|
DR FRASIER KRANG posted:I've had these two glass pots kicking around for a while and I finally made it up to my friend's shop to make a collar for them. Dang that's a really neat enclosure concept. If you've got the inclination you could so something paludarium-style (50/50 water/earth ) with driftwood as the centerpiece. I can't really tell the volume but the bottom bowl looks voluminous enough to support a couple shrimp for cleanup duty. mrfart posted:
Love it, the plants should be fine - I have fittonias stuck to glass and they don't care. Might even get a bit crowded after a while! mrfart posted:Still didn’t find any of these fungi eating critters. Fishsticks, if you buy them anywhere near Mechelen in Belgium, please let me know:) thanks. Amfibia for sure has them as feeder bugs, depending on where you are in Mechelen I can bring you a box from my farm sometime, I work near the trainstation. Fishstick fucked around with this message at 09:47 on Mar 27, 2024 |
#
?
Mar 27, 2024 09:43
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 04:10 |
|
|
What's the difference between these and that jar that was closed off for 50? years and did fine? And why do Belgians love moss terrariums so much?
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2024 10:17
|
|
|
Fishstick posted:
Wow, I live 10 minute walk from the station (one of the reasons we moved here). Let me know if you want to have a weird insect trading goon meet by the station in one of the cafés there or something. But I could also drive to amfibia in the weekend (they're not open during the week? But they have an insect vending machine, haha), if it's a hassle to transport bugs.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2024 11:18
|
|
|
uguu posted:What's the difference between these and that jar that was closed off for 50? years and did fine? I’m as surprised as you are. Probably the lack of sun/space.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2024 12:47
|
|
|
mrfart posted:Wow, I live 10 minute walk from the station (one of the reasons we moved here). Small world! Hit me up on waffleface@gmail.com and we can set somethin up for bug sharin'. This week I'm only in Mechelen tomorrow but I can meet up somewhere around noon if you want. uguu posted:What's the difference between these and that jar that was closed off for 50? years and did fine? Technically nothing, other than the scale and age, and that most of those big terrariums are generally plant-focused rather than moss-focused. Bigger jars also tend to last longer with zero intervention because there's just more ecosystem to buffer any swings in one direction.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2024 12:59
|
|
|
I'm growing something I didn't intend to in my open terrarium (the white stalks). I'm assuming it's a fungi, do I worry or just let it do its thing?
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2024 16:51
|
|
|
Interesting, i've had some odd fungal growths but I havent seen those before! I thought they were lady fingers first but those dont have those feathery caps. If its an open jar and youve got some springtails or 'pods I wouldn't worry about it, those fruiting bodies don't generally stick around long and you can often find springtails just swarming em. Next few times you mist you can use some chamomille tea that will make it a little harder for fungus to stick around but won't harm moss or plantlife. I don't usually clean fungus and a big fungal explosion is almost to be expected the first few weeks, it can be a bit aesthetically displeasing with some wood molds but most of the time they're benign to your plants/mosses.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2024 19:32
|
|
|
Fishstick posted:Interesting, i've had some odd fungal growths but I havent seen those before! I thought they were lady fingers first but those dont have those feathery caps.
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2024 18:55
|
|
|
Thanks for the springtails, Fishstick. Hopefully I used enough of them, didn't manages to make them fall off quite as easily. I though you said you flick the clay pebbles on which they hide, and then they fall off? I probably need practice  Not much changed from my initial attempt. Also not sure if i gave it too much or not enough after before sealing it. The lit has a small gap, so i used tape to seal it completely. Should i leave a little space? 
