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Watering system

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Warped54321

Guest
Ok, I have a 10 gallon aquarium that i'm planning to make an terrarium out of.  I have a couple D.Capensis and a couple D.Spathulata (just to test out and see how they do, if they do good i'll add a couple of other plants later) that I'm gonna put in there (whenever they arrive&#33
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 I would like to know how I'm going to set up a watering system in this thing.

  I read somewhere that you could build a "well" out of non alkili stones...I have no Idea what that means...but I thought that rocks would put harmful minerals into the soil which kills the plants!?

  And I read i need to keep a bottom layer of sand or something downthere and keep the water level a couple inches above it...how will I do that without algae and stuff building up down there  
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 So, How am I gonna safely water this thing, I don't have much money at all.  

                                        thanx for your time-Warped  
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For a terrarium I would go with D'amato's greenhouse style setup. Just put the pots of plant in ther with their own water saucer and water manually. You will nto need a watering system in a terrarium. Evapotranspiration is minimal and water will be held in a terrarium for very long periods of time.
 
Ok, yeah...(i didn't mean to include the word system in "watering syster"
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I'm making this terrarium for someone...It's gonna have drosera capenthis, dorsera spathulata, probally a nepenthes, some live moss, and maybee a tree frog (hasn't desided on that yet. So I need to make sure of something, You can't use that aquarium gravel stuff with carnivorous plant's can you (because of minerals and stuff)? How about marbels?

thanx-warped
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This is going to be a planted terrarium correct? If so then I would suggest some of the fish tank glass marbles at the bottom for a visable water table. Maybe some sand too. To primary tank mix would be a mix of peat moss crushed up perlite (wear a dust mask when grinding it up&#33
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and just make a hole stuffed full of pure sphagnum moss for the nepenthes.
 
Thanx...Helped alot
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Were do you reccomend purchasing live moss, and were am I gonna find a tree frog? (i've already found a couple places, but i wanna make sure I keep my oppurtinities open
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-warped
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What kind of moss do you want. DO you want a tropical pillow moss, green moss, java moss, or sphagnum moss?
 
OK here is my soln to the water table.

I have a large bog bowl. I use a one liter coke bottle that I have disguised by using silicone to glue cork to the outside I then built a wire rack to hold it at the water level that I would like to achieve. I then fill it with distilled water flip it over and the water table is set. Evaporation drops the water level. and then the coke bottle takes a bubble and releases the water. Surprisingly easy huh.

Take Care.
 
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