Temperate rainforest terrarium?

[RahRabbitry]

Hello all,
I have finally moved to a house and have my 65 gallon aquarium back. I want to convert it to a temperate rainforest terrarium, eventually a vivarium, but am at a loss.
All searches I've done came up with results for elementary schools (short term, usually involving pop bottles) or for tropical rainforest habitats. I would be growing ferns, moss, evergreens, etc. Basically, imagine the below, miniature.



Suggestions? I'm not sure if I would need a false bottom or not. This is obviously not the best time of the year to get inexpensive tropicals lol, but suggestions welcome (and things to avoid). I would be misting daily. I would have a thick bottom layer to allow for large plants, etc.

Thank you,

[Mentat]

First thing would recommend is to build it just as you were doing a tropical set-up (lots of ideas at Vivarium section to include Bill's excellent construction thread. That would include all mechanicals like background, false bottom, etc.

The difference will come when you set-up light and ventilation without adding heat sources and the plant themselves. Good luck !

[deranged chipmunk]

It's not much different than setting up a tropical tank. You just need to make adjustments to humidity and temps.

As far as plants go, you will want temperate species versus the more exotic tropical species, obviously. I have a few suppliers of temperate mosses and ferns on my PC at home and will post here later tonight.

The false bottom is entirely up to you. It is never necessary, unless building something like a paludarium. You could definitely build a temperate tank using a leca drainage layer without a problem.

[Tongue Flicker]

I've never heard of a temperate rainforest before. Spent time living in the Philippines and the rainforest i know are tropical rainforests and montane rainforest. What you want is probably close to a montane rainforest setup. Occasional fogs, mists and cool temps between 15-20 degrees Celsius is maintained. Basically the idea would be cool temps, very high humidity, slightly moist to dry substrate. You could do a false bottom provided you don't dampen your substrate. Plants suited to this would be tropical pitcher plants, mosses, ferns, ivies, mushrooms?!.. Thick leaf litter should be provided and early morning heavy misting should be done. This is the setup that i've always wanted badly for my newts but sadly, unless i put a fridge in front of my tanks, temps here will never hit below 24 degrees Celsius lol

[flybyferns]

This is a link I had tucked away :
basic- but have always found this information to be good way to help keep it all organized as it "bang arounds" in my brain

Different types of forests


-would not recommend the mushroom thing...It becomes annoying after a while.
I will likely have to break this tank down to get rid of the spores.



Lynn

[Tongue Flicker]

This is a link I had tucked away :
basic- but have always found this information to be good way to help keep it all organized as "bang arounds" in my brain

Different types of forests

Lynn

Oh that is so refreshing. I needed to google what rhododendrons look like since they keep showing up in the descriptions lol