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2024 23:43
|
|
|
I deal in bugs and bug accessories mrfart posted:Thanks for the springtails, Fishstick. I use a long set of tweezers to pick up the hydropellets and just "tap" them off into the jar like you would tap the ashes off a cig, any super small white specks left over on the pellets are probably eggs so you can keep it for the farm or add the whole pellet to kickstart the population. You really can't "overdose" on springtails, and if you "underdose" it'll just take a bit longer for the jar to stabilise. A bunch of them are probably also on the twig/moss I added to the container, they love dead moist wood. It doesn't have to be 100% hermetically sealed permanently, it'll still be months before you'd need to rewater properly, and you can always "top up" on springtails if you ever do make the drive to Amfibia. I usually try to let it settle for a week or two to figure out the humidity and monitor the first fungal blooms before I properly seal em.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2024 09:33
|
|
|
Some of my terrariums: This one is probably 5+ years old. It's been on a bottom shelf in the plant room unopened for three years and gets mostly indirect light. The lid is a glass plate from the thrift store that just happened to fit perfectly. No bugs. I will continue to ignore this one.  10+ years old, 10 gallon former aquarium. It gets water added occasionally because the lid isn't airtight and has some pill bugs and little centipedes from outdoor moss. I need to put in some fresh moss and bugs though. There's also a moss bottle on top with the air plants.  One of my three water terrariums, 3 years old. I think there might be a couple snails in there? The only maintenance this gets is an occasional water top off. A lot of the duckweed is dead so I'll probably scoop it out and put some salvinia in.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2024 02:46
|
|
|
HelloIAmYourHeart posted:Some of my terrariums: Fittonias are hardcore, I'm not surprised they did that well for so long with zero intervention. Wanna see the other water terrariums (aquariums? aquascapes?)! I've always wanted to do something with water, I've even got 2 of those tiny-as-heck pumps to use someday, but its tricky planning if you want to balance "hide all the pumps/filters" and "leave access to the pump for maintenance".
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2024 11:34
|
|
|
Fishstick posted:I've always wanted to do something with water, I've even got 2 of those tiny-as-heck pumps to use someday, but its tricky planning if you want to balance "hide all the pumps/filters" and "leave access to the pump for maintenance". I'm not sure if it is relevant to you, but recently SerpaDesign did a video working around those problems: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0_4QWNkUGI
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2024 15:04
|
|
|
More water stuff. The water terrariums are made with aquarium water. The plant is an anubias. I don't know how old this one is. Probably another over 5 years? There are some ramshorn snails in here.  1.5ish years, basically a failure but that one strand of grass is still green so I haven't broken it down. I put in a little snail but it died eventually and I never replaced it.  2.5ish years. This is a Walstad tank. There's a heater and an air stone for water movement, but no filter. The only maintenance I do it is top it off every couple weeks, do a 25% water change three or four times a year, and pull out huge amounts of plants whenever it gets to the point there's more plants than water. Right now I have 10 neon tetras, three types of snail, neocardinia shrimp, and a nine year old kuhli loach. edit: I just found a video featuring Diana Walstad herself talking about setting up one of these https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmwhQ0-60w0
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2024 03:01
|
|
|
HelloIAmYourHeart posted:
I knew I heard that name before! There's a tiny youtuber that makes small walstad aquariums, and I had one on my todo-list to emulate using a terrestrial plant's roots (strawberries in this case) as an extra filter and bonus fruit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at-kyYI2avM
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2024 16:49
|
|
|
i keep killing plants but im gonna find a way to make a moss terrarium somehow this weekend. thats my new project. (or at least starting one).
