Terrarium soil too wet?

[ukfan1976]

Hi all!
My Viv has been up and running now for about 2 weeks now and it seems to be doing well. I constructed a stream that runs through the middle of the enclosure and empties into a pond. I had a lengthy discussion with the frog guy at the local pet shop here in San Diego on how to construct this as they had a similar one that quite frankly looks bada**. I worked on mine for about a week, finished it, and it looks pretty darned awesome IMO. (Lol). The guy at the pet shop (Pet Kingdom) told me that the pond construction and accompanying pump would require me to flood the substrate and build the soil layer on top of it, and it'd be fine. So now I have a cool looking stream in my viv. I love it.

Now, I'm worried because the soil stays wet. Like always. I'm sure the soil is pulling the water up from the substrate, keeping it moist. The ferns and vines I've added seem to be thriving, however I added some Frog Moss (from ZooMed) to cover the rest of the soil so my frog would have dry ground. It looked beautiful, a deep emerald green. Now, 3 days later, the moss all brown. All of it. All the other plants are ok. This concerns me. Also my humidity has been reading 90-99% almost continuously.

can Isopods and springtails live in such wet soil? Is this a danger to my frog being so damp? I added a whole colony of springtails I got from LLL Reptile the other day, under the moss and logs, etc and have yet to see one since, although the soil is all covered so could be lurking beneath I really dunno. I want to add isopods but don't want them to die if it's too wet. Any advice? I'd really appreciate it.

Below are pics, before and after:

[deranged chipmunk]

First, get rid of that frog moss and get some sheet moss, or better yet, some leaf litter. I don't know a soul who has had success with that frog moss. The most I ever got from it was getting it to pop spore pods, but never really saw any real growth from it.

The springtails and Isopods will be fine in apostles environment. They actually prefer it.

As far as your soil, how moist is it? What's the distance between your drainage layer and your soil layer? The soil is most certainly wicking moisture up, and there's probably not going to be much to do to prevent it.

[DigitalPunk]

I have never used Frog Moss, but almost any moss you buy will go through a browning phase as it adjusts to the terrarium. If you do decide to replace it look at the moss sold on NEHERPs site. I love it so far! It went through a browning phase, but it is bouncing back nicely.

Keep an eye on your soil. As Bill said your Springs and Isos will love the humid environment and the wet soil. Just keep an eye and nose on it. If the soil is sitting in water it will breakdown much faster and turn into a bog. When this happens it will smell gawd awful. If you smell the rotting putrid smell you need to pull your frog out ASAP and remove and throw away all the soil.

The hardest part of a water feature in a Terrarium is keeping the water away from the soil so it does not swap the land area out. One thing you can do is to add enough Leca or rocks to the bottom of your tank to push the soil up above the highest part of the waterline. Separate the Leca/rocks from the soil using fiberglass screening or weed block material.

[ukfan1976]

I have never used Frog Moss, but almost any moss you buy will go through a browning phase as it adjusts to the terrarium. If you do decide to replace it look at the moss sold on NEHERPs site. I love it so far! It went through a browning phase, but it is bouncing back nicely.

Keep an eye on your soil. As Bill said your Springs and Isos will love the humid environment and the wet soil. Just keep an eye and nose on it. If the soil is sitting in water it will breakdown much faster and turn into a bog. When this happens it will smell gawd awful. If you smell the rotting putrid smell you need to pull your frog out ASAP and remove and throw away all the soil.

The hardest part of a water feature in a Terrarium is keeping the water away from the soil so it does not swap the land area out. One thing you can do is to add enough Leca or rocks to the bottom of your tank to push the soil up above the highest part of the waterline. Separate the Leca/rocks from the soil using fiberglass screening or weed block material.

Thanks Paul!

I like the idea of leaf litter so I"ll leave the moss in place and see it it greens back up. I'm not concerned with the water getting too stagnant, since the all of the water is being cycled via my buried water pump (its sitting on the bottom of the enclosure and covered by medium sized gravel). It seems to be creating a pretty efficient "undergravel filter". I've stirred up the water a few times rearranging stuff and it quickly goes back clear after an hour or two. Hopefully won't get boggy too soon

[ukfan1976]

First, get rid of that frog moss and get some sheet moss, or better yet, some leaf litter. I don't know a soul who has had success with that frog moss. The most I ever got from it was getting it to pop spore pods, but never really saw any real growth from it.

The springtails and Isopods will be fine in apostles environment. They actually prefer it.

As far as your soil, how moist is it? What's the distance between your drainage layer and your soil layer? The soil is most certainly wicking moisture up, and there's probably not going to be much to do to prevent it.

Cool thanks for the heads up about the Frog Moss! I"ll get rid of it, it was pretty cheap. I had bought some sheet moss a while back and use it in my african violet terrariums and it likes the moist humid air inside of the closed containers. I'd like to buy the leaf litter local here in San Diego but Pet Kingdom doesn't have it but will check with LLL Reptile. I'd order offline but the shipping is kind of pricey (1 gal bag $5.99, and shipping is $9.99 lol) But if I have to i will I like the look of moss but the springtails/isopods will like it i'm sure.

The soil is wet. I should have used that adjective instead of moist lol. It sits directly upon the drainage layer. Since I have the creek running down into a pond there is a slope up from the left to the right so the soil by the pond is considerably wetter, although like you said it is wicking up from the drainage layer all the way up to the top of the incline on the left. The ferns don't seem to mind tho. I still am getting a constant humidity reading of 99% even with my Viv cover half open to air, the other half covered. I repositioned the probe earlier today (i thought positioning was an issue), and it started reading in the 70s-80s, although now I just checked it and its back up to 99%. The probe sits under an uncovered portion of the screen top also. I dunno maybe the probe isn't calibrated right? Or perhaps the wetness of the soil is truly keeping the humidity that high.

I guess my main concern is for my frog. He seems to like the creek and as long as it isn't too wet for him I"ll adjust the plants/ground cover as necessary. I really like the creek and pond combo and hate to lose it over a moisture issue.

[DigitalPunk]

I'd order offline but the shipping is kind of pricey (1 gal bag $5.99, and shipping is $9.99 lol)

If you order multiple items online the shipping becomes less of an issue like say Moss and Leaf litter. That can make the $7.00 Shipping seem less bad. I always try to order more than one item when doing an online purchase to get more bang for the shipping bucks.