Specialty Gardening: have a 50 gallon tank , need ideas, 1 by plantladylin

plantladylin wrote:
Kathyann: Oh how I envy you ..... a 30 gal tank to turn into a terrarium! Lucky gal .... I have a little 10 gal that I set up in March. For one as large as 30 gal's you can really put in a lot of plants, depending on their size of course! I would plant it full, probably overload it! With my terrariums I usually use pea gravel for the bottom (rinse very well with an old colander in my gardening stuff) .... then a good grade of potting soil that I mix half soil and half perlite. I use Miracle Grow Soil because that's the best I can find locally. After the soil is in, I plant it up. My 10 gal tank is just a Wal-Mart one that came with the hood and light. No special grow lights. I don't have a lot of light in my house either ... I think a lot of us have that problem. I turn the light on when I get up in the morning and turn it off before I go to bed at night. If we are gone for a week, the light stays off. I planted this one in March and it is doing very well. The Birds Nest Fern in the back right has really grown as has the Fittonia in the back left .... I might have to replace them if they get any larger .... don't want them touching the light! The hood on mine has a hinge so that you can open it at the top front and sometimes when a lot of moisture and heat is building up I will open the top to vent it awhile, mainly because I can't see inside with so much moisture on the glass! I sure hope you will post some photo's when you get yours all set up. I can't say anything about those frogs cause I wouldn't want them in my terrarium. The cats would be going crazy! Oh ... and those same Exotic Angel Plants that sell for $2.99 at Home Depot and Lowes are only $1.94 at Wal-Mart!! Here's a pic of my 10 gal: