# 29 gallon Terrarium



## Spheroid (Jan 17, 2021)

So I had been kicking around an idea for a while to build a terrarium, I've always been interested in keeping houseplants and had some issues recently with some getting just a little too big to comfortably fit in the space that I have! So I decided that the next best thing would be to go smaller, and there seem to be a number of very interesting smaller tropical species that would do well in a higher humidity environment. Having a search around the internet for information I found dendroboard had an excellent collection of valuable information, and it seems there are a couple of other members that have terrariums instead of vivariums, so I decided to post what I'm building in case anyone else might find it interesting. I found that posts that were very detailed were more helpful as someone with no experience in this area, so I'm trying to be as detailed as possible with what I did. I haven't even starting siliconing the background together yet, so skip down a couple of posts to get to the pictures. 

One other preface, I am not much into DIY, and I have found there are a number of things that seemed simple that I rapidly discovered are much more difficult to accomplish with limited knowledge and tools . I am still in the very early stages of construction and hope to be able to start siliconing the back wall in the next couple of weeks, but this is my first terrarium build of any kind, so the results may be questionable


*Container:*
29 gallon aquarium purchased at the petco dollar per gallon sale

Being a long time aquarist initially shopping around looking at exo-terra and zoo med it seemed I could get much more available space much more reasonably with an aquarium and I couldn't resist a good sale. I have always preferred the slightly shorter and longer aquariums for ease of maintenance and aesthetics. Slightly conversely I do realize that limiting myself to a top opening access point does make it much for difficult to maintain than if I had spent more for a front opening tank. So, choices have been made, how much I regret them remains to be seen. 😂










*Drainage Layer:*
Will be ~2" of leca purchased from Neherp
Layer of egg crate
Drainage barrier: also from Neherp (a trend is appearing...)
1/2" lifeguard aquatics drainage bulkhead








I've spent some time reading the forum while gathering supplies for this project and discovered that the leca in direct contact with the drainage barrier fabric may result in significant wicking of water from the drainage reservoir into the substrate and result in a swampy mess. I had purchase egg-crate to create two small ledges in the background, and figured that I could use a layer of that to create an air gap to hopefully prevent wicking from becoming an issue.

Drilling the hole for the drainage barrier was incredibly intimidating and stressful. I do own a drill and have in the past used table saws for some small wood projects, however I have never attempted to do anything with glass before except for try no to break it! I purchase a set of two 28mm glass drill bits off of Amazon ( I initially purchased 1/2" labeled drill bits at the same time as the bulkhead, and then discovered the bulkhead was labeled as needing a 1 1/8" diameter hole when it arrived.....oops). So second drill bit purchase later I read up as much as possible on drilling glass, lots of good internet information. 

I initially thought that it would be good practice and also get me a drill bit guide, so I started with a piece of picture frame glass.








As I'm sure most of you already know that using picture frame glass (cheap from the good will store) did not go well. The first time it cracked pretty rapidly, so I used the larger piece again and made it about 3/4 of the way through before it cracked. So, confidence definitely at an all time low. 

I did have an extra 5 gallon tank I use as a hospital tank when necessary, and hoped that it was just the picture frame glass was too thin. The third try went much better, but I did still learn a couple of things. For some reason my first instinct was to start at a relatively slow speed and try to get a groove started, which was a very bad idea, definitely start off at a high speed to get started.
I had used one of the two drill bits for the practice ones, and then used the second one to drill through the 29 gallon tank. About 1/2 way through attempting to be patient and _not _put pressure on the glass I finally realized that the drill bit was no longer cutting. So I stopped to check and realized that the drill bit had worn out completely, so I swapped back to the other one to finish cutting. So, cheap amazon drill bits have there drawbacks even for limited applications. 
But, successfully manage to achieve drainage without breaking anything.








I was very convinced that all I would manage to do would be to crack the glass. 
Then I tried to put the bulkhead in and realized that a 28mm/ 1 1/8th in diameter hole is about a mm too small for the bulkhead. Apparently I should have used a slightly larger drill bit for this, so I'm sanding the edges to get it to fit. 

*Background*
I'm planning for coverage on two sides of the tank, siliconing the cork bark pieces directly to the glass, the right (short) side will be cracked cork mosaic style, the back wall will have Great Stuff foam between the pieces covered with the silicone/coco fiber mixture.
Planning stages: 









I'm using egg crate to make two raised areas to hopefully add to the feeling of depth and separate some of the planting areas on the floor space.


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## Spheroid (Jan 17, 2021)

*Background Cont.*
More planning stages, basically rearranging pieces of cork bark on a section of cardboard roughly the size of the space that I have.








The two smaller pieces of paper o the right were trying to approximate the space for the shelves before I built them. The piece of cardboard on the right is the other wall of the tank.
Then I used egg crate and zip ties to build the shelves/levels. The plan is to use the Great Stuff foam on the outer edge of the egg crate shelves to create the walls. I'm not sure how well that is going to work keeping the foam where I want it, as I have never used it before, so we'll see out it goes in the end.
This main wall of the tank will have the larger spaces between the pieces filled in with the Great stuff foam, and hopefully the smaller spaces are close enough together for the sphagnum moss to stay put.








I haven't quite decided if I want the lower levels of the shelves resting on the top of the substrate or placed just below the top edge of the substrate, which I need to figure out before completing the back wall.
The edges of the egg crate were either bent or broken and secured in place using a combination of zip ties and superglue. None of the pieces were broken intentionally for the walls, I was attempting to bend them, and did a very poor job of it.
I attempted to use an embossing heat gun instead of a hardware store heat gun, it was very ineffective, right up until the point the piece I was working on started melting. My next step was to try the boiling water method, which worked ok for shorter pieces, but not so well for anything significantly longer than the depth of the boiling water, and the working time was _extremely_ short, I pretty much bent all of them against the edges of the pan. And then broke several of them when I was slightly too impatient (again, not sure how I cut into the glass tank without major breakage happening).

*Plants*
I have a hopefully plant list, plants that I have found listed either here on the forum or on the various websites recommend here that list plants good for vivariums. I will start with the easy ones and possibly make it up to getting some miniature orchids if I can keep the plants alive.
This is the current list:
Solanum sp. ecuador
selaninella kraussiana browni
cryptanthus red star
ludisia discolor: at least two color forms
emersed growth java fern and anubias nana
Adantium microphyllum
Hymenophyllum cuneatum
Peperomia puteolata
Neoregelia 'fireball'

Orchids:
Lepanthopsis astrophora
Dendobium laevifolium
lepanthes telipogoniflora
lepanthes gargyoyla
Stelis hirtzii

I spent way too much time on several sale websites, and these lists have been rearranged on a number of occasions already. Depending on availability and how well I can keep plants alive, time will tell what makes it into the tank. I have also just realized looking at the lists next to each other how much longer the orchid list has become, when I don't know if I will ever get things going well enough to grow them, slightly too ambitious there apparently.

*Lighting*
Based on recommendations from this site I think I'm going to contact spectral designs for a light panel. With the height of the drainage layer and the substrate the deepest this tank is going to be about 13" at most, so that should provide more than adequate lighting.

*Planting*
Two of the pieces of cork bark were curved enough to allow me to fit small pots behind them fairly effectively. However as I continued to rearranged I realized if I blocked off some of the open areas on the sides and bottoms of the pieces then I could turn the entire piece into a planter and get a larger sized 'pot' so to speak. So I decided to revisit my earlier plans and attach egg crate framework to the open areas so that I can eventually use the Great Stuff foam to fill in the framework and create the planters. So if I can't figure out how to get the foam to go along the edges of the egg crate then I will have several large problems.








The egg crate is currently attached with superglue. I will most likely add a layer of silicone at the edges when I silicone the pieces to the glass before using the foam.
This will give me four possible planters on the back wall if this works out.