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2024 04:50
|
|
|
I also filled our old secondhand terrarium with moss and a bunch of other plants now. It used to be our hamster hangout. But hams don't live that long and was a bit too emotionally taxing on my wife. The thing has a build in humidity meter. I don't know what's ideal for moss? It's not a totally closed terrarium, so I'll have to water it. Also, is it a good idea to keep springtails in this? Or are they gonna escape and get into the house?  I also tried a new one that I though would be low hanging fruit.But turned out to be very difficult, since that homer is way too big and it fills the entire jar. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2024 10:17
|
|
|
mrfart posted:I also filled our old secondhand terrarium with moss and a bunch of other plants now. It used to be our hamster hangout. But hams don't live that long and was a bit too emotionally taxing on my wife. Dang that's a full on jungle, looks great! Personally, aesthetically, I would see about some (drift)wood, sticks, and/or some rocks to break it up a bit and for some background, it would make all those plants pop more. 70 - 80% ish humidity is ideal for moss but they're very hardy and won't wilt from a week of being too dry. I've had mats of thread moss that would put old christmastrees to shame in terms of how dry and flammable it was, but soak it in water for a few days and it'll go right back to growin. As for springtails, they have no reason to leave the enclosure. They're not ants - they're not in it for the exploring and foraging, if they're in an ideal humid environment with tons of delicious debris to eat they're not leaving there unless you agitate them. One or two might get out by accident if you have those sliding front windows on that terrarium, but in general its a non-issue if they have much more enticing places to be other than cold glass. Since you're also in Belgium - I went to a shop in Leuven yesterday called Spore Nursery; lots of choice from some of the most common terrarium plants including a variety of carnivorous ones. I didn't need more plants, but, well, you know.  Also some extremely overpriced terraria: 
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2024 12:17
|
|
|
Looks like a nice store to get plants. The terrariums are ‘a bit’ out of my price range. You have a point about the terrarium not having enough features, but I forgot to mention that this was just me throwing every plant I got from family etc in there before they withered away. It’s more storage than anything else atm.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2024 13:10
|
|
|
 Just a lil fern and some lichen my kids found in the driveway.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2024 20:40
|
|
|
I made a moss terrarium today after doing a bit of walking around parks/trails in Los Angeles. I also got a venus flytrap and pit it in there. I did the whole perlite/spagnum moss mixture below the moss which I used for the "topsoil" and then dug a little hole to put the VFT into. I did about an inch of small pebbles for the false bottom, and used a very thin cloth that I stuck a gazillion holes into to allow excess moisture to pass through. im also terrified of posting pics, lest you all find my mistakes and explain to me why this thing is doomed to fail, because im so proud of it right now.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2024 06:54
|
|
|
buglord posted:I made a moss terrarium today after doing a bit of walking around parks/trails in Los Angeles. I also got a venus flytrap and pit it in there. I did the whole perlite/spagnum moss mixture below the moss which I used for the "topsoil" and then dug a little hole to put the VFT into. I did about an inch of small pebbles for the false bottom, and used a very thin cloth that I stuck a gazillion holes into to allow excess moisture to pass through. Flytraps should do great in a mossarium as long as they have good draining soil which it sounds like you did! Post the pics Edit: Spontaneous shrooms time! 
Fishstick fucked around with this message at 16:31 on Apr 8, 2024 |
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2024 11:02
|
|
|
Fishstick posted:Flytraps should do great in a mossarium as long as they have good draining soil which it sounds like you did!  I think I need more bark in the background. We’ll see how it survives as a proof of concept. I’m hoping there some springtails in there but I haven’t seen any 
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2024 18:31
|
|
|
buglord posted:
I like it a lot! I wouldnt mess with it, sometimes less is more. The tiny jars can get crowded easily and it's nice and bright now, and the bark you have now with those square cuts goes well with the angled jar, and you got some nice layering going. Re: bugs if it's "wild" moss with some soil its most likely gonna have some fungus gnats for the flytrap to snack on already, if you can I'd still always recommend springtails just for the maintenance - and I think unlike easier-to-find isopods they won't trigger your flytrap.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2024 19:55
|
|
|
Fishstick posted:I like it a lot! I wouldnt mess with it, sometimes less is more. The tiny jars can get crowded easily and it's nice and bright now, and the bark you have now with those square cuts goes well with the angled jar, and you got some nice layering going. I want to get another terrarium set up before I do so, because I feel like buying a small container of them is gonna be massive overkill for my one jar. I watched enough youtube today to realize that I can keep them in the container they come in and just feed them an individual grain of rice every few days, but I dunno, I feel weird having so many in "holding". Something I want to know is how many weeks i have to wait until I know its "safe". enthusiasm is high at the moment to keep building more terrariums, but I dont want to get like, 3-4 terrariums set up in the span of a month and have them all die from the same mistake I made, ya know?
