I really need a vivarium make over. I went from a 20 gallon to a 90 gallon vivarium 10 months ago. I’ve kept a 20 gallon for three years and never had any problems like these. Here is a list of problems with my 90 gallon vivarium.
1) A have a leak in one of the corners of the tank.
2) Plant growth is really really fast
3) Never could grow moss (tried twice)
4) Spider mites (these are not that big of a deal. They had 2 population booms and died off quickly each time)
5) Centipedes!!! (I really don’t like these bugs, but their population is small and they never had a boom. I just don’t like them!!)
6) Ants!!!!!! (These are new. There is a small colony of ants living in the vivarium. I noticed them two weeks ago. The ants are small and I never see many of them walking around.)
7) Red worms (Okay, I added these to the tank, but they are everywhere at night. I started with ten and now I have dozens inching up the glass every night. I also think the frogs hate them)
8) Isopods (I seeded the tank with 40, now there are hundreds. Turn over anything and wow!!! I love isopod, but every day I have 6 to 20 dead isopods in the water bowl.)
9) Springtail (They do well, but I have to reseed every 4 months because their population drops.)
I am planning to try to fix some of these problems this weekend. I am planning to take everything out of the tank and use silicone caulking to fix the leak. I am going to replace the substrate with a mix of coconut fiber, cypress mulch, plume moss, charcoal, and peat moss. I want to keep most of my plants and wood. After re-planting, I plan to use dry-ice to kill anything that hitched a ride on the plants or wood. I know I want to reseed the tank with bugs, but how……. I am guessing it would be a good ideal not to put red worms in the tank, but what about the isopods and springtails. What do you guys think?