Step 3: Get an under tank heater (UTH)
Without a doubt, the best way to heat a leopard gecko’s tank is by using an under tank heater like this. Leopard geckos don’t need bright lights, and prefer to heat their belly for digestion and warming up. When getting an UTH, make sure it cover only 1/3-1/2 of the tank’s size. Place it in one corner of the tank to create a temperature gradient.
You will need to leave UTH for 24/7, unless the temperatures in the house are higher than 86 F (30 Celsius) degrees. At night, you can turn it off if house temperature doesn’t fall below 68 degrees F (20 Celsius).
UTH must be connected to a thermostat to control temperatures. Set the thermostat to 92 degrees F (33.3 Celsius). Thermostat will turn off the mat if temperature raises higher than 92 degrees, to prevent burning your gecko.
Only after you place an UTH and if the temperatures stay low, you can add a ceramic heat emitting bulb that produces only heat. You will need to get a small dome and install a bulb inside of it, and place it on top of the terrarium air screen.
Step 4: Add thermometers and hygrometers
You will need to place at least 2 thermometers in the tank. One will need to go directly above the floor in the warm spot, to measure floor basking temperatures. The second thermometer needs to go 4-6 inches above the ground in the cool spot, to measure cool side temperatures.
If you can afford another thermometer, place it 4-6 inches above the ground in a warm spot, to measure warm side air temperature. You can also get an infrared gun thermometer like this to measure temperature in any spot of the tank.
Place at least one hygrometer in the middle of the tank, to see humidity levels in the tank. The best idea is to use 2-3 combometers like this, that have both a thermometer and humidity gauge.
Make sure they have a probe. On top of that, getting a infrared gun thermometer will be very useful to quickly measure temperatures in various places of the terrarium.
Read all about heating, lighting and humidity in a leopard gecko’s tank in this post.
Step 5: Add at least 3 hideouts
The next step is to add 3 hideouts. You will need to introduce 3 hides – one warm, one cool and one moist hideout. Warm hideout will go in the basking area, preferably to the back of the tank. The moist hideout should be in the warm spot or in the middle – it is to facilitate shedding.
The cool hide will go to the cool side of the tank, to let your leopard gecko hide when it gets too hot. A good leopard gecko hideout should have an entrance big enough for your leopard gecko, and be big enough for it to lay inside, like this cave hideout.
Don’t place the moist hideout in the cold spot – this placement will make your leopard gecko sick (cold+humid conditions) and can make it enter brumation. Place it in a warm spot and don’t worry about the water evaporating – condensation plus spraying water will help keep the hide moist.
If you have more space in the terrarium, you can add another warm/cool/moist hideout – and make sure that each leopard gecko has its own hideouts.
Read all about adding hides to a leopard gecko’s tank in this post. You can also find instructions on making a moist hide for your leopard gecko here.
Step 6: Place food and water bowls
You will need to place a food and water dish in your leopard gecko’s terrarium. There are different kinds of food and water bowls available to choose from.
When choosing a food bowl, you can benefit from choosing an escape-free dish to keep worms and other bugs inside. For a water bowl, make sure to choose a shallow dish or one with a ramp like this, to prevent drowning of your gecko and bugs.
Make sure to wash the bowls every day with soap and change water daily, too.
Step 6: Introduce accessories and plants
After setting up the essentials, make sure to add branches and plants to enrich your leopard gecko’s habitat and life. Add some low branches, such as grapewood or driftwood branches.
Plants, live or fake, will make the tank look more naturalistic and your leopard gecko will hide in the them and climb on them. You can also add some DIY tunnels, a large rock, log, hammock and other accessories.
It is easier to have fake plants in the tank, as you will need fluorescent lighting for live plants, which can irritate your leopard gecko’s eyes.
Watering live plants will also increase the air humidity in the tank. Few of the best live plants include Haworthia and Dracaena. For fake plants, you can use anything to suit the landscape, such as this fake Boston Fern.
Read this post to find the list of the best live and fake flowers for your leopard gecko’s terrarium.
Step 7: Optional lighting and additional heating
As mentioned above, you will often need to use only an UTH for heating leopard gecko’s terrarium. But if it’s a bigger tank that doesn’t get warm enough, get a ceramic heat emitting bulb to place from top.
Talking about lights, you will need to try keeping photoperiod around the same during the whole year. Leopard geckos are crepuscular, so they become active during the dawn and dusk.
This means that there should be less lighting in the evenings and so on. Room lighting should be sufficient in most cases. Never place a bulb that will be on 24/7.
If your house is dark most of the time or if your leopard gecko acts bit sluggish, you can add a half-dimmed low wattage bulb for light. Add a low wattage incandescent or daylight bulb in a leopard gecko’s tank, and set it to 14 hours on and 10 hours off in summer.
Any bulbs will have to go to the top of the tank, and be placed in a dome fixture like this. 5.5 inch dome fixture should be sufficient.
In winter, reduce the number of light hours to 11 hours on and 13 hours off. Even better, you can check the times of sunrise and sunset during the each season (in your country or even leopard gecko origin country such as Pakistan).
Read all about heating, lighting and humidity in a leopard gecko’s tank in this post.
Leopard gecko shopping list:
- Terrarium
- An under tank heating pad
- Substrate
- Thermostat
- Hygrometer (or a combometer) with a probe – x1 or x2
- Thermometer (or a combometer) with a probe – x2 or x3
- An infrared thermometer gun
- Hideouts – cave, logs etc.
- Food and water bowls
- Power center to automate electric devices, such as this one by Zilla
- Air screen (if your terrarium doesn’t have one)
- Ceramic heat emitting bulb (if needed)
- Dome fixture (if using any bulbs)
- Low wattage incandescent light (if needed)
- Accessories – branches, rocks, logs, plants
- Supplements – pure calcium, calcium with vitamin D3, multivitamins
- Jewelry or kitchen scales for weighing your leopard gecko
- Snacks
- Tongs for feeding leopard gecko occasionally
- Live feeder insects
- Gut-load for the feeder insects – gel water or water crystals, gut-load food
You can find a guide on choosing the best supplements for your leopard gecko in this post.