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2024 04:53
|
|
|
buglord posted:
Within a week or two it should be obvious if the plant's taking hold or not, but it looks like you've got all the basics covered layering/soil/techiquewise. I don't know how you tell a flytrap's health though, but the shop I went to last week had them for sale alongside honeydews and beaker plants all for use in terrariums so I'm assuming they'll do allright. The only thing you might get is the regular fungal explosion from bark/soil without any cleanup critters but that's mostly aesthetics and won't hurt the plant or moss. Finished a jar on comission using another buddha from the buddha drawer:   Needs something more in the background or some extra depth, I think Fishstick fucked around with this message at 07:05 on Apr 9, 2024 |
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2024 07:02
|
|
|
Shrooms have evolved! 
Fishstick fucked around with this message at 13:27 on Apr 10, 2024 |
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2024 15:36
|
|
|
Fishstick posted:Shrooms have evolved!
|
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2024 07:47
|
|
|
The fruiting bodies last like a day or 2 max, isopods and springtails go nuts for em, you can already see some caps having nibbles taken out of it. By this morning there were a few more stalks on the other side of the jar but both of those pictured shroom clusters are gone already
|
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2024 08:40
|
|
|
Hmm so I picked up some nerve plants and a string of turtles and these are pretty massive for my size enclosures. I did what I could to split them off a bit into clumps but ugh. Kinda sucky that I had a certain build idea in mind, then when it came to placement and arranging everything, it didn’t quite “work”. Internet said I could gently split these apart safely but we’ll see how both the plants survive, as I only used like 10% of my string of turtles and maybe 30% of my nerve plant. Further complicating this new terrarium is that the nice wooden lid blocks a lot of light for the nerve plant. That didn’t become super apparent until the build was done. I really don’t wanna use plastic wrap. Anyone have any ideas for that? Also I noticed that thrift stores like Goodwill seem to overprice their glassware quite a bit. I spent a whole day last week traveling through a SoCal Goodwill locations and kept coming up short of seeing things that were too expensive for how much compromises I’d have to make. Ross/TJ Maxx/Marshalls have actually been good alternatives.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2024 00:18
|
|
|
If you're willing to do a little work, find your local plastics supplier. Most sell offcuts of acrylic by the pound. Alternatively, look for cheap pictures at goodwill. Many cheap frames things use Plex/acrylic instead of glass. Cut two pieces of plastic, one the size of the opening you want to cover, one a 1/2" larger on its radius. Attach the two pieces with acrylic adhesive and you have a custom lid. Acrylic is easy to cut by hand with a cheap coping saw, but if you have access to a band saw or jigsaw, they'll cut it as well.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2024 03:04
|
|
|
Ah thats smart. Visting my dad next week, he'll have the tools to accomplish that. finding acrylic will be the easy part. thanks goon!
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2024 04:34
|
|
|
buglord posted:Hmm so I picked up some nerve plants and a string of turtles and these are pretty massive for my size enclosures. I did what I could to split them off a bit into clumps but ugh. Kinda sucky that I had a certain build idea in mind, then when it came to placement and arranging everything, it didn’t quite “work”. Internet said I could gently split these apart safely but we’ll see how both the plants survive, as I only used like 10% of my string of turtles and maybe 30% of my nerve plant. I've only just started experimenting with a string of hearts just now, still lookin for them turtles.In my experience as long as you dont damage the actual roots you can usually pry multi-stems baby plants apart easily if the soil sod is dry enough. If you are going to be sticking with the tiny format for jars, ferns, polka dot plants, and ivies can be cloned from a single leaf/stem easily so you can be very specific where you plant them and don't crowd as much as fittonia, and they work a little better on the small scale side. Clover and pepperomia (rotundifolia / trifolia) do great in jars and are on the smaller scale size too Experimenting with what does and doesn't work is half the fun in this hobby! Turns out that fairy lamp jar I made works fine but the combination of a ton of silicone + semi-enclosed wooden spaces means that jar stinks, really hard. I'm hoping airing it out a few days will help offgassing but goddamn. buglord posted:Further complicating this new terrarium is that the nice wooden lid blocks a lot of light for the nerve plant. That didn’t become super apparent until the build was done. I really don’t wanna use plastic wrap. Anyone have any ideas for that? Alternatively you can drill a hole in the lid and insert a little (IP44) led light, but I personally don't like adding wiring to the small jars, and batteries are a lot of hassle. buglord posted:Also I noticed that thrift stores like Goodwill seem to overprice their glassware quite a bit. I spent a whole day last week traveling through a SoCal Goodwill locations and kept coming up short of seeing things that were too expensive for how much compromises I’d have to make. Ross/TJ Maxx/Marshalls have actually been good alternatives. I honestly don't know what the secondhand market is like in the US - over here there's a bunch of extremely cheap thrift store chain(s). I picked this up this weekend for $5, a 35cmx25cmx30cm fishtank. Gonna use it for a proper paludarium or full on aquascape. 