*Sphagnum Moss







*
So my initial plan was to get some when purchasing the supplies for the back wall and save on shipping. However they were out of stock at the time, so I figured I would wait until I purchased plants as most of those sites seemed to have sphagnum as well, but I was less happy not getting the tank set up the way I wanted to before the plants arrived.
I was buying a small extra tube of aquarium safe silicone from Petco and this brand was on sale for less than $5. I don't know if that is a good deal as I didn't directly compare to the other sites as it was a bit of an impulse buy. Having never worked with or purchased sphagnum moss before it seems to look just like the photos from the other sites, so hopefully it will work fine. I also don't know how much volume I'm going to need, I guess if I need more I'll buy it somewhere else and can compare.









*Plan*
The next step from here is going to be to attached the cork pieces to the short wall with silicone, then the pieces on the back wall and the egg crate shelves. I will have to wait for the first wall to cure for several days before rotating to do the back wall based on my reading on the internet.
Then will be a layer of silicone on all of the open spaces I'm planning for foam (I'm doing this in two stages so I don't shift any of the pieces I've placed by accident while trying to apply silicone flat to the wall between them). Then carving the foam and hopefully final silicone application to apply the coco fiber coating to finalize everything before assembling the drainage layers.
Hopefully there will be more photo updates over the next week, if not then I have made a very unfortunate mistake somewhere (or several of them).

I've just realized that this post might be better in the Member's Frogs and Vivariums section, but there are some build threads here so maybe not too far of the mark, and I don't think I can change where it's posted.


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## Harpspiel (Jan 18, 2015)

You’ve done a lot of research and this looks like a great start! Your plant lists also look good to me - a few of those orchids are going to be challenging, but it seems that you understand that.

My only suggestion - before you use the Great Stuff, look into the cracked cork mosaic technique on here. It’s reputedly far superior for rooting plants (I say, having used the GS/coco coir technique and a year and a half later still having rooting issues), and it looks like you’re already most of the way there.


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## Spheroid (Jan 17, 2021)

Thanks for reading my incredibly long post and your reply.

My initial plan was to skew my plants to the more forgiving and on the smaller side to try to avoid any tank take overs by an aggressive species (although the cryptanthus does worry me a little). The orchid list originally started as a list of two as my stretch goal plants if everything went well. The mistake I made was going to a site to check prices to see if they were even feasible options, and I'm afraid that I just kept clicking through the 'recommended' list at the bottom of each page and the list of plants kept growing. I highly doubt many of them will ever make it near this tank.

As far as the background, the short side has an arrangement of cork that is just going to be the cracked cork/moss background. My concern is that on the longer side of the tank with how the larger pieces are arranged for optimal planting space there's just no way to get some of the pieces closer together, I don't have enough small pieces, and some spaces would just be too small for that as well. 

From what I understand the ideal situation is less than an inch between pieces for the sphagnum moss to stay put, but there are some areas where that's just not possible. I do want moss in those areas, so the plan is to use the great stuff in the middle of those 2-3" spaces and carve around the edges to provide a channel between the foam and the cork bark islands to put the moss into to hopefully keep it in place. I also want to use the foam on the top edge of the tank above the background to provide a solid appearance.


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## Spheroid (Jan 17, 2021)

*Humidity Management: Mistking*
I went with a mistking system, seems like a very plug and play system with everything that you need. I went with the V5.0 starter misting system since I'm only planning on the one tank, it should be more than I need. My initial thought had been to upgrade the timer to the one with the hygrostat to automate the humidity control, but after reading some reviews it appears even that kind of hygrostat seems to have a limited shelf life, and I would rather have one that is much easier to replace. So I went with the 24 hour repeat cycle timer and 2 double misting heads.








I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with how maneuverable the misting heads were, I expected a much more limited range of motion.









As a side note, you know you've probably spent two much money with a company when the free item they include is an LED reprogrammable fidget spinner!
😂 
















*Ventilation*
I have the glass lid for the tank, I'm planning to remove the plastic hinge and leave an inch of space at the back of the tank open for passive ventilation.








I did also purchase a fan in order to have it (ideally) on a timer along with the misting system to have some active ventilation as well. At the moment I'm not sure If I'm going to place it somewhere along the back gap or drill some small holes in the glass lid towards the front of encourage circulation throughout more of the tank.








