newbie with viv pics!

[vivaqueen]

Hello I'm new here. After having a cracked tank and watching tons of youtube videos, I decided to create my very first vivarium. It's still a work in progress, so far this is what I came up with. The trunk is a waterfall that's temporally down, lol. There are no animals in it except for a fake snake sunning on the log and a couple lady bugs made from wood.

[EvilLost]

its looking good but pictures don't tell everything


what kind of soil do you have ? what about a drainage layer? hard to see from the pictures

otherwise it looks solid

[vivaqueen]

Thanks! I am using a regular potting soil with about a 2 inch layer of gravel for my drainage. I mist twice a day with 12 hours of light. The background is made with great stuff foam an coco fiber. My viv is 2 months old. I'm still in the process of learning and would like feed back!

[EvilLost]

Warning!!!!

POTTING SOIL WILL NOT WORK!!!!!!!!


You have no animals yet, which is good but a few things...

1) if you do have animals you want NO FERTS in the soil (neutral/clean dirt, NOT potting soil)

2) potting soil is WAY too water retentive for these setups



I would highly recommend getting a mix of COCO COIR (coco dirt, pure clean) and COCO HUSK / ORCHID BARK (retains moisture and adds drainage) as well as some charcoal (NATURAL WOOD, FINELY ground) or hydroton/crushed clay to both increase the drainage as well as up a tiny bit of calcium content into the soil.


Again you want NO FERTILIZERS in the tank if you have animals. And potting soil retains too much moisture for how often we have to mist to keep up humidity so you will end up drowning your plants without upping the drainage. It seems fine right now because you are not misting very much....

....but if you were to have more draining soil and mist more often, you would likely get better plant growth.

Also, since its 2 months and you have no animals (no poop = no natural ferts)...how are you fertilizing it?


Just some tips

[vivaqueen]

Oh my..I figured potting soil would be good guess i have to take a trip to the store.lol. I don't plan on putting any animals in this tank. Just wanted a plain viv. Is it ok to keep the moss after i change the tank? Thank you so much for the feedback!

[EvilLost]

I apologize, I thought you were intending to put animals. WITHOUT animals, the setup can work okay, and can be improved with a tiny change.

Since you have no animals and don't intend to, the fertilizer issue is fine (you can avoid the process of getting components for proper vivarium substrate). In fact, without animals you will NEED to fertilize the system with some form of plant food (since there are no animal droppings/etc).


And since you aren't putting animals I wouldn't re-do the entire thing...you can simply up the drainage removing a bit of the soil and adding in drainage materials . Since your plants are all hardy plants, you don't have to be too careful here, all the basic drainage methods should work (orchid bark, hydroton, perlite, even small gravel would likely work)


Also, since you have no animals you can continue to mist less often and avoid overwatering. My primary concern is that potting soil is meant to hold larger amounts of water, and in most amphibian setups we mist so often that combined with the holding nature of potting soil it ends up rotting out the plants (which is why drainage is so important). In your case you have no need to mist more often, but I would still add some more drainage.



But do realize that if you do decide to add animals in the future, it may mean more work then.


EDIT: As a general rule, you can disinfect plants for use in other vivs/etc by dipping them in a 10% bleach solution for a short while (1-3min) and then rinsing them THOROUGHLY. With MOSS do this much shorter or it will bleach out. This is typically done to avoid cross-contamination and bacterial/viral infections. Since you just have plants, I would not be very concerned about this....

short answer: yes you can reuse the moss

[vivaqueen]

ok thank you i will keep your info in mind