# New nano vivarium: newbie design questions



## Parotet

Hi all

I keep two planted tanks but I want to try a plant nano vivarium (30x20x20 cm... not vertical). I have decided that I want to do it from scratch (first time I build a tank/vivarium). It will be something like this:



The back and left walls will be covered with Hygrolon (glued with silicone) with the aim of becoming moss walls (probably some little ferns such as Selaginella). I will use an enriched aquarium substrate that will be planted with emersed aquatic plants. As far as I know, ensuring good ventilation in the tank is very important to avoid fungal diseases, although if I try to have two moss walls I will have to reach an equilibrium between good ventilation and dehydration. I want to keep the set up very simple: so no computer fans, no artificial light (probably some in winter), no water pumps, etc. I live in the Spanish Mediterranean coast, nearly subtropical, so light and warm all over the year is not a problem. It has to work on its own (just add evaporated water and some water spraying). The substrate will be soaked with distilled water + ferts. As you can see I won't keep orchids (of course, no critters...), but the approach is closer to a moss terrarium or a wabi-kusa setup

I have two doubts regarding my design:

1. Will this 3 mm slot on the front ensure enough (or too much?) ventilation? It will be just above the substrate line. This way I will be able to take pictures without having a line in the middle. The vivarium plans I have seen with sliding doors are too difficult for my skills…

2. I will cut the Hygrolon fabric a bit longer in the bottom to be in contact with the damp substrate, but I’m not sure if this will keep the fabric wet enough for growing mosses. I was thinking of making a kind of glass separation, parallel to the Hygrolon walls (3-4 cm height -same as substrate layer- and 2 cm width) to be filled with water and to keep the piece of fabric in contact with water. Of course this part would be invisible due to decoration.

Exoterra nano vivaria are not that expensive, I know... but IMO they cannot be compared to the large ones, with huge and clean glass surfaces to look inside. In the small ones doors and plastic frames are impossible to avoid if you take a picture.

Any feedback will be welcome 
Cheers from Spain!

Jordi


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## rigel10

I think it's a nice project. I'm going to do the same building from scratch a grow-out tank, practical and functional, but also nice from aesthetic point of view. I'll start as soon as the temps will be a little cooler - I also live in an area with warm Mediterranean climate.


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## Parotet

Hi rigel10, thank you for your feedback... Any previous experience with nano vivarium in our warm climate?

Jordi


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## rigel10

I have regular tanks, especially Exo Terra (by the way, I agree with what you say about the Exos). I have no problems with temps in winter, but in summer it is very hot here. For this reason, I got especially pums. 
I havo also epips, for which I use LED lights and fans. (But fans are not suitable for plants that need high humidity, such as moss).


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## Parotet

Hi all

I finally planted my moss and emersed aquatic plants nano vivarium… It is still quite hot around here in Spain but I will be at home for the next weeks so I will have time to mist the vivarium as much as needed.
For the Hygrolon walls I have used the Epiweb moss mix but I decided to add some chopped Java moss and an unknown species collected from the wild (Mediterranean low land, let’s say a subtropical moss). Some pics:

 

I used two pieces of wood in which I have been growing Java moss for the last 2 months (just moss attached to wood with cotton line or painted, kept in a clear plastic container, misted once a day and with plenty indirect sun). And of course some emersed aquatic plants from my tanks. More pics:





The species that have been planted for the moment are: Anubias bartieri, Ludwigia repens, Rotala rotundifolia, Hydrocotyle tripartita, Hydrocotyle leucocephala, Staurogyne repens, Limnophila aromatica, Azolla filiculoides, Selaginella kraussiana and Anagallis tenella… none of them are truly aquatic plants as you know. They are planted on recycled Aquasoil that is kept damp. Everything will be mist by hand, probably 3 times a day during the moss setup and hopefully once a day once established. And this is how it looks for the moment… The moss will take quite a lot of time to grow and hopefully cover all the Hygrolon.



