RETF Custom Terrarium background - Advice and tips needed/welcomed

[DigitalPunk]

What plants did you order?

Nothing to exciting. We already have a couple Pothos for the tank and a snake plant. We ordered

1 - Wondering Jew (I think we got the tri color)
2 - Nematanthus 'Black Gold'
3 - Nematanthus 'Christmas Holly'


there are 2 or 3 others that are slipping my memory right now lol. We must of looked at 100s of plants to find ones the wife wanted to put in the terrarium.

Right now the plan is to pot the 2 pothos at the top to they hang down the back corners and pot the 2 goldfish in the top middle and let them grown through each other and down the wall.

The Wondering jew will go in the wall down by the substrate and allowed to grow out and cover the bottom.

I think we got another Bromeliad, but can't remember if it made the cut.

The tank is going to be covered in plants when it is all said and done. Once I have them in I will post pics for them before and after they are planted.



----- the water feature was ill-conceived by me this go round. I will put a lot more thought into the next attempt at a water feature.

[DigitalPunk]

Got the ship notification on the plants and springtails. They will be here Saturday. The current plan is to get all the new plants in place put the springtails in the substrate and then in a week or 2 move the frogs in.

[deranged chipmunk]

Cool! Can't wait to see it planted!!

[DigitalPunk]

Long Post - Sorry

Ok Plants arrived. Here they are with their common names

'Black Gold' GoldFish Plant

'Christmas Holly' Goldfish Plant

Mo Peppa Please - Bromeliad

Rabbits foot Fern

'Smithii' Bromeliad

Wondering Jew - This one was in rough shape. We hope it makes it without dying off to much.



We transplanted the plants from the current terrarium along with the new ones into Roy, June, Mal, and Rivers new home

Full View

Right Side

Left Side



A couple of the plants are not in line with the misters. We will spray those "manually" lol


One of the snake plants is shooting off a new plant. It has 3 or 4 little points coming off it.

Spring Tails were added to the substrate and mixed in. Sphagnum moss and leaf litter added back in

We went ahead and moved Roy and June into the new space after we soaked the plants and let the temperature rebound. Originally we planned to wait a few weeks, but the temp home they have been in needed to be cleaned out and have new substrate put in and we didn't want to add that expense so moving day for them!


Roy went and hid to go back to sleep. June walked around for a few showing off her pretty Blue legs. Here are the last 2 pics

Thanks everyone for viewing this and giving me tips and ideas. I had a blast and can't wait to get started on the next one. It will be for PDFs. Working on a small 29 Gallon project with my son. Might start a thread for his tank as well. We started work on it last night.

Again Thank you everyone! Enjoy!

Paul

[ticmike]

Are your plants on the floor planted into ant sort of pot or just directly into the substrate (ABG)?

Looks awsome by the way

[DigitalPunk]

Are your plants on the floor planted into ant sort of pot or just directly into the substrate (ABG)?

Looks awsome by the way

They are panted straight into the soil.



I am unhappy with it from a design sort of way. The vine going across the top of the tank is blocking a lot of the misting water from making it to the back of the tank. We nearly lost the Pothos plants before we noticed it. The water bowl thing should of been water proofed on the inside. It slowly started to sag so I removed it from the tank before it fell while a frog was in it. Other than those 2 things the tank is fine. I just dislike the texture of the background and wish it were different.

It was my first attempt at a custom background and I think I did pretty good, but I want to love it lol.

[DigitalPunk]

Scraping silicone off 3 sides of a 24" tall tank is Z E R O fun.


That it all.

[deranged chipmunk]

Nice job! It looks great!

[dbizal]

Been lurking on this build for a while now and just thought I would pop out from the darkness to tell you it looks amazing! Great job!

[DigitalPunk]

Thanks Bill and db

[DigitalPunk]

Wife and I didn't like the way the lighting looked in the new setup. We went out to Petco and picked up a Fluval Ultra Bright LED Strip for 18' tank. It was on sale for $53 and with the luck of finding an open box we took it home for $45. It has blue LED lights for artificial moon and is 7500K So I am pretty excited about it

Here are a couple pics of the Viv with the new light installed.

