Vivarium Construction Progress/Log

[Soopaman]

Does your clay run all the way to the floor of the tank (not just the soil level)? This helps the clay soak up enough water to stay well hydrated. I realized in my own designs that any clay not conneceted to the main mass will dry up even with misting, It must be a continuous mass.

But no, I don't have drying problems unless I quit watering intentionally. When I start them up I plant it heavily from the beginning with 1" clumps of moss and plant cuttings scattered about the background and I gently soak it every day with a garden sprayer until the moss & plants root and spread. I use one of those 1 gallon pump action types used for fertilizers or pesticides (make sure it's new and never been used for those) you can adjust the nozzle from a solid stream to a gentle mist and just squeeze the trigger and flip a switch to keep it on to get a good soaking "rain". This device is the best for soaking everyday, the hand mister needs a lot of pumping to achieve the same level of wetness.

Yes, one section of the clay does, the back wall. The right upper side wall, does not, unfortunately, as the waterfeature separates it from an direct contact with the portion below it. I guess that is why I am having problems with that section. I will say though, that I wouldn't want to have the clay connecting with the waterline without a heavy bit of substrate in front of it, as the clay I made seems to just fall apart when put in large amounts of water. I suppose there is some sort of happy medium to be met with it though.

I am going to order a ficus and this nice coppery pink Monochaetum sp. Ecuador for putting on the wall. I have some more of the clay left and I will try to cut away some of the dry stuff on the back right and replace it with fresh wet stuff when these plants come in. Oh well, probably should have thought on some of these things before hand, but it is my first big project, I'll be a lot better prepared when I do another.

And I'll have to get one of those sprayers, sounds like just what I need to help keep this from drying out and becoming a disaster

 

[emre]

Great vivarium concept, could use some more green though. Why not use good quality artificial moss to cover the walls? They're too barren IMO. I was originally aiming for something like this, a terrarium with a fountain, but I ended up with a paludarium instead.

 

[Soopaman]

Great vivarium concept, could use some more green though. Why not use good quality artificial moss to cover the walls? They're too barren IMO. I was originally aiming for something like this, a terrarium with a fountain, but I ended up with a paludarium instead.

It's going to grow in, but it might take 6 months or so. I've got some moss that I have taken from my other planted tank and put in small amounts on the walls. Additionally, I've got some vining plants shipping in this week that will be planted to go up the walls and help cover up that "barren" look.

Oh, and swords. I redid the lid and replaced the original screen in the top with plastic sheeting, which holds in the humidity greatly. I have had no problems with the walls drying out, so I'm not worried about it anymore. They should stay consistently moist from now on

 

[swords]

Oh yeah, the screen top on those kits is bad news and has to be covered. I don't know why they sell vivariums with an all screen top on them - all the humidity just goes up and out.

 

[Soopaman]

Latest pictures after addition of live sphagnum and the pings, an additional fern, moss, and a couple of climbing plants that will hopefully grow fast to cover the backdrop.

Newest N. Ventricosa x Spectalabis pitcher:

N. Truncata

P. Alba 'Red Lobe' and P. Laueana 'CP3' from Ron West.

 

[swords]

Nice, I like the little green and bronze ferny thing in the middle of the wall - any idea what it is?

What I do to get faster moss coverage (in like a month or two) is go on ebay and search "live moss" and buy a square foot or gallon bag of moss. I get that square foot of moss and pull it apart into little 1" x 1" chunks or so and stud them all around my wall then soak it everyday with the sprayer until the moss spreads. Some mosses are better than others for terrariums but if the terrarium is cool it is better for the moss, most mosses you can get are not thrilled with warm temps all the time, this has lead to some experimentation to finding the mosses that work for my warm insect and crab vivariums long term. I looked on ebay and there is plenty of live moss still available from sellers in states that aren't under 6 feet of snow. Teresa's is a good ebay moss/moss related bryophyte seller and she has the same stuff up now as she does during summer. I wouldn't bother with the Lichens and stuff cos they don't seem to do well long term at least for me. Liverworts are fantastic though if you can find someone who's selling them.

 

[Soopaman]

The bronze climbing vine behind the N. Truncata is Monochaetum sp. Ecuador. Neat little branching plant with bronze leaves and pink flowers. It should provide a nice contrast to the other colors of the vivarium.

Okay, so I was looking at the mosses on e-bay, and there's so many different ones, I don't know which kind to get and what will take to the clay substrate well.

This cushion moss looks good:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180583444624&category=42153

So does the feather moss:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Live-Feather-Mo...718?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a09f20276

And so does star moss, but I'm afraid it's for aquatic environments:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Star-Moss-Live-...347?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a625a4183


Almost all I have found, except the first two I listed, are for aquatic environments, or at least are advertised as such. Which ones would grow best in my environment?

 

[swords]

The peat/kitty litter seems to be a substrate that many mosses and plants seem to like so it'll just depend on if the temps is what the mosses will like. The fern/feather moss is a good one but it doesn't like being too warm all the time. The cushion moss I myself haven't had good luck with, not sure where it wants to grow. I'm not seeing my fave moss seller on now so perhaps she's in a snowier state.

Aquatic "java moss" does very well out of water as long as you keep misting it while it transitions from aquatic growth to emersed growth. It grows in pretty quickly. I have used the Pelia / Subwassertang "aquatic mosses" (actually a sort of liverwort I think) but they must be on very wet substrate or they dry up/don't grow. I have a good portion going by one of my crab pools where the soil is consistently almost waterlogged.

Here is freshly planted Java Moss, I just bought a few bunches and pulled them into pieces and smooshed it against the clay wall and keep it moist.

and about 6 - 8 weeks later after the tank sorted itself out:

 

[nightsky]

Both of you have great looking tanks. Bet they'll be stunning as they fill in.

 

[Soopaman]

Both of you have great looking tanks. Bet they'll be stunning as they fill in.

Thanks! Swords has a lot more experience than I do, though.

Swords, the Java moss filled in really quickly! I imagine you have to do a bit of pruning/trimming with it.

So today I decided I wasn't going to pay for moss, I was going to find my own, I figured I'd post pics, and if I had something that was terrible to have I could remove it before I got in too deep.

This first pic shows what I can best descrbe as sheet moss, which was growing on a fallen branch and pulled up in a very large sheet which was wrapped around the support log:

Another style moss, which looks similar to the cushion moss, was found growing in the clay like ground we have out here, and I decided it'd be best to start it at the top and let it fill in:

 

[RSS]

Actually adding moss to a vivarium . I spend about 30m a week removing it. I say I pull out a baseball/softball sized amount a week.

Everything (expect the moss) looks great so far.

Over the last few years I've learned to hate most mosses.

 

[swords]

LOL I guess we all have our own style. I definitely hate pest moss in my Utric pots and such but I think a planted landscape looks sterile without it.

I've got a grapewood stump kept partly submerged in a crab pool that has finally sprouted an awesome coat of bright green moss, it's taken almost a year but it finally looks more like a piece of the scene than a piece of wood just sitting in there.

Once the Java Moss reaches a certain point it doesn't seem to grow anymore, or if it is it's growing ontop of itself and making the background deeper, the emergent growing strands of JM are not long and trailing like the unbound submerged growth.