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Thread: New Member, First Terrarium - Help Please

  1. #1
    buggsi
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    Default New Member, First Terrarium - Help Please

    Hi all, from the UK.

    Have been interested in tropical and exotic plants for a while now and have been growing several (with varying success) on windowsills both bought plants and from seed.

    Wanting to create a good environment for these plants to grow in - current conditions are far from ideal - and a nice display, so planning a terrarium build.

    Would love to build a paludarium at some point maybe fish, frogs or something else - I already have a fresh water aquarium up and running - but am going to keep that on hold until I have learnt and practised how to make a decent sump, so for the moment I'm keeping it simple and my terrarium will only house plants maybe with a small pond.

    I have an old 6ft x 3ft double-glazed glass door which I'm hopefully using for the front, and then wooden (coated with something) back, sides, top and bottom.

    Type of plants that will be going in there - bromeliads, strelitzia, orchids, mosses, musa etc. I'm very experimental so will probably try and see what works and what doesn't.

    So a few questions:

    - Am I right in thinking that for a tropical rainforest type climate, I should be keeping the temperature up at about 30deg C?

    - I'm looking at rigging up some kind of humidifier, but is there some kind of method to keep the terrarium at a constant set humidity level? And what level of humidity am I looking for?
    Also is there not a problem with glass steaming? If so how is this solved? Just good air flow?

    - As said, I have an old double glazed PVC door for my front, and plan to build the rest out of wood. Plan is to then coat the inside with something to make it water-tight. Originally was thinking epoxy resin, but have read this is not a good choice. Would yacht varnish - such as this - be good to use? Or any other suggestions?

    - I am happy with rigging lights up to a timer, but how do I go about making them fade in and out to replicate dawn and dusk - like in this video? Also is there a way to get mist to sit on the surface of the water as also in this video, or is that happening naturally?

    - I plan to use a fake bottom. Any suggestions or pointers to good guides on the substrate mix, depth etc.

    - Lastly, any pointers to a good guide for how best to make a filtration system in a sump for my aquarium, and hopefully later paludarium - i.e. filtration materials.

    I'm sure I'll have plenty more questions. Sorry if these have all been asked before, I have looked, please point towards answers if they're already out there.

    Thanks very much in advance!

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