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Bitten By the Terrarium Bug

Joined
Jan 8, 2026
Messages
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Location
Virginia, USA
I have discovered that planting out aquascapes, especially when one doesn’t yet have a large enough ‘farm tank’, creates a bit of a hot dogs vs. buns problem. Order too many plants, now you need somewhere to put them.

Having recently planted two smaller tanks, I found myself, once again, with an excess of plants left over. I have four choices. Throw them out. Put them in my holding/quarantine tanks (that are already beyond capacity). Start a new tank (but I don’t want to move it later). Or try my hand at some little terrariums?

With the holidays coming up, I figured I would try the latter. I had the plants, and some extra jungle soil after making a friend a Shizuku for Christmas. I found some cute little terrariums with built-in LEDs on Amazon. At least this way I can use up the plants I have, and have decided I will gift these to my employees for the holidays. As they have the light integrated in the lid, which does have an adjustable vent, at least they won’t need to source their own light.

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It was fun to play with some stones I haven't used in an aquascape. Jade Stone, Millenium Stone, Dragon Stone, and Dark Seiryu, and I knocked these four out over the weekend. Not complicated, but at least the plants now have a chance to do something other than wither away in their pots and TC cups. My Lindernia started blooming out of its holding tank this week, and I never realized what lovely little blue flowers they have when growing emersed. So a little of that found its way into the jar with the Millenium Stone. Hoping it makes it!

I am curious how many of you also dabble in growing some of our standard aquarium plants in emersed setups? I can totally see myself making more, maybe a Neo Glass Air next. Nobody warned me how much of a slippery slope this hobby was going to morph into when I started back up a year ago. Are there enough of us that would make it worthwhile to set up a ‘Planted Terrariums & Paludariums Discussion’ forum here to share our setups and experiences growing emersed? It’s still scaping, and growing plants, just with a little less water and maintenance. Or would that be outside the scope of this group?
 
Very cool! 💯💯

Could you show some closeups?
I will post the individual full size images I have. I can grab some top-down closeups tonight. The only plant I bought for these was Bolbitis difformis, to give a little extra fullness, and some consistency across the containers. The rest I had to hand. Various Buces (Red Blade, Petite Galaxy, Lamandau Mini Purple). A variety of Anubias (Mini Coin, Nana Petite, Dragon Claw, Pangolino). A pale starving TC cup of Christmas moss that I picked up at Aquashella, and I hope it will revive itself. About 6 pots of Riccardia chamedryfolia between these four cylinders (totally over-ordered for the 60U). Staurogyne repens in two cylinders. A couple of Cryptocoryne axelrodi stolen from my Shizuku. Lindernia rotundifolia scavanged from a holding tank, and a leftover pot of Rotala sp. green. Happy to say my plant growing/holding rack is almost devoid of leftover TC!

Nano Black Seiryu stone (WIO) with XS pacific wood (UNS)

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Nano Millenium Stone (WIO) with XS pacific wood (UNS)

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Nano Jade Stone (WIO) with small Mopani wood (Amazon)

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Nano Hulk Dragon Stone (WIO), no driftwood, just a bit of gel superglue to hold the pieces together.

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One lesson learned. When using cyanoacrylate glue, and reactor spray, in a small container...don't put the lid back on right away. Let it vent. Made myself a bit queasy with a headache after gluing the dragon stone cylinder. Went to pull the lid off and plant it, and got a bit of a snoot full of fumes. Might have lost a few brains cells on that one 🙃 Now to see how well they grow.
 
I'd definitely be in favor of an additional sub forum category for this. I have my shizuku growing and have been considering plants for the DOOA Cell I purchesd. Love the choices you made with the ones you've built.
 
I have 4 now, you can see 3 of them on AFA's Insta, I meant to tag but it shared to their page lol. I love them and almost ordered that same setup off amazon but bought a Landen instead and hate it. So glad to know this one is better.

Also talk about lots of extra plants! Look good and grown in already.
 
