- Joined
- Feb 12, 2008
- Messages
- 280
alright, so I have the substrate taken care of, now I'm thinking of plants i could put in the enclosure. suggestions? and what about lighting?
+1What species of T will be living in there? How big is the viv? What substrate are you using? Cant give you anything with the info (or lack of) you have given us.
Actually neither a drainage layer nor the cloth are absolutely necessary depending upon what plants, media, and overall set up are used though they can be useful.at the very bottom of the tank, put about 1 inch of big rocks / gravel. ( that is used for drainage , and you must have it )........
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Then on top of the rocks, put a layer of vinyl cloth/net, something that will not corrode or rust, cant be metal. MUST be vinyl cloth. ( this is used to block the substrate from sinking to the bottom and interfering with the drainage layer.
Lighting will depend on the size of the enclosure as well as the type of plants. A 23W cfl will be insufficient for most medium light plants -- assuming you want the plant to do more than survive. It may prove inadequate even for some low light plants.Use low to medium light plants. Pothos / ivy plants / ferns ( go to home depot or lowes and they have all the low - medium level light house plants that are perfect )
Just use a 23 watt 6500k daylight flourescent spiral bulb ( $8 for 2 bulbs home depot / lowes) and let it shine into the enclosure at least 10 hours a day ....
Pothos, as Donnie mentioned, is a good choice as they are very durable. While ferns, in general, are indeed good options, there are those that require fairly high light. One caveat to ferns is they can overwhelm a tank ... crowding out and smothering small plants. So if you do use ferns, keep in mind that "weeding" will likely be needed every so often. Also many of the ferns sold in BBS are actually young plants which upon maturing will produce fronds far larger than those it had when you bought it. Not a fan of ivy, myself. I find it too prone to spidermites.Pothos / ivy plants / ferns ( go to home depot or lowes and they have all the low - medium level light house plants that are perfect )
flourescent spiral bulb...beauty of these bulbs is they barely give off any heat.
Very true.any plants you buy are usually potted with some crap fertilizer or chemicals.
Any plant you want to put in the tank...............
Gently take the plant out of the pot and in your sink with room temperature water, gently wash off the soil and roots. ( this is to clean the plant of any fertilizer / chemicals ) Do it as much as you can without going nuts so you dont kill the plant.
Then you can plant it. You dont want to introduce fertilizer and chemicals into a terrarium that could possibly harm the living creature.
Quite true. However, the light intensity provided by those inexpensive strips is insufficient for plant growth. There are some LED lights/lamps that are supposed to be usable for plants however currently:There are LED strip lights now.
They produce very little heat-less than fluorescents do.
I have a vivarium only for plants and here is how i do it.
1) i get 3 pots and a pump with a pipe and place them on the base level with no substrate or anything.
2) than i take egg crate and wrap netting around it.
3) I pour water until the pump can function.
4) I place sphagnum moss on top of the egg crate
5) I place my plants and other decorations
Seems to do well for me, if u need a picture i can provide one .