Plant Suggestions

[Kittikity]

I have an aquarium that I think is about 35 gallons.. It is cracked on the side so I can no longer use it for fish.. Instead I want to use it as a carnivorous terrarium..

I've been doing a lot of reading and this forum has been especially helpful.. For the setup I plan on keeping the plants in their own pot and filling the bottom with an inch or two of water.. Then LFS until just under the rims of the pot and live LFS to hide the rims and make everything look like it's planted.. Then two double fluorescents or a double and a single.. Depending on what I can fit.. I can't afford the high priced bulbs though.. Any suggestions or ideas on the setup is appreciated..

The main thing I need help with is the plant selection.. The terrarium will be on my front porch and won't get much sun at all.. Hence the need for artificial lighting.. I'm in central Florida and it gets in the 90's F in the summer but rains a lot so there is plenty of humidity.. The winters are fairly mild, only getting in the 30's F on occasion.. And that's at nite.. Daytime can actually get in the low 80's F sometimes.. It also rains a lot less but I can keep up the humidity in the terrarium.. I can also overwinter some of the plants in the fridge (not the freezer) if needed..

These are some of the plants I'm most interested in.. Several of the pings.. Especially ones like the mexican pings.. I like the sarrs, cobra lilies, vfts, and the rosette droseras.. I also like the cephalotus and utricularia, but not sure how difficult they are to care for..

Anyway, any advice or suggestions are always welcome.. I do know a fair amount about plants in general and have grown fresh water aquarium plants before.. So I'm not a complete newb.. = ) I even had a vft once.. It quickly died of course.. So when it comes to CPs, I can use all the help I can get..

Thanks in advance..

Jacquie

 

[Not a Number]

I'm no expert, but I don't think you even need a terrarium. What is the relative humidity usually in winter? You may just want to put together a plant shelf with lighting or a mini-bog with lighting.

Warm temperate pings, Mexican pings, most Sarracenia, sub-tropical sundews (D. capillaris is native to FL), Cape sundews, VFTs, should do fine.

Cobra plants require keeping the roots cool so those could be a problem for you. I guess try an evaporative cooling method though.

 

[jimscott]

Actually, I wouldn't recommend Sarracenia under artificial lighting. They are more an outdoor plant. But warm tropical sundews, such as D. capensis, spatulata, adelae, and a bunch others, would do well. Many butterworts would also do well in that setting, like the Mexiacn ones, P. primuliflora, caerluea, planifolia.... I have all of my tropical sundews and temperate sundews in a closet, in a storage container, under a shoplight for the winter. If'n you're interested, I can send you some starter plants.

 

[Kittikity]

That would be very generous and very much appreciated.. Let me know what I need to do.. Thanks so much..

Jacquie

 

[Meaven]

you know i started under the same conditions. my ambient temp was much lower, around 75%, so i dont know if this will apply to you, but i'm doing best with nepenthenes, and of course they garner the most attention =)

gallons dont apply so much on aquariums as does measurements.
wide is good. 36" and 48: are standards. but im finding most of my issues arising in depths and height. taller, the better. i would buy a 4 fott tall terrarium if i could. if just presents more options the taller it is. depth for me comes out on top, though. more depth means exponentially more plants, especially nepenthenes.

i dont know a lot about LFS, the inch of water in the tank sounds excessive, however. you would get some humidity problems with that. plus the water would get nasty as hell. imagine reaching in to get a plant and brushing up against something that feels like thin noodles, and having it pop open and shoot orange goo all over your hand. meaven does not like large amounts of standing water... bwah...

sundews can be hard. they are wicked cool, and the prettiest of CPs, but for them to flourish you gotta boost them up to sit ultra close to the lights, which is sorta unsightly.

there *are* some serra's that do ok in terrariums. purpurea is awesome looking. i had a young rubra that did ok, but next year it needs to go outside. i dont like plants that need dormancy though. its a lot to take on if you're new to CPs, and its 3 months of the year or so without a plant.

pings are cool, and girls dig em. they are "cute", apparently. esseriana look like pretty little flowers, until they flower, which are in fact pretty little flowers... veeeerrrrrrryyyyy easy. they dont need quite as much sunlight as other CPs. good to help learn about propagation via leaf cutting as well. not quite savage enough for the more clinically insane of CP growers though.

VFTs are VFTs. again, another one that needs dormancy. i have one. it gets the least attention of all my plants, and its one of the more tempermental. you gotta have one, though =P

i would suggest getting ahold of a cheap VFT, a pinguiculara esseriana, Nepenthes Judith Finn, drosera dielsiana, Drosera Capensis, and maybe a lowland nep, like truncata. if you really like sarracenia, give rubra a try. fast grower. that would be a good start, and expand on the ones that flourish, practice on the ones that dont.

if you have any questions feel free to PM me. im no expert, but i ask my fair share of dumb questions around here, so you can feel comfortable asking me the same

i could also help you pick out some lights. that drove me crazy.

Some pics of my setup-

just watered. your tank shouldnt have that much condensation on it =P

overhead view

never keep a nep pot in water, unless told otherwise. keeping the pot *over* water, on the other hand, helps with humidity, and subsequently pitchering.

Sundews and most other CPs on the other hand like to sit in water.