I'd definitely be in favor of an additional sub forum category for this.
Yeah, when I saw this post, I thought, since we're all plant parents, we need a place for everyone's Wabi Kusa, terrariums, cacti, succulents, etc.
 
I have 4 now, you can see 3 of them on AFA's Insta, I meant to tag but it shared to their page lol. I love them and almost ordered that same setup off amazon but bought a Landen instead and hate it. So glad to know this one is better.

Also talk about lots of extra plants! Look good and grown in already.
Cool, I will check them out on AFA!

It is a lot of extras. When I did the 150, I was amazed how many plants I ordered arrived in poor shape. While I have subsequently narrowed my sources that I order through, I do find that there is still inconsistency, especially with TC, in how much you get for some plants. ADA is just very generous with a lot of their plants, including the Riccardia, whereas Aquatic Farmer is super stingy with the Anubias Mini Coin, but Tropica isn't, so sometimes I get extra without expecting it depending on where it came from. I am slowly getting better at understanding just how far some plants go in a new scape, but still on that learning curve. Now I might just order extras to have an excuse to make more mini terrariums. I could totally envision a shelf full of of small setups in a studio space. More green without adding extra water changes!
 
Yeah, when I saw this post, I thought, since we're all plant parents, we need a place for everyone's Wabi Kusa, terrariums, cacti, succulents, etc.
Oh no, not the succulent people, they're crazy! 🤣
 
I'm all for a sub-forum. I have a couple of Ikea Milsbo cabinets (the tall skinny ones around 6-7 ft tall) that i converted to living walls about 5 years ago. Their appearance changes constantly and although they've been in better shape, here is what they look like today.

Would be super keen to see what aquatic plants i could drop into that.
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I have 4 now, you can see 3 of them on AFA's Insta, I meant to tag but it shared to their page lol. I love them and almost ordered that same setup off amazon but bought a Landen instead and hate it. So glad to know this one is better.

Also talk about lots of extra plants! Look good and grown in already.
Did you ever decide on which paludarium to purchase?
 
I'm all for a sub-forum. I have a couple of Ikea Milsbo cabinets (the tall skinny ones around 6-7 ft tall) that i converted to living walls about 5 years ago.
Wow, that looks incredible, and what a brilliant use of a very affordable (for the size) glass cabinet, too! Would love to learn more about how you put all that together. The caseware, watering infrastructure, and the planted wall.

The appeal of paludariums is a natural extension of the aquarium for many, and I think the same is true of terrariums for some as well, but I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, so I wouldn't want to clog up the aquarium forum with it. @Art would a sub-forum be an option here at scapecrunch? 'Planted Paludariums and Terrariums Discussion'. I see from a moderating stand-point how that could be a slippery-slope, so drawing the line at Vivariums (no frogs/reptiles etc.) to keep it just to the plant-keeping aspect. I suspect those looking to build paludariums could learn a lot from talented and creative people like @Aquajack I for one have extremely limited knowledge on the tropical/emersed side of a paludarium, as I can barely remember to water a pothos regularly enough to keep it alive. I have been in awe of some I have seen, but land in completely uncharted territory above the waterline with terrestrial tropical species.
 
Cool, I will check them out on AFA!

It is a lot of extras. When I did the 150, I was amazed how many plants I ordered arrived in poor shape. While I have subsequently narrowed my sources that I order through, I do find that there is still inconsistency, especially with TC, in how much you get for some plants. ADA is just very generous with a lot of their plants, including the Riccardia, whereas Aquatic Farmer is super stingy with the Anubias Mini Coin, but Tropica isn't, so sometimes I get extra without expecting it depending on where it came from. I am slowly getting better at understanding just how far some plants go in a new scape, but still on that learning curve. Now I might just order extras to have an excuse to make more mini terrariums. I could totally envision a shelf full of of small setups in a studio space. More green without adding extra water changes!
Agree I now will only do ADA or Tropica for tissue cultures as I get consistency. Will order non tissue cultures from Buce but not TC.
 
