Nutrient conservation in the terrarium

[brandon4291]

Congratulations Dan for the forum, this is fun new territory for RDO.


I am thinking on setting up a 75 gallon terrarium/vivarium. Contemplating taking some acrylic sheeting and making rises or aquatic shelves/waterfalls and then planting them and covering up with driftwood, rocks and plant like pothos and creeping vines.

Do you have any links to places I can order "carpeting" or moss-like live terrarium plants?

Do you dose iron to keep your leaves healthy, how have they fared in terms of color and vigor over the last few years? I plan on getting some rich soil to provide long-term support so they won't get yellow. I am particularly interested in terrarium plants that are known to stay very small.

 

[Anonymous]

Well I give it a try. I think you might make a mistake by using a "rich soil" . Alot of commercial potting mixes have a nutrient starter charge, this can be fatal to frogs that might be sensitive to the amount of ammonical nitrogen in the mix. I lost some asian horned frogs when I used a peat-lite mix from work as a substrate. For my terraiums I use a mix of fine orchid bark, coconut coir("bed-a-beast"), and calcined clay. The later is fired clay and is sold in home improvement as "AQUATIC PLANT SOIL" packaged by Scotts or Schultz. Big bags are sold as Turface. Flourite by seachem are a high priced subsitute. I don't add any fertilizer. Feeder insects are high in phosphourus. Frog waste makes up the rest of nutrition. I have never seen any signs of deficency in the plants.
A good source of odd ball plants can be the Angel Plant assortments you find in discount stores. Other plant sources are places like Black Jungle and Glasshouse Works. It is also a good idea to grow plants on for a month to allow any fertilizer or pesticides time to be used up or breakdown. I base the one month figure on the Koppert website for time to lapse before releasing beneficial insects. Hope this makes a starting point.

 

[brandon4291]

Yes that sounds very good. The final consideration before I choose to make this 75 gal reef oceanic a seahorse reef or a terrarium like the one I saw on black jungle is the hassle of feeding. I take it fruit flies are the preferred method? They feed them pinner crickets down here but I'd really like to keep a simple food source and not have to rely on the pet store. I really wouldn't mind anyway, it would be neat to observe fruit fly generations & mutation frequency. How long-term are mini cricket farms> Id be just as happy with an anole or anything that is best suited to the tank. I would try to incorporate some tech work-ins however, I would use metered CO2 injection (slow) & 240w PC lighting along with cliffs and caves to make fern retreats. Would use a timed fogger along with timed DC fan outflow exhausts to control aeration/humidity a few intervals each day-IMO this will help to reduce fungal growth.

I stumbled on that black jungle website, amazing. So those bromeliads and assorted plants really hold up for years under the right conditions?? I don't mind investing some decent money in a fine terrarium but I really want those expensive plants to live long term, at least 6 years straight...

 

[Anonymous]

Let me just say that dart frogs are much easier than seahorses . Raising fruit flies is something I can now do in my sleep. I make my own media based on "Homemade Carolina Mix". I set up cultures in 32 ounce deli cups one culture yields about the same amount of food as a box of pinheads. If you live in a termite area and can find a colony your in like flynn. Darts can also be fed flour beetle larva.
Of course if you want lizards you should check out day geckos these need U/V light like most diurnal lizards. They would feed on crickets but would also feed on sweets. One lizard buff I know mixes vitamins and ground cuttle bone with tropical fruit baby food.

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, fruit flies are the easiest things to raise. I find crickets to be disgusting nasty creatures, and I have moved towards critters that require just fruit flies. Crickets are best got mail order, I always got mine from grubco.

I also feed my tank meadow sweepings (field plankton!) that I get with a big beater net. I put the bugs in a container covered with a needlepoint mesh which only lets out the little bugs. Grasshoppers eat bromeliads, I found out the hard way.

My substrate is similar to ranaman- I use coir, orchid bark and I think sphagnum. I have used a diluted fertilizer in a sprayer, but I don't think it's needed. Once the tank gets going the main problem is the plants grow too fast!

I'm lucky enough to live near black jungle, and they have taken me on a tour of the greenhouse etc. Its a great place to visit if your ever in mass.

Will look for some more links etc.

 

[Anonymous]

Here is a bunch of links I had posted in the sump a while ago:

Ken Uy, another with both reef and vivarium, good viv page:
http://home.earthlink.net/~kenuy/kenspage.htm

Best place for supplies, fortunately local to me. Excellent plant selection.
http://www.blackjungle.com/home.htm

Another good source for plants and frogs:
http://home.att.net/~a.j.calisi/

Inspiration:
http://www.frogworld.nl/dutchvivariums.html

more inspiration:
http://www.wildsky.net/vivarium/evivariu.htm

Frog and vivarium stuff:
http://www.konza.ksu.edu/~blbrock/Default.htm

dart frog stuff:
http://www.doylesdartden.com/index.htm

Good source for mini orchids:
http://www.andysorchids.com/

 

[brandon4291]

How fun, thanks Ranaman and Dan for the advice. I'm going through with the terrarium idea, and BTW field plankton is the only thing that has made me laugh out loud today at my desk. When explaining to fellow bankers why this is particularly funny, all I get is blank stares.

 

[Anonymous]

:lol:

 

[brandon4291]

7/12/04

I still want to set up the terrarium as soon as I glean enough off the next two paychecks invest in a landscape again. Then it dawned on me: why not do it as a 100th-scale living model? I could just use one of the empty Mini75 setups with sealed lid, and do everything down to the 8-inch scale. I'll be limited to the types of plants & animals, but I'll still be my bottom dollar it comes out looking like a full blown setup. Heck, research into the fitting plants is half the fun and a single dwarf from may take up the same role as the dendrobates I'd considered. At least I get to stay away from food culture with this frog (bloodworms!)

Imagine I take an 8 inch pico, 13 watt 6500 daylight PC, matching stand and canopy and use double expanding foam (not triple) to perform the same modifications we see on the blackjungle website? http://www.blackjungle.com/gallery/talltank/page1.html

One thing's for sure, if I go pico with this it will sure cost less and can be had completely by next week. Hmmm