Planted tanks revisited

[Peter Roach]

Three months later the planted tanks are growing well with a once per month watering (0.5L) I did have a bad problem after a few weeks with fungus gnats which is now sorted, an application of predatory Hypoaspis mites combined with a 3-4 inch section of sticky fly paper in the tanks severely depleted their numbers.
After the gnat numbers were considerably reduced I added tropical woodlice and British springtails to keep their population down and so far it has worked as there are only one or two that can be seen rather than hundreds.
This week I added approx 8-10 British woodlice to each tank as a top up to the cleaning crew.

Spider's will be added this week. and then we shall see if all the trouble has been worth it.

LINK TO PREVIOUS THREAD


Before and after photos's.

Plants are Parlour palm (Chamaedorea elegans) and Spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum)

[Marko Sajovic]

Nice progress.
Beside pothos, I found those two plants great for planting inside vivs. What do you use as substrate? And one more thing... How many tropical woodlice do you introduce introduce as a starter into each tank?

[Peter Roach]

For substrate I used a 50/50 mix of organic compost and houseplant compost.
I added approx 15 tropical woodlice to each tank and then added a further 8-10 native woodlice as a back up clean up crew.

[Jamie Cooper]

Looking good Pete!

I'm very interested in your substrate, particularly the use of the hydroton clay balls. Could you explain how they work?

Jamie

[Peter Roach]

I have an aquarium gravel tidy over the clay balls to separate them from the substrate.
The water is poured slowly onto a small piece of bark or dead leaf so that a hole isnt made in the soil.
The water is absorbed by the hydroton clay balls and is slowly drawn upwards into the substrate over a period of weeks.
I did over water at first by watering every week but now I pour in approx 1/2 litre every 4-5 weeks but I'm starting to think that this is too often as well so i'll be adding water about every 6-8 weeks and will see how it goes.

I havent measured the humidity but it is definitely very high for about 2 weeks after watering and then slowly get less over the next few weeks until its watering time again, which I suppose will very vaguely replicate rain showers
I havent added any spiders yet so i still have put in small waterbowls which will raise the humidity very slightly and I'll probably mist one or two tanks starting on week 3 after the initial watering to see how the plants react to the extra water.
I can of course water the plants much less at one go but do it every 1-2 weeks so to try and keep the humidity at a reasonable even level.

Its all fun and games aint it !

[Jamie Cooper]

I have an aquarium gravel tidy over the clay balls to separate them from the substrate.
The water is poured slowly onto a small piece of bark or dead leaf so that a hole isnt made in the soil.
The water is absorbed by the hydroton clay balls and is slowly drawn upwards into the substrate over a period of weeks.
I did over water at first by watering every week but now I pour in approx 1/2 litre every 4-5 weeks but I'm starting to think that this is too often as well so i'll be adding water about every 6-8 weeks and will see how it goes.

I havent measured the humidity but it is definitely very high for about 2 weeks after watering and then slowly get less over the next few weeks until its watering time again, which I suppose will very vaguely replicate rain showers
I havent added any spiders yet so i still have put in small waterbowls which will raise the humidity very slightly and I'll probably mist one or two tanks starting on week 3 after the initial watering to see how the plants react to the extra water.
I can of course water the plants much less at one go but do it every 1-2 weeks so to try and keep the humidity at a reasonable even level.

Its all fun and games aint it !

Thanks for that Pete, it's all very interesting. I'm thinking of using a system like this.

How do you secure your cork bark tubes with this sort of system? I've always glued mine to the bottom of the enclosure with some silicone but I'm guessing that won't be an option if I use this sort of setup.

I've always used a mix of coco fibre, peat and vermiculite as substrate. Would it be OK to continue to use this mix or would you recommend something else? Would there be any point in using vermiculite?

Jamie

[Peter Roach]

How do you secure your cork bark tubes with this sort of system? I've always glued mine to the bottom of the enclosure with some silicone but I'm guessing that won't be an option if I use this sort of setup.