Fishstick fucked around with this message at 13:32 on Apr 15, 2024 |
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2024 11:04
|
|
|
My terrarium started growing fuzzy mold. Is there a good guide for avoiding that?
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2024 16:01
|
|
|
The cheapest solution is direct sunlight. Mold hates UV-C. If that isn't an option, lowering the humidity can help. Alternatively, wait it out and see what happens, frequently mold will flare up, then die back when it runs out of food. I've also had success by adding a small fan to larger builds, but that requires additional planning and power.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2024 16:44
|
|
|
DR FRASIER KRANG posted:My terrarium started growing fuzzy mold. Is there a good guide for avoiding that? 99% of the time the mould will not be damaging to the plants or moss and is mostly an aesthetic issue. Fuzzy mold threads will disappear eventually (especially with some friendly insects), but if you get colored "stains" or full on colonies on any wood surfaces that might require some more active approach eventually. A Q-tip with a peroxide or vinegar solution works for dabbing heavily affected areas. Here's a piece of wood that molded hardcore after about 4 months, you can see the springtails go nuts once I blow some fresh air in the jar to show how many of them there are to eat all that delicious fungus https://i.imgur.com/Ei7FJMs.mp4 This was about a 1.5 years ago and without manual intervention those twigs look like this now:  You can see a couple of orange spots that are fungus colonies but other than that it's all cleaned itself up.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2024 17:26
|
|
|
Mushroom update: Lots of new ones! 
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2024 17:48
|
|
|
Got my dad into moss terrariums during my stay. Just arrived yesterday, but we already got some substrate and mixed it up, he has some wood hes collected that he wants to incorporate into the first terrarium we make. He already so happens to have a lot of glass enclosures that fit the bill just fine. Just drove to the foothills and picked up some neato moss earlier today. Hes been going through some real tough issues with his parents & siblings so this has been good father/son time to get his mind on other things. Im hoping this sticks with him. Hes an antique/garage sale guy and goes to nurseries on the reg, so I hope this becomes a thing where he has multiple terrariums set up next time when I visit in August. Dunno if it’ll be photo-ready by the time i leave on Wednesday, but I’ll post it when its done, I think it already looks much better than the two moss terrariums I did on my own.
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2024 04:03
|
|
|
What’s a good humidity level for these mossariums? My dad has jumped headfirst into this and wants to get scientific so he bought little humidity sensors and the terrarium we both built during my visit here is reading 99%. Going off nothing but a hunch, that feels a little high?
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2024 22:42
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 04:10 |
|
|
buglord posted:What’s a good humidity level for these mossariums? My dad has jumped headfirst into this and wants to get scientific so he bought little humidity sensors and the terrarium we both built during my visit here is reading 99%. Going off nothing but a hunch, that feels a little high? 70-80% is ideal, more for a prolonged time is going to be an issue mostly for mold, and some of the acrocarpous mosses (most of the ones that grow upright - pincushion and star moss, for example) will end up going brown and eventually rot. Sheet, fern, hypnum moss and such generally thrive in super moist or wet conditions if the substrate itself isnt waterlogged - but again, this may cause issues with fungus and if he's planning on adding "regular" plants also that much might be too much for some of them. The humidity level is also going to vary over the day and over time as the environment settles a bit. If he wants to get real scientific about it he can look into aquatic mosses and a Walstad tank like HelloIAmYourHeart posted. Aquascaping is a lot of the same, just with the added technicalities of having to maintain a proper water environment - so lots of fun to be had with ph levels, temperatures, co² levels and all that stuff. Plus it's easy to get some shrimp and snails going in a fairly small tank already.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2024 23:44
|
|