I have plugged it in briefly and it is a very quiet running fan, not extremely strong, but hopefully enough for what I need.


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## Frog&Toad (Nov 21, 2015)

Spheroid said:


> I have the glass lid for the tank, I'm planning to remove the plastic hinge and leave an inch of space at the back of the tank open for passive ventilation.


I recently ordered the same tank from Petco. Did this lid come with the tank or is it separate? If it's separate, what's it called? Thanks and will be following your build for inspiration


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## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

Spheroid said:


> I have the glass lid for the tank, I'm planning to remove the plastic hinge and leave an inch of space at the back of the tank open for passive ventilation.


I realize that you're planning a fan as well, but I'd like to point out to future readers of this that a fish tank with a screen portion on top does not ventilate passively. For passive ventilation to occur, an air intake and an air exit is necessary, typically one low and one high, so air can flow out and draw fresh air in. A fish tank with a screen top is just a bucket of unmoving air (without powered venting, that is).


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## Robru (Jan 1, 2021)

Socratic Monologue said:


> I realize that you're planning a fan as well, but I'd like to point out to future readers of this that a fish tank with a screen portion on top does not ventilate passively. For passive ventilation to occur, an air intake and an air exit is necessary, typically one low and one high, so air can flow out and draw fresh air in. A fish tank with a screen top is just a bucket of unmoving air (without powered venting, that is).


Correct! In a tank you need fans to ventilate properly. The fresh air is sucked in by the fans through the grids. You also need grids in the hood or cover!
If both are properly installed, the windows are also clean of condensation in no time.


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## Spheroid (Jan 17, 2021)

Frog&Toad said:


> I recently ordered the same tank from Petco. Did this lid come with the tank or is it separate? If it's separate, what's it called? Thanks and will be following your build for inspiration


The lid is sold separately, it's the Aqeon Versa Top 30" which is also on the petco website. 




Socratic Monologue said:


> I realize that you're planning a fan as well, but I'd like to point out to future readers of this that a fish tank with a screen portion on top does not ventilate passively. For passive ventilation to occur, an air intake and an air exit is necessary, typically one low and one high, so air can flow out and draw fresh air in. A fish tank with a screen top is just a bucket of unmoving air (without powered venting, that is).





Robru said:


> Correct! In a tank you need fans to ventilate properly. The fresh air is sucked in by the fans through the grids. You also need grids in the hood or cover!
> If both are properly installed, the windows are also clean of condensation in no time.


That is very true, I did misspeak when I was referring to the ventilation. The 1" gap along the back wall of the tank will be to aid the ventilation powered by the fan which will most likely be placed along the front of the tank, somewhere. I admit that part has not been as well thought out as it should be. 
And now I'm contemplating getting a second fan and putting one on each front corner. TBD








So the center hinge has been successfully removed from the lid. I have never liked the dark plastic hinges through the middle of the lid and I have removed them from the lids of the 10 and 20 gallon aquariums that I have. This one was much more difficult to remove, and instead of being able to slide the glass out I pretty much had to cut it off. 
The plan is to silicone the plastic guard to the front of the tank and cut holes for the two mistking heads about 1/3 of the way in from each end. 
I have not decided on the hinge for the lid yet, I've contemplated a clear plastic hinge or trying to do use clear silicone for a living hinge. 








Custom Silicone Hinged Glass Top


Here is a simple and cheap custom glass top that I made this week. I am not a fan of the “sliding” tops that I purchased because: - I will easily forget to close them fully -The cut-able plastic piece will become dislodged from its normal position -Feeders can easily get out through the cracks...




www.dendroboard.com


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## Robru (Jan 1, 2021)

Spheroid said:


> So the center hinge has been successfully removed from the lid.


Now that you've removed the center hinge, aren't you worried that the glass will sag?


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## Spheroid (Jan 17, 2021)

Robru said:


> Now that you've removed the center hinge, aren't you worried that the glass will sag?


