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fgilles02420

Beginner setup?

fgilles02420
16 years ago

I have a ten gallon aquarium I'd like to use to set up my first terrarium. I want to keep things very simple - I will probably be using houseplant/tropical type plants, no critters, no orchids, no water features. Plants would be living at normal room temperatures.

The lid to the aquarium has a fluorescent light fixture - are there plants which will grow in a 10 gallon tank with a standard 15W light? At the pet store there are several different types (Sun-Glo, Power-Glo, etc) to choose from, all are 15W.

Alternatively can you put a terrarium in a north window and use ambient light?

The lid will not be tight fitting - as an aquarium lid it has several "holes" punched out (where the filter, heater, etc fed into the tank). So the environment would be humid but not closed. I'm hoping not to need supplemental circulation.

What would be the best substrate? Potting soil, coir, peat, sphagnum - mix of these? I've searched this forum and I'm not finding much on specifics.

Can you suggest plants, and where to find them? There were pretty dismal reviews of Black Jungle on gardenwatchdog. Logee's seems to have a nice selection of terrarium plants, I don't know if they are suitable (http://www.logees.com/products.asp?dept=365)

I realize this is a lot of questions. I've been poking around this forum for the last two hours trying to find a section/post with specifics for beginners (also the FAQ's) with very little success. Most of the terrarium books at the local library seem to date from 25 years ago. I hope people can share their personal results with me, I'd really appreciate it!

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