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Terraformed-terrarium! good or bad?

Hello all,

I'm fairly new to the CP world (3 months) and i'm looking to put together a terrarium. With the help of this site and many others I have acquired appropriate lighting, a 4ftx2ftx2ft aquarium and a proper means of ventilation, etc. I have, however, reached a dilemna. I am torn between the all pot terrarium or the slightly more eye-pleasing terraformed terrarium (the plants are actually planted in soil along the bottom of the acquarium). I know a bit about the drawbacks of each, my preference is the terra-formed one but if it's too much hassle i'll settle for the pots behind glass.

If anyone has any knowledge on which is better, and if possible, how to construct the terra-formed one please let me know.

Thanks a bunch,

Zac
 
WOW! nice size tank. what is that a 90 gallon? 150?

make a comprimise. keep the plants potted and plant the pots. cover the dirt with sphagnum (preferably live, looks better) or let the utrics run rampant.
 
get yourself a bunch of the packing peanuts that dont dissolve in water to fill in around the pots(saves ALOT in the wieght department) and cover the surface with LFS. it will look nice, everything will have its own pot for easy removal for dormancy, cleaning out dead leaves, pest control, ect. Utrics can grow on the LFS though you may loose track of what species is which if they arent in flower. i think this will give you the best of both worlds
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]WOW! nice size tank. what is that a 90 gallon? 150?

right in the middle it's a 120 gallon tank. I wouldn't go looking for one I had it custom made to fit a niche in my room
 
thanks both of you i'll experiment with this plant the pots idea

cheers

zac
 
Just wanted to welcome you to the forums, but let the terrarium and lighting people guide you.
 
Once again, I agree completely with JLAP and rattler_mt.

Pseudo-terraformed terraria are the way to go!

Good luck with your plants.
 
I have another query about this Terrarium. If you can't use the tray method will just watering the pots suffice. I have LFS as a matting for the plants. Funny thing though, I bought it dead, or so I thought. It's definitely growing in two places, maybe I planted the seeds. Doesn't bother me though it looks quite nice.

If anyone's got any ideas drop a message,

z
 
I strongly advise against potting plants directly in a terraform terrarium unless you have a way to pump drain the runoff.  Nutrients accumulate in such a closed system leading to eventual problems sooner or later.  Use pots which can be removed and periodically flushed.  I had one for 10 years and I was religious about removing all dead matter, using only distilled water, but it failed nonetheless costing me my entire collection at the time.  They work initially and look great, but long term it's sure to fail.  You can terraform around the pots as long as the pots do not sit in basal water and are removed and flushed regularly by top watering.
You might be able to rig a system where the substrate sits on a raised honeycomb plastic shelf, allowing the water to drain and be removed by an aquarium pump. If you can change the water on a regular basis the pots can sit in tray water, otherwise forget it. Top watering should suffice for a pseudo-terraform arrangement, but it will require a lot of hands on attention to keep everything at the correct level of wetness. IMO, terrariums are more of a problem than a boon for most CP species: any cover even if transparent will cut the usable spectrum to a considerable degree. They are also prone to overheating. Personally I find a rack with individual pots in trays to be optimal. The more light the better. If your relative humidity is below 40% an ultrasonic humidifier can be employed. A small fan is an added plus.
 
  • #10
thx tamlin

i thought that might become a problem. I'll wait until I'm a little bit more insured before i try the terraformed, Maybe it will be a good project for when I can germinate some flowers.

thx again for the advice
z
 
  • #11
Well, my beef about racks and lights is the looks. Yeah may grow plants nice, but when I think of terraruim I;m going for looks. Just so happens that the plants also have to be cared for too. There is a terreium supply company that has dirrections on how to build a living vivarium. Realy good pictorial directions. I think something like this would work. I don't want to give a link to it since they also sell CPs and things too.
 
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