I have not had any issues with glass bowing on either my 10 or 20 gallon tanks that have had the hinge removed. Admittedly this is a longer span for the glass, but I'm also not going to depend on it to carry any weight. So I'm not really concerned, no.
I will definitely report back any issues I run into.


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## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

Robru said:


> Now that you've removed the center hinge, aren't you worried that the glass will sag?


A 30" top is 3/16 glass -- they don't sag, especially when one of the long axes is supported by the top frame.


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## Spheroid (Jan 17, 2021)

Socratic Monologue said:


> A 30" top is 3/16 glass -- they don't sag, especially when one of the long axes is supported by the top frame.


Thanks for the reply with that information.

So, I have started to silicone some cork bark pieces to the glass, we'll see how the rest of it goes.


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## Spheroid (Jan 17, 2021)

So, all the pieces of the hardscape have been siliconed in place. This was my first time working with any kind of silicone, and I hope to never do so again, it has not really gone that well. I started with a tube of clear aquarium silicone I got from petco.









It was fairly easy to work with, easy to dispense, and apply. My main problem was that I put the silicone on the margins of the cork bark, placed it on the wall, and then shifted it about 1/4" at least to where I decided I wanted it more. However even with that every piece was pretty well attached. I did go back and add some extra silicone where needed. Overall, not bad.








So, yes that's the same photo again, but it was apparently the only photo I have of the the first side finished. I did one side at a time and waiting 24 hours before doing the next one. 
I switched to the black silicone I got specifically to use on the background, and that did not go nearly so well. 








It was very different to work with, incredibly difficult to get it to dispense, I think the silicone gun I have is kind of a POS. After I got a quarter of the way into the tube I had to hold the base of the tube to the barrel of the silicone gun or it would start shifting. 
The other problem with the black silicone is that unlike the clear silicone it is much more viscous, it kept its tubular shape, and if any of it brushed against something else the entire strand of silicone would pull away from where it was applied and stick to whatever it had touched. I attempted to smear the silicone to cover a little extra area, and it stuck better to the glove I was wearing than it did to where I was trying to shift it to. 
Long story short, I am very ineffective at working with silicone. I am not looking forward to applying silicone and coco fiber to the great stuff foam later on .
Please excuse the terrible pictures, everything siliconed to the glass:








From the other side of the glass:








The next step is applying the great stuff foam to the larger gaps and the shelves. After the issues with the silicone I decided to us the small tank I had practiced cutting glass to to a trial run of great stuff application to trial how to apply it, and see how much it increased in volume.
















I was testing out which side of the egg crate to apply the foam, and how much it would expand.
I had also read some people concerned about it expanding and shifting the other items on the tank, so I put some lines right next to the cork bark and inside it, and it didn't cause any shifting at all. 















The other main issue that I realized after everything had been siliconed to the tank, is that I had planned to apply great stuff to the bottom of some cork bark pieces to provide a base to use them as planters. The smart thing to do would have been to fully construct those _before _attaching them to the glass. However in my mind the great stuff would double as a base and also serve as an extra attachment point to the glass as well. 

I did discover that the great stuff applied directly to the glass is very easy to peel off, and the great stuff applied over a thin layer of silicone was attached much more effectively.


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## Spheroid (Jan 17, 2021)

So, the next step was to apply great stuff the shelves and any areas with greater than an inch between the cork bark pieces. Even with the long applicator tip, it was not very easy to reach the lower areas that I needed to, purely due to my poor planning. I did a lot of applying, and then shifting around with a popsicle stick to adjust some areas a little. I will most likely need to add some touch up areas after this as well. 
The foam I also found very difficult to apply a thin layer, I did finally figure out that if you hold down the trigger _just_ a little and wait, it will eventually get to the end of the applicator and apply a small amount. I didn't realize initially just how long you had to wait, so I would press then trigger, then apply more pressure, then get a large glob of it coming out. So, the messy midstage, I'm really hoping it looks better by the end of this whole process. And if I were to do it again, I would just do the cracked cork mosaic background no matter how many cork pieces I have to rearrange to get the right margins. 























