wad substrate to use for a terrarium?

[Thirteen]

hi guys..i planning to plant some moss, birdnest fern etc with no water in it, but i heard that if there is insufficient drainage or wadever the plant's root will be drown and rot..also i do not know wad kinda substrate to use too..cansomeone help pls~

[Fei Miao]

I don't have a terrarium but here's what I did to my viviarium's dry area.

base layer some rocks
second layer of clay pellets for good drainage
third layer, a layer of peat soil or coco husk soil

if there's a water pool area, excess water will flow in there

[Thirteen]

ic..but the excess water will remain stagnant in the bottom rock layer rite..? is it beneficial for that to happen?

[Fei Miao]

ic..but the excess water will remain stagnant in the bottom rock layer rite..? is it beneficial for that to happen?

Water will flow through the rocks...I think if you have a small pool area, and the dry areas are setted higher, excess water will eventually collected in the pool area where you suction out if it's too much, some dampness is essential for moss the tank shouldn't be too dry for ferns and moss

[Thirteen]

okok thanks alot~~ now i can get started ^o^ ~~ will post some pics after set up

[RTanger]

It's okay if water collects in the drainage area, it will soak back upwards and remoisten the soil as needed. You just don't want your substrate swamped with water. One thing-- you should separate your substrate from your drainage with a plastic sheet of some kind (I found that flourescent lighting panels, the thin plastic sheets that cover flourescent lights work well for this. Find a broken sheet at any home improvement store and see if the store will haggle the price down on it since it is broken and potentially unsellable.)with small holes punched throughout it, placed between the soil and the drainage layer. This keeps your substrate from slowly "settling in" to the drainage, which can become fairly messy. And eventually smelly...

I like this-- The D's are the drainage layer, the --- represents the "false bottom" created with the holey plastic sheet, and S is the substrate.

SSSSSSSSSS
SSSSSSSSSS
SSSSSSSSSS
-------------
DDDDDDDDDD
DDDDDDDDDD

Coco bedding, Edo-Earth and Forest Floor two brands I am familiar with (as Fae Miao said) makes a good planting substrate, and can the found at any pet supply store, but adding orchid bark (or a reptile bark bedding, like Repti-Bark, same thing) to the mix at about a 70 soil/30 bark ratio aids in aeration of the planting mix, and the bark will slowly compost nutrients into your "soil."

The biggest beware is-- don't use potting soil! I don't know if you are aware of this one yet or not, but potting soils, for many reasons, do not make suitable substrates for reptile enclosures. The fertilizers and dusts from vermiculite, perlite, etc can be potentially hazardous.

I hope this helps at all

[Thirteen]

thanks alot for the advice! i'm using normal garden soil substrate. had leca chip as my drainage layer and separated both layers with netting mesh bought from hardware shop at cheap price. Juz laid some moss on the soil. hope it will grow well.

[RTanger]

Be careful if you're adding animals, especially amphibians. If by garden soil you mean potting soil, make sure it doesn't contain fertilizers. Especially things like miracle-gro. This can be bad news for frogs or newts or somesuch, and not much better for herptiles. (I like the sound of that word)

I would personally shy away from potting soils altogether and make a custom mix.

[primavera]

Oooh, an area of interest...

I 've read over at Gardenweb's terrarium forum last year (I'm a lurker) the use of false bottoms too. Basically like what RTanger said, it uses eggcrate fluorescent diffusers to separate the soil media from water compartment, except they had the water compartment clear of solid material, ie:

ssssssssssssss
ssssssssssssss soil
ssssssssssssss
-------------- eggcrate
~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~ water

So the eggcrate is supported by anything that can bear the weight above, they used cut pvc tubing, large diameter. Tubing cut to the height you want the false bottom to be.

The advantages are a clear bottom area, easier for siphoning and cleaning (if you could be bothered), also no particulate matter is going to collect. Personally i think it also makes more economical sense as you save for not buying clay aggregate or leca or similar ( I find them quite expensive). Also, for my current project vivaria, I need it to be as light as possible so that I can move it around (when I move house). i doubt this is a concern for you though.

I've personally never tried this method, as I cannot find eggcrate diffuser! Like impossible!! They dont have it here in Sydney hardware stores anymore as its not much used. And back home, i went around the big stores and the Ah Peks shops, but to no avail. My parents thought I was crazy...

BUt... I found some plastic drain covers that are extremely tough (and pricey) and bought a few, even packed two in my luggage back to Sydney. My current 'work in progress' vivarium was more or less modeled to accomodate the length of these drain covers as they are virtually impossible to cut. Hehe, how's that for being a bit over the "top", all for "false bottoms".

Min

[primavera]

Ooops, forgot to mention, I use coco peat for my makeshift terrariums now. I think they are similar to coco bedding. I get them in bricks over here and you soak it in water before use. I use it for my 'plastic storage box' terrariums to house my ever growing collection of tropical house plants and orchids. Been using it for more than a year, and the first batch i've used still looks quite fresh, not much decomposition yet.

I just have them, nothing else, as a 1 inch layer in the semi- transparent boxes and plop the plants in along with the root ball, or in pots too. The lid seals more or less airtight. Dont have to water very often, probabaly once every two weeks.

Oh, I'm missing the point here, yours is for housing animals rite? Yeah, probably should be careful with potting soil. If it degrades too quickly might not be good, creates a 'sour' environment. RTanger is right with the fertilisers too. Also, I've found in the past when I use potting soil in terrariums, they tend to grow fungus of some sort. Dont know if its alright or not, but they release a lot of spores and colonise other areas. Best is still with coco peat or similar, clean and sterile. Oh and peat moss (if its available) is another media that I've used successfully, especially for mosses. Its relatively sterile, low in nutrients and acidic, mosses love it. Potting soil tend to be too rich for mosses I find.

Min