The bottom of the cork tubes are resting on the gravel tidy and 1/4 filled with substrate. The soil is piled up around the base of the cork tubes and tamped down firmly to hold the cork firmly in place. The substrate is 2.5 inches at the front rising to 4 inches at the rear (approx)

I really cant see the point in securing cork tubes to the bottom of the tank or anywhere else, what happens if you have to remove it for some reason ?

I've always used a mix of coco fibre, peat and vermiculite as substrate. Would it be OK to continue to use this mix or would you recommend something else?

Your tank, your spiders . . . your decision what to use.

I used the organic compost and house plant compost because they have nutrients for the plants to survive.
As far as I'm aware coco fibre has no nutritional value for the plants (I could be wrong) so I thought for the sake of a few ££, just use the proper plant substrate.

Would there be any point in using vermiculite?

Up to you and what you would to see when looking at your tanks.
Vermiculite does a good job of holding moisture in the soil but IMHO looks rubbish especially through the sides of a glass tank, so I dont use it.

[Jamie Cooper]

The bottom of the cork tubes are resting on the gravel tidy and 1/4 filled with substrate. The soil is piled up around the base of the cork tubes and tamped down firmly to hold the cork firmly in place. The substrate is 2.5 inches at the front rising to 4 inches at the rear (approx)

I really cant see the point in securing cork tubes to the bottom of the tank or anywhere else, what happens if you have to remove it for some reason ?

Hi Pete,

I've always found that there is a bit of movement in the bark no matter how much I compact the substrate, so I use silicone or hot glue to secure it in place and then pack the substrate around it. It also helps to position cork tubes at an angle securely. Like you say it can be a pain if you need to move the bark tube, but it's the way I prefer to do it.

Forgive me if I'm asking a daft question here, but if I was to continue to glue the bark tubes to the base of the tank and place the clay pellets around it, is there any reason this setup would not work? I suppose the inch or so of cork in with the layer of pellets would take in a lot of water, other than that would the drainage system still work efficiently?

Jamie

[Peter Roach]

The drainage system would work but as the spiders usually dig to the bottom of the tub . . .and when you water the plants . . . a spider with a wet bum usually isnt usually a happy spider.

I set this up after a long deliberation on each and every aspect of the set up and it works for me.
If you decide to change parts of it then you will have to rethink all the different aspects of everything that has been changed.

There is an old saying . . ."If it aint broke, why fix it" . . . .>>> CLICKY <<<

[Craig Toon]

Peter, I would just like to comment on how good the set up looks with real plants, it really dose look amazing. have you grown these plants from seedlings. I really hope it works and I am very interested on the out come with the Tropical wood lice

[Peter Roach]

The parlour palms were about 6-7 inches high and the spider plants were mostly around 2 inches and are now 15-18 inches !!!

[Craig Toon]

Peter, How are the planted tanks going hope all is well?. I have added the tropical wood lice to my vivarium's which are moist, and dried all the others as discussed previously and it seems to have helped massively. all the none moist tanks now have water bowls and all Ts seem to be doing fine its just a tad warm. Tropical wood lice seem to be doing ok I have seen them in the Vivarium's a couple of times now.

[Peter Roach]

Hi Craig. The tanks are doing all doing fine except one where the AF L violaceopes has taken a dislike to one of the sword plants whose leaves are growing too close to her tube. She has slowly shredded each of the leaves so that none are within 3-4 inches of the entrance of her home, apart from that they are all doing fine.
I have measured the temps inside the tanks and at the hottest it has been 32.3C (90.1F) I've been heavily spraying with cool water during the late mornings (11 - 11.30am). The added cool water and evaporation has helped to lower the temps by a few degrees to an average of 30C (86F) so all is good so far.

[Marko Sajovic]

Just bringing this topic to life with some new world arboreal tanks.


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[Peter Roach]

Nice tanks

What species are you keeping in them ?