You may be wondering about the tinfoil, well that was a bright idea I had in areas where the cork bark pieces are directly next to areas I was applying the foam. I figured it would not pull of the the cork well and I didn't want ugly foam remnants attached to them, so I figured a tinfoil barrier that I could just rip off when I carved it made sense.
Or, you know:









I'll wait about 24 hours and then get started carving the foam, it will probably take much longer than I had originally planned for it.


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## Spheroid (Jan 17, 2021)

Ok, it took about two weeks from starting siliconing the background with waiting at least 24 hours for each silicone and great foam application to set. Then the black aquarium silicone was applied in a layer over the great foam and the coco fiber/background mix from Neherp was applied. It was very difficult to get a good angle to apply the black silione with the silicone gun on a top opening terrarium. Again, building the cork planter 'pots' and shelves with great stuff would have been much easier before putting them into the tank.

So, onto photos:
Great stuff foam carved, and by carved I mean cutting off the outer layer in a very haphazard fashion








Carving tools, the curved blade was very helpful for getting around some of the harder to access areas:








The rest of the foam I just sanded down with 80 grit sandpaper, I was glad I didn't put much time into it because the application of the silicone and coco fiber smoothed down most of the surface anyway.









Finalized layers applied.

Next step: contact paper backing:

















Next step after that was packing sphagnum moss in the cracks in the background. I had two types of moss, one I got from Lowes, the other from Petco.























Overall I liked the color of this moss the best, the darker greenish brown fades a little better into the background, and certainly fewer sticks and twigs than the stuff from lowes. However it seems like the lowes brand each strand itself had a little more volume, which may in the end be better for the plants.















I have apparently hit the photo limit for this post, so to be continued.


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## Spheroid (Jan 17, 2021)

Final background:








I did not realize how difficult it is to tell where the sphagnum is in the photo. The back wall is mainly the Lowe's brand, the right side is the Petco brand moss, I would have used it for more but I ran out of the package after doing the side wall. I think with the spaces I needed to fill if I just used the Lowes orchid moss I could have finished the background just with that.









In this next photo you can kind of see the two moss brands next to each other across the very top layer:

















The next step I need to do is finalize the drainage and substrate layers, but I'm going to take a minute to make sure I have everything in the correct order first because I do not want to have to redo this section.

Drilled lifeguard bulkhead:








I put a small piece of airline tubing going to the bottom of the tank so I can drain the bottom 1" of water if I need to.
I do have to double check because I put the flexible plastic 'o' ring, 'gasket' or whatever that piece is called on the inside of the tank, and now I'm not sure if I should have put it on the outside of the tank.


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## Spheroid (Jan 17, 2021)

My attempt at a living hinge, I didn't take any pictures of the in progress. I used the blue painters tape, 1/16" between the glass panes and had tape 1/2" away from the hinge so I could lift it up and make clean edges. However the silicone didn't extend to that far across the panes, I should have realized that meant I wasn't using enough silicone, but that apparently didn't occur to me. So the edges are very rough. 
However it actually seems to work fairly well, and I can open it farther than I thought with minimal effort, I had thought there would be limitations to the motion of the hinge with this type of hinge. 
















The next thing I need to do is finalize the actual placement for the fans that I am planning on using so I can drill whatever holes are needed. 

I have also just realized that with the sphagnum in the background but the misting system still probably about 1-2 weeks away from putting the misting system together I have to hand mist in the meantime to make sure the sphagnum moss doesn't become hydrophobic.


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## Harpspiel (Jan 18, 2015)

First of all, a lot of the moss you used (green stuff) doesn't look like sphagnum, so I can't speak to how that will respond to water or hold up over time. I know it's labeled sphagnum, and maybe a closer image would clarify, but it just doesn't appear to have the growth habit and long strings you'll find with sphagnum.

As for the sphagnum, you don't have to mist it now. Yes, it can dry out really thoroughly and becomes hydrophobic when it dries, but I doubt it will fall out if you shoved it in there, and you can just take a day or so to re-hydrate once the misting system arrives. I would say it just needs a few minutes to re-hydrate, but that's if you soak it, so with only light surface misting it could take a day or two.


