Hi, Absolutely throw away every plant. Clean out all of the gravel and soil and throw that way too. They have all been contaminated with snails and worms. And make sure you sterilize everything with bleach that goes back into the terrarium including the aquarium. This is very important or you will just introduced the snails and worms back into your terrarium. Using a base of stones sounds good. The jury is still out on the charcoal. Some people think it is needed. Other people say that once the charcoal has absorbed all it can it will start to put contaminants back into the echo system. Next, one needs to put a barrier in between the base and the substrate. This keeps the potting medium from falling into and in between the rocks. The rocks don't do much good if there are no air spaces in between them. Nylon screen from the hardware store works very well. Make sure you get the nylon screen not metal screen. Put your potting medium on top of the screen. What rhizo means by " soilless mix" is a potting a medium that is devoid of loam and worm castings. In other words no dirt. One soilless mix could be milled spagnum, vermiculite and perlite. There are other soilless mixes that one can make or buy. I'm going to let Al and rhizo chime in on that one. I don't know if you know it, but there is a terrarium forum on GW. You might ask some of your questions over there too. Also, start reading through all of the entries. There is a wealth of information out there. Black jungle also has a page devoted to setting up a terrarium. I will put a link to it below. They talk about co-co bedding at black jungle. Again, the jury is out on that too. The people over on the terrarium forum swear by it. The people on the African violet forum swear at it. African violets seem to do poorly in co-co bedding. Since I will have a couple of violets in my terrarium I will not be using the mix. Anyway, I hope this helps. Again, I'm just new to this too. Good luck. Larry Here is a link that might be useful: Terrarium Basics

Thanks again all: Boa is doing much better. She is eating like a horse, but still doesn't want to be left alone. I can't believe the difference in her since I stopped the antibiotics. She demands food now, and her catmilk. Her and Bear got into their first fisticuffs in a long time when I was taking too long to get the food in the dish. She got a huge dish of whipped cream yesterday (her favorite) and didn't leave a smidgen in the bowl for Apache to finish. She is back on the tapazole now for the hyperthyroidism and doesn't even know it's in her food. I am breathing a sigh of relief. I know nothing can live forever, but I can hope. Think she will be with us for a while longer. Praise God for answering my prayers. Jenny

Hi Ana, I saw those kits on Dr. Foster and Smith web site. Yes I do have a lot of questions because I am just learning. In the warmer weather my focus will be more outdoors with gardening, ponds and Koi. I purchased on the internet Irish Moss seeds for ground cover around my waterfall pond area and planter. Can hardly wait for Spring to come. Well I went to blackjungle.com and purchased for my small terrarium, Dwarf mono grass and a Fern - Humata tyermanii "White Rabbits Foot". Later I will ad one more plant such as African Violet. Not a lot of room to plant in and I have to keep only small plants. I also purchsed a clump of Java Moss. I gather the Java Moss is for only aquariums. Well I have a fresh water aquarium that it will do nicely. Also thinking of maybe putting a tiny bit of the java Moss in my large bowl with black pebble rocks that has a water fountain flowing into. I think it would give it a very nice effect. I do wish blackjungle had more small flowering plants beside Orchids. But back to the nursery for that. Thank you, Theresa

Thanks so much, Dee-Can, for putting this video up for all to see. And much appreciation for the 'Animal Place' for ensuring these 2 friends being reunited to share a good forever home.