It is not so much that we disagree, it is just that the concern comes from experience for most of us. We have just about all tried terrariums with Carnivorous plants and had them die time after time within a few short months or weeks. We really would like you to have a healthy group of plants and not waste your money or time on something that does not work 99.9% of the time. If your able to make it work, more power to you. The main issue would be not to cover the terrarium as that creates a closed environment that does not allow air flow and encourages fungus growth. Drainage is a big problem, so make sure you do not overwater the plants, particularly the Nepenthes and the Butterwort, as they will die from root rot easily. Each species, once again, requires different conditions and watering, so a single terrarium for them all might be right for one and wrong for the rest on watering, soil type, drainage, etc. Make sure you have a very good light source. For Venus Flytraps that means something in the range of 24000 to 36000 lumens of light from a big, expensive, hot metal halide light or from a bank of so many florescent shop lights that you would basically have to create a room just for your plants inside. Each plant also has different light considerations so be careful not to burn the butterwort in light that your flytrap likes. Good luck with your plants.

Hi IME it is difficult to get the sand to adhere evenly or thick enough to disguise the foam Color choices are limited and of course some types of sand will release lime. have tried it with fracted glass,crushed garnet and Lapis. Were expensive and short lived. Coir ,peat,and crushed tree fern will work but I find it's not deep enough to plant and retains way too much water. Paint was the best all around solution. Obviously you can glue other materials to this. One tip. You'll find it's really tough painting inside a glass box ,particularly the corners where the foam is visible from both sides Black jungle uses silicone and puts the foam on top of this. I make jigs and form the foam outside the box , Then you can carve ,paint glue or whatever in a comfortable chair. Then silicone the pieces into position within the tank. Another thing about this method With a putty knife and some care you can remove sections at anytime and then put them back. Really nice with a plant that keeps falling off. gary

Hi Stephanie, The faq is a good place to start. I hope you don't mind if I give you a view of my observations when building my terrarium. You can look at my terrarium by looking at "Building first real Terrarium". I got quite a bit of information from Black Jungle. Click on "Online Catalog" at the top and you'll see some of the project you won't be on the left. First you will need a substrate. Many people use good size gravel; large enough where there is lots of airspace. Only trouble with gravel is that it is heavy and that makes it a problem to move your terrarium. I decided to go the extra money route and buy something called Terri-Lite. It is much lighter and I think works really well. I'm really pleased with the product. You will need a substrate divider. That is a screen that will keep the soil from sifting down into the substrate. Nylon screen works very well or one can buy substrate divider from Black Jungle. Now comes the soil. For goodness sakes don't use dirt. It will get too soggy. If you do augment it with something that will do you good drainage. I did quite a bit of research with the soil and was probably as confused at the end as I was at the beginning. Some people swear that coco fiber is the optimal plant medium. I am into African violets and gesneriads and belong to both of those G. W. forums. Over there people curse coco fiber. It is too salty and African violets do not do well in it. In my terrarium I use a 1:1:1 mixture of milled spagnum (not peat moss), vermiculite and perlite. I did not have animals so the perlite is not a problem for me. If you do have animals do not add perlite and I would ask about the vermiculite. In fact, you may need to go some other route. Ask people who have animals what they do. Different places to buy plants. Black Jungle is also a good place for plants. Tropiflora is another one. I also like Rob's Violets for some of the smaller plants and they are priced a little cheaper. Click on miniature houseplants. The AndOak Hill Gardens is a good place to get orchids. My advice is that you call the various places to order. You can get some valuable information about the plants you are wanting to put into the terrarium. For instance when I talked to Rob's Violets they were very helpful in telling me which miniature plants would work depending on what kind of terrarium I was wanting to make. I hope this helps. I don't have animals or water features in my terrarium, so you will have to ask around for help with those is you are going to included either of them. That is about all I know. My terrarium is over six months old now and is doing very well. I'm really pleased with it and I enjoy it every day. With a 30 gal. aquarium you will have more options than I did with my 10 gal. tank, but you'll still need to be aware of how large the plants are going to get that you purchase for it. If the plants grow too fast or too big, there is a possibility that you will be pruning every month. In my terrarium I have not had to prune anything except for the German grass and of all things they African violet (a miniature at that). Everything else has kept quite small and is slow-growing. Good luck, Larry

When I think of Japanese gardens I think of moss. Why don't you try a simplistic set up with moss, a gravel path, and a few well-placed miniature plants to go with the other decorations? Try a Google search for Japanese gardens and then think of how you can incorporate the general idea inside your terrarium. Here is a link that might be useful: Garden lanterns etc.