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## Spheroid (Jan 17, 2021)

I didn't have both packages open at the same time, so I didn't realize how different they were. I am now slightly more concerned that the green sphagnum is not the right type. However it will certainly be better to change it now than later. 






















That is good to know that rehydrating the sphagnum won't be that big of an issue later on.


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## Harpspiel (Jan 18, 2015)

The stuff on the left is long fiber sphagnum. The stuff on the right looks like a moss mixture, maybe with some sphagnum in it, to me. Perhaps someone else who has used it or something similar can comment on effectiveness.

Does it fluff up significantly when wet compared to when dry? That’s one of the positive properties of sphagnum - an ability to hold a significant amount of water.


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## fishingguy12345 (Apr 7, 2019)

The non fluffy stuff looks like what gets called "Canadian sphagnum moss" up here. 

It works for filling in a background, and turns cool colours when/ if it starts coming back to life


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## Spheroid (Jan 17, 2021)

Harpspiel said:


> The stuff on the left is long fiber sphagnum. The stuff on the right looks like a moss mixture, maybe with some sphagnum in it, to me. Perhaps someone else who has used it or something similar can comment on effectiveness.
> 
> Does it fluff up significantly when wet compared to when dry? That’s one of the positive properties of sphagnum - an ability to hold a significant amount of water.


 It does increase somewhat in volume when rehydrated.



fishingguy12345 said:


> The non fluffy stuff looks like what gets called "Canadian sphagnum moss" up here.
> 
> It works for filling in a background, and turns cool colours when/ if it starts coming back to life


That would be a significant help it is functional in a background. I was considering removing and replacing it, but I may just leave it for now. 
Thanks for your reply.


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## fishingguy12345 (Apr 7, 2019)

Here's what mine looks like in the background


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## Spheroid (Jan 17, 2021)

Thanks for the photo of your background. I have some close ups of both of mine in place next to each other. I did replace some of the greenish moss, but I'm planning to leave some and see how it progresses. I was also very surprised at how large of a gap the moss would fill in while seeming to be very secure in place.


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## Grundler (Apr 19, 2015)

How has this tank progressed? I've got a spare 29 sitting around that I've been thinking of drilling and building-out.


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## Spheroid (Jan 17, 2021)

I'm still working out the kinks in the misting/fan schedule at the moment, and there are a couple of plants which are going to be moved soon, but overall I think I'm pretty happy with it, and looking forward to watching things grow in. 

As an update on the moss situation, the 'green' imagitarium brand moss browned out in about a week, and since it has less water holding capacity I would definitely not recommend it. 

FTS:









*Plant list:*
Neoregelia 'Wild Tiger'
Crypthanthus bivittatus 'Ruby'
Macodes petola Jewel Orchid
Ludisia Discolor
Pellonia repens
Selaginella sp. 'mini ecuador'
Solanum sp. 'Ecuador'
Mini bolbitis (baby leaf)
mini christmas moss
Anubias nana
Java fern 'windelov'

Left side:









Right Side:










mini bolbitis: overall I'm very happy with it, I was looking for a smaller fern like plant and its growing well.








Cryptanthus bivittatus 'Ruby': initially was getting some green in the center, but brightened back up when the Spectral Designs light got here.









Pellonia repens:I really like this one, good color on new and old growth and seems to be trying to climb the walls pretty effectively, and growing really well. 








Solanum sp. 'ecuador': I was looking for a smaller vining plant to make the scale of the tank look larger, however this one is _really _tiny. It is growing well at the moment but very, very sensitive to drops in humidity.








This selaginella species is really the only one not doing well at the moment, still waiting to see if it will turn a corner, but I may take it out and put the crypt there.









Overall I like the direction things are going in, but still adjusting how much misting the tank needs, the bottom was filling up rapidly for a little while. I've got one more set of plants coming in and that should be the last new plants for this tank, from now on it should just be rearranging to find where everything likes to live and then watching it grow in.


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