Regarding the plants I am not sure what will happen, time will tell… I guess the most adapted species to the vivarium conditions will cover the whole setup. For the moment what I aim at having a good collection of species to make sure that at least some of them will thrive. Some more pics to show the scale of the vivarium, it is really small, sometimes a bit tricky to work on it. The lamp on the pictures is provisional (13w CF) as the one shown in previous post is being painted in black (this one will hold a 7w LED). It also receives good light during the morning, so in total 8 hours of artificial light + 4 hours of indirect sunlight.

 

I also decided to toy a little bit with Hygrolon and moss… not really emersed aquatic plants, just tropical moss mix from Dusk/Epiweb (Sweden) and some bits of native ones. I want to give a big thanks to Mikael Karlbom at Dusk Tropic Sweden for his good advice on the nanovivarium design and Hygrolon use. Here’s a series of pics showing a pair of little toys that will grow beside the nano vivarium:

 
 



Jordi


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## SDK

Beautiful job!


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## rigel10

That's nice! Keep us updated!


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## Parotet

2,5 months later...



I got rid of Limnophila aromatica that grew very fast and I have to trim Rotala and Ludwigia every 15 days. Hydrocotyle tripartita was also invading the setup so I decided to make some room for Java moss in the foreground (right corner).
The moss walls are really fascinating (not in the picture... crappy picture). In some places it is mixed with Riccia. I hope to have it all covered for Christmas.

Jordi


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## Parotet

Hi all

quick update of the other nano setups





Jordi


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## slimninj4

Looks really good. What was the reason for the tin foil on the branch at first?


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## Sktdvs14

Amazing tank!! 

And yea, why the foil over the drift wood edges? Any purpose? OR bought in that manner? Thanks


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## Slengteng

I think he used it as a template to cut the hygrolon right!


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## Parotet

Sorry mates, I missed your posts 



Slengteng said:


> I think he used it as a template to cut the hygrolon right!



Right! Just a way of knowing the shape and dimensions of the Hygrolon to be used

Jordi


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## Parotet

Sktdvs14 said:


> Amazing tank!!
> 
> 
> 
> And yea, why the foil over the drift wood edges? Any purpose? OR bought in that manner? Thanks



The wood was not bought, actually there are three different pieces of almond tree wood I found assembled with glue

Jordi


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## Parotet

HI all

It's been a long time since I wrote about this nano vivarium basically based on emerged aquatic plants. It does not exist anymore (actually it was dismantled in 2015!) but now that I've come across this thread I wanted to show the final result

Cheers!
Jordi


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## Parotet

And also a quick update for this little toy...









Cheers!
Jordi


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## wimvanvelzen

hi Jordi

These are wonderful little gems! 
Have you worked on larger vivs as well?

Wim


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## Parotet

wimvanvelzen said:


> hi Jordi
> 
> 
> 
> These are wonderful little gems!
> 
> Have you worked on larger vivs as well?
> 
> 
> 
> Wim




Hi Wim

I will be soon posting about a 25 liters viv I'm just setting up, and hopefully about a 60 liters in one-two months. A bit larger but not too much!

Jordi


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## Tivaj

Parotet said:


> Hi all
> 
> quick update of the other nano setups
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Jordi


How are you wicking water to these.. Is there a water underneath.. 
Nice work by the way


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## FrogTim

How to you get moss to grow so well on 1 layer of hygrolon? I use several layers and at the top of my viv it dries out so quickly. Mistking comes on 5x daily too. Any more I'd flood my tanks.

Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk


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## Parotet

Tivaj said:


> How are you wicking water to these.. Is there a water underneath..
> Nice work by the way



Sorry for the late reply. Yes, there was water underneath in a small plastic container. The wood sat on a false bottom and the hygrolon was always in contact with water. I also misted from time to time, and of course it was inside an acrylic cube to keep humidity higher

Jordi


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## Parotet

FrogTim said:


> How to you get moss to grow so well on 1 layer of hygrolon? I use several layers and at the top of my viv it dries out so quickly. Mistking comes on 5x daily too. Any more I'd flood my tanks.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk




Just keeping hygrolon always wet by soaking a bit on water, in hottest months one daily mist and keeping it inside an acrylic cube. Make sure you're using hygrolon well. I once glued a wick to a large piece and the water didn't go up because hygrolon has two layers (internal and external) and it seems both have to get wet for driving water upwards

Jordi


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