Small terrarium advice

[bananahands]

Hello all

I have a 10 gallon aquarium that I would like to set up as a small terrarium in my house. I found a basic guide at www.pitcherplant.com/terrarium.html . Given the size, I would like to put pygmy sundews and, after seeing elgecko's pictures, some of the smaller sundews and maybe one of my cephs. Any suggestions? Hints/tips? Advice? Also, would it be possible to start some flytrap seeds in there and take them out after a year or so?

Please excuse the rambling,
Mike

[stevestewart]

I read the link you posted, and would agree that planted terraria are heavy and should be planted where they are intended to stay. Especially for people with names like bananahands!
Your choices of plants are good, but I would only plant material that you have extra plants of, just in case the experiment fails at some point. If it is successful you will be needing to take excess plants out at some point. I see no problem with planting a few flytrap seeds in with your other plants, too many could pose a problem if everything does grow.
Make sure you have enough light and ventilation. Only use distilled or RO water, and be careful not to let any excess water become stagnant in the bottom. Fungus and heat stress seem to be the most common problems for growers using undrained, glass containers.

Take care,
Steven Stewart

[jm82792]

I want to do one sometime the thing hoklding me back for my 10 gallon is lighting.

[Clint]

My only advice for a small terrarium, is get a bigger one!

JM, I suggest PC lighting, but it can be pricy for a quality fixture.

[jm82792]

My idea too I was thinking of a 20 gallon long,cut some glass,edge/bevel it then put on a typical flourscent fixture. what does pc stand for ? I may do 2 compact flourscents lghts for the 10 galloner.

[Clint]

It means power compact fluorescent, not to be confused with the spiral energy saving compact fluorescent.

It's a lot more expensive than what you had in mind, but you won't regret dishing out the cash for even a 1 lamp coralife unit. Promise.


Look here

[Michael Catalani]

justlikeapill said:

It means power compact fluorescent, not to be confused with the spiral energy saving compact fluorescent.

It's a lot more expensive than what you had in mind, but you won't regret dishing out the cash for even a 1 lamp coralife unit. Promise.


Look here

lol, nice link....

[Clint]

Lol, my bad! Try this instead I'm bad with codes, so it'll need to be copies and pasted into your browser. It's too long, and this forum software doesn't accommodate the length, I guess.

www.marinedepot.com/ps_AquariumPage~PageAlias~lighting_powercompact_compact-fluorescent_coralife_aqualight_deluxe_linear.html

[Not a Number]

justlikeapill said:

Lol, my bad! Try this instead I'm bad with codes, so it'll need to be copies and pasted into your browser. It's too long, and this forum software doesn't accommodate the length, I guess.

Give tinyurl.com a shot:

tinyurl.com/

[Clint]

Well that link for marinedepot isn't working anyway, so oh well. Thanks for the tinyurl link, though!

If you want to know what I was talking about JM, go to here and then go down to PC lighting and browse around. I recommend Coralife.

www.marinedepot.com/ps_AquariumPage~PageAlias~lighting__index.html

[wadave]

Here is something you might find usefull, as you can see I've also got quite a small tank and I've used and electronic ballast that comes already detached from the lights. I liked this setup as I didn't have to fiddle around with rewiring typical light fixtures to separate the heat producing ballast.

The fluros still produce a little heat but not enough to overheat the tank so I don't have a fan connected. Everything seems to like it in there ok.

The nepenthes you see is a rafflesiana and its roots sit directly in the water when I fill it up. I wait till the glass in the bottom of the tank is dry before I top the water back up to about 3/4 of an inch. Smaller pots sit on foam to lift them higher out of the water.

The brand of electronic balast is made by Rolf C Hagen and takes two 40W fluros, and the model is called Glomat 2. The pet store I bought it from had it in their reptile section.

I currently have two 20W fluros in mine, one is a cool white light the other is bright white. I didn't know much about the different types but the aim was to give as broad a spectrum of the wavelengths that promoted plant growth as possible.

Well it seems to be working very well and has done so for over 12 months now.

Dave.

[Deleted]

you may want to put ricks or sand in the bottom inch of the tank to help with drainage and you shouldnt overwater cause you will kill your palnts this way...i have tried to do this and managed to kill my plants from overwatering...also you are going to want to remove the dead plant meterial from the plants ex: when a leaf dies, as so that you dont have mold growing everywhere....

[sigesti]

Grah, I am having an absolute bugger of a time trying to figure out just what I need for my setup. I have a 10 gallon tank, like the original poster. Dimensions of the top is 20x10, with the plants being about 5 or so inches from the top.

I use the smaller tanks because I move a lot, and I like being able to move the plants easily with me. Right now I'm mostly growing drosera and nepenthes.

Right now, I'm really having a difficult time finding the best thing to put on the terrarium to provide light. I've spent time looking around online for a good setup. Sources I've read mention to aim for around 12,000 lumen for the nepenthes, but I hardly ever find lumen mentioned on light bulbs online. I've spent a while perusing the reptile/fish section of the petsmart website, and right now I'm wondering if I could get by with two fluorescent light strips.

Does anyone have any impressions into what kind of light setup I should aim for? Just so I stop blindly fumbling around in the dark?

[Clint]

One or preferably two CF lights would be the best you could do with the space you're working with. It'll cost like $140 or so for a 2 lamp model. A 1 lamp model will cost like 60 or 70 bucks. Totally worth it, and they won't compare with two crappy 18 watt fluorescent lights from petsmart.

Or you could get one of those exo terra hoods that holds 3 CF lamps, but I'm really against CF lamps in general (restrike). OR the most practical solution (sacrificing intensity but saving cash) would be to get a 48 inch, 4 lamp shoplight and get another aquarium A couple of 20 gallon tanks turned on their side would work out great!

[jm82792]

Wanted to fill youin on what I did :

There freshly put in there when things become weedy I will remove them
Cost me about $30 including everything. I am planning on something much larger sometime.
I have binata typical(red?) ,Binata Dichtoma,capensis Alba,Typcal,Intermedia Tropical,a urtic this I lost id on but I know it is a less invasive specie and anglica that I got from tc that I am sparing 1 winter dormancy. I wold enjoy doing a 40 gallon lowlander tank or a heli tank sometime.
Hope this helps,the dews are getting dewy !