The Blue is not as bright as the picture makes it. We plan on using it very rarely, but like having it as an option.

[Riptide]

The tank looks great! I love the contrast in the light and dark that the LEDs create. IMO it gives the tank a feeling of being much taller.

I'm sure your frogs are loving their new home! Great job!

Sent from my GS3 using Tapatalk

[deranged chipmunk]

Looking good. Led's are starting to be the way to go. As soon as they make a system with a more complete spectrum, I am probably going to convert all my tanks to led's

[DigitalPunk]

Looking good. Led's are starting to be the way to go. As soon as they make a system with a more complete spectrum, I am probably going to convert all my tanks to led's

I was pretty impressed with this LED strip. For one I like that the LED lights are not zapping the humidity out of my terrarium during the day. I am actually going to have to reprogram my Mistking timer and reduce the frequency of mistings now.

I love the look it give the tank as well. Thanks everyone for the comments!

I am knock deep in my Sons Dart frog tank at the moment. Still debating on starting a thread for that one.

[deranged chipmunk]

I just wish my led fixture had one or two more red lenses. Around 4000k or so. But otherwise, I've been please with it.

You so have to do the journal for the dart tank. Can't build a retf tank and then a dart tank and not do a journal. Just remember, your next build should always be bigger and better!! :-)

[dbizal]

Is there any benefits from using LED lights to standard? If so I would love to know as I haven't bought lights for my build yet.

Would love it to look like your tank though, it is stunning with those lights.

[DigitalPunk]

Is there any benefits from using LED lights to standard? If so I would love to know as I haven't bought lights for my build yet.

Would love it to look like your tank though, it is stunning with those lights.

I am no lighting expert, but the lights I was using would slowly beat the humidity out of the terrarium over several hours. They produced little to no heat, but whatever it was about them was drink the air out quick.

The LED lights cost more up front, but the cost savings in Electricity/Energy makes up for it. The LED lights can cause the colors in the terrarium to appear my natural and not as washed out as well.

But like I said they are costly. I was lucky in finding these for the price i did. Joshs Frogs has them for sale on their website but for $89. In my opinion it is worth it.


Bill,

I will get a build thread going for his tank. His is a small 29 Gallon Aquarium so it won't be bigger, but I am using his build to test out a new method I want to try on the background. Once I am done with his I will start on My Dart tank. It is a 40 Gallon long tank.. I think it is 36 inches long, 18 Inches Deep, and 16 Inches tall.

[Riptide]

I agree that you need to do another build thread for the PDF tank

[deranged chipmunk]

Well, one benefit is you'll probably never need to replace bulbs. I replace my t5's annually. And with 8 36" and 4 48" bulbs all costing about $20 per, that adds up quick. They also do not throw off heat into the tank. But the housings do tend to generate quite a bit of heat. They also do not lose intensity through a tank like florescents do. The downside being is their par value isn't quite as equal as a florescent light. But for terrestrials, that's not as much of a concern as it is for an aquatic tank.

[deranged chipmunk]

I am no lighting expert, but the lights I was using would slowly beat the humidity out of the terrarium over several hours. They produced little to no heat, but whatever it was about them was drink the air out quick.

The LED lights cost more up front, but the cost savings in Electricity/Energy makes up for it. The LED lights can cause the colors in the terrarium to appear my natural and not as washed out as well.

But like I said they are costly. I was lucky in finding these for the price i did. Joshs Frogs has them for sale on their website but for $89. In my opinion it is worth it.


Bill,

I will get a build thread going for his tank. His is a small 29 Gallon Aquarium so it won't be bigger, but I am using his build to test out a new method I want to try on the background. Once I am done with his I will start on My Dart tank. It is a 40 Gallon long tank.. I think it is 36 inches long, 18 Inches Deep, and 16 Inches tall.

Actually, the price of led lighting is coming down fast. I got my 18" strip for $50 shipped.

I used bigger and better as a metaphor, sorry about that lol

What method are you trying to cover the background with?

And that 40 is a 40b (breeder)