In need of advices- Converting a fishtank into a terrarium, plants, landscapes, artificial waterfall and bonsais.

Julien9566

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Hi guys,
I recently picked up an old aquarium (dunno the volume but it's quite large) in my garage and I saw a lot of terrarium in Youtube recently and I had the urge to try making one out of it !

However, I tried to read / watch a few stuffs, but since I don't do well with plants in general, I got kinda scared and I need advices before starting this adventure.
Oh and if it has any significance the aquarium has built-in lights in the top part.

I wanted to put plants, a bonsai, some hardwood and moss in it ,the terrarium would be closed.
I watched a lot of video of SerpaDesign and Asu Green on youtube and got inspired by their work. But I don't even know if these stuffs can go well / grow together and I really lack the knowledge on these stuffs.

I was also wondering if creating an artificial waterfall in a separate part on the middle with a pump would be ok, but I thought maybe not cause that would probably raise the humidity level too high ? It would not touch the plant / soil however, I was thinking of building a container and put the pump in it and make it big enough so that the water coming down from the waterfall would arrive in it. Do you guys think it would work ?

Do you guys have any advices on what to use OR avoid in these categories ? :

- Plants : I don't know a-ny-thing on plants or what types should I use ? I heard tropical ones since the terrarium would have a lot of humidity since it's closed.

- Bonsai : I heard it has to be able to tolerate wet roots, a lot of humidity since it would be closed, like ficus one ? Should I keep it potted ?

- Moss : I don't know anything about that either, I just heard I had to use multiple types of moss.

- Hardwoods : On this topic I heard I had to put springtails into the terrarium since they feed on mold, and these kind of decoration can grow mold ?

- Lights : Would you guys recommend buying a timer so that I can control the timing of light exposure ?

- Maintenance : Don't know anything about that either - complete noob

- Installation : Substract / soil etc... any advice would be gladly taken

Once again, since I definitely lack the technical knowledge on this subject, I probably said a lot of dumb stuff, but I'm willing to learn :D !

In advance, thank you very much guys for your advices and your time !
Oh and don't feel obligated to answer every topic, advices on anything is still helpful to me !
 

Scrogdor

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I'm guessing ficus will be your best bet. Should be able to survive for what you need it for with good artificial lighting. Timed high intensity lights are good. Ficus wont thrive, but it should live to complete your terrarium.
 

Julien9566

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Thank you for your answer Scrogdor !

So after watching a few more educational vids and narrowed down a few of my questions, I think I'll go this way :

I'll first replace the generic light from my aquarium with grow lights and buy a timer to not overdo it. (If you have any recommandation of what could be a good cycle regarding timing / intensity i'm all ears)

For the waterfall, i'll use PVC expanded board to make an isolated and waterproof part so that the water can flow without touching the soil or anything. Don't know if that will raise the overall humidity too high but figured i'd try it out.

Regarding the plants i'll therefore focus on tropical plants that like light intensive and moist environment.
Here's what I thought :

- Dwarf sword fern
- Davallia (Rabbits foot)
- Either Peperomia, Pellionia, or English Ivy, so one of my facade has a thriving creeping plants. Don't know which one would fit the best in this kind of environment.
- As ground cover : either baby tears or selaginella couple with moss
- Spider plant to get a sense of scale
- Fittonia


Again I'm a complete noob so I'll probably dont use all of them but figured they could work out in this kind of setup/environement. If you have any suggestions I'm all ears again.

Regarding the bonsai I'll follow your advice and use a Ficus, but I had a question : Should I use the pots ? like doing an hardscape with expanding foam to hide the pot so that the bonsai stays in it ? Do I need to use anything like drainage/substract layer in the bottom of the pot ? (sorry I don't seem to find an answer on that, even tho it's I guess a really basic / dumb question). I wanted to use rocks or expanding foam styled as rocks on the side of the aquarium and make it look like the bonsai grew out of it.

I watched a few videos about springtails and think I'll be using them to try and control mold since the bonsai will probably lose a lot of leaves.

Installation : I'll use a layer of Lyca as drainage, a mesh barrier on top, activated carbon then substract.

So if any of you guys has suggestion on plants, or advice on not choosing of those I listed that's cool too, advices on lighting, and / or confirmation for the bonsai pot, or even anything else I'll gladly appreciate <3.
 

ShadyStump

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Do you mind if I ask where you are in the world?
For this sort of project it may not make much difference, but we're always curious.

I've been growing a ficus benjamina on my desk at work for months under a desk lamp with a grow light in it, and it's done well. Had to make a hard chop a while back because it was getting too big. So ficus should do well for you. Fiddle leaf ficus I don't think will work well, though. The leaves are huge and shade everything else.
My light is on a timer for about 16 hours on during the day. That need will change depending on the light you get. Let us know what you're thinking, and we can help you out more with that.

If they're staying in the terrarium, common terracotta pots should do for you.
Don't be afraid to use real rocks, not just foam rocks.
You'll want a coarse, well draining substrate for your trees in this situation.
You can use the search function here to look up root over rock. I think you'll like what you find, and ficus lends itself to this style very well.

I'm not very certain about ivy, but if you're set on something of the sort, you could try planting peas. You'll have to replant them a couple times a year, but you'll still get fresh peas out of it year round, and some varieties have very colorful flowers. Not certain how they'll like the humidity.

You'll likely need a fan of some sort to circulate the air. Even a small one will do, just make sure there's an outlet for air to get out. Otherwise you're just moving around the same stale air and doing no good.
 

Julien9566

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Sure no problem Shady, I'm from France, which can explain why i speak english so badly lmao.

Thanks for the advice regarding lighting, I'll take a look at that tonight so that you can tell me if i'm going well or totally wrong :D !

I'd like to use real rocks, fell in love with the seiryu stones but I thought since I want to make a tall structure, that it would weight too much on the aquarium, so right now i'm thinking about using slates, to make like a mountain shaped facade.
I'll definitely take a look at root over rock (totally what i'm trying to achieve !)

If you don't mind me asking, what is necessiting air circulation ? Because on the videos I watched regarding closed the terrarium the main benefit was that it had its own "ecosystem" because there was no air circulation, the water would condensate / evaporate and so on. Thus not