Wow, that looks incredible, and what a brilliant use of a very affordable (for the size) glass cabinet, too! Would love to learn more about how you put all that together. The caseware, watering infrastructure, and the planted wall.

The appeal of paludariums is a natural extension of the aquarium for many, and I think the same is true of terrariums for some as well, but I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, so I wouldn't want to clog up the aquarium forum with it. @Art would a sub-forum be an option here at scapecrunch? 'Planted Paludariums and Terrariums Discussion'. I see from a moderating stand-point how that could be a slippery-slope, so drawing the line at Vivariums (no frogs/reptiles etc.) to keep it just to the plant-keeping aspect. I suspect those looking to build paludariums could learn a lot from talented and creative people like @Aquajack I for one have extremely limited knowledge on the tropical/emersed side of a paludarium, as I can barely remember to water a pothos regularly enough to keep it alive. I have been in awe of some I have seen, but land in completely uncharted territory above the waterline with terrestrial tropical species.
Thanks. I've attached a few pics of the process that I could find from back then.
Essentially to build it, expanding foam was my dear friend lol and the backbone of the wall.

Started by laying down the tank and positioning the hardscape roughly where I wanted it to lay. For the second one, I used one main large piece of driftwood and a bunch of plastic plant pots. the photos below are my first attempt with a few smaller pieces of wood.

· At this point I also positioned the entry for the fogging machine (just used cardboard rolls (i.e.leftover roll from household product like foil etc). Or could use any type of poly pipe.

· Also added the lights at this point (on top and on the sides). These ones are Barrina lights and can certainly vouch for them. I have had them in a high humidity environment for over 5 years and never missed a beat.

· Used expanding foam (a lot of it) to secure said hardscape, pots and also to form a base for the back. (The second one I built also had the side walls covered in. Oh also I left about a foot and half free at the bottom, to allow the base substrate layer.

· Once the foam was dry/hardened, I then chipped and carved away until it moulded and shaped to my liking. This can take some time. In the long run it doesn’t matter if its not perfect as the plants end up covering it anyways. The important point is to cut away all the shiny bits as silicon doesn’t stick too well to them.

· Then to cover the foam I did smallish parts at a time. Covered them with silicon (as in fully covered all surfaces) then immediately added a mixture of dried out sphagnum moss, peat moss and coco coir. It has to be bone dry before you add it though otherwise it may not stick as well

· At this point you could also add vines if you want (either real or can use a piece of rope, smother in silicon and cover in peat moss).

· Once this is all done and cleaned up I added the bottom substrate (leca balls or similar as the drainage layer, then a weed matting over the top, then a mixture of coco fibre, orchid bark, sphagnum moss, peat moss and charcoal)

So a fog machine tubing drops in from the top of the cabinet and fed it into the pipe which by that time is buried under foam, moss etc so you can't see it. Then just an opening about half way down where the fog shoots out. Run it on a smart timer for 20 min each day. By doing that and sealing all the small gaps around the doors etc the humidity stays quite high and the need for watering is reduced considerably. I do open the cabinet most days for about 20min to allow some air exchange. I used to have a watering system (spray bar/sprinkler) mounted along the top which was set to auto water frequently. It was only one of those cheap amazon things and only lasted so long. I may look at either building my own one day soon or obtaining a decent one. Otherwise, for now, I just give it a bit of a spray a couple times a week using tank water so kind of feeds the plants at the same time.

How it started lol
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Thank you for putting all that info together, it's great to get the overview of the process. Spray foam makes a lot of sense, especially for both weight in a glass box, and malleability. I wonder if a hot foam knife would make carving it out a little easier? I never used one until a couple of years ago when I installed some ridge foam insulation in the barn, and that knife was a game-changer!

Do you use anything like springtails in a system this large?

I love this project. I might try a smaller glass box cabinet in the near future. I love the ADA systems, but they do get quite expensive. I have been building my own drip systems for the gardens and greenhouse for years, so I am pretty comfortable with coming up with a watering system. Definitely gives me a lot to think about! Thanks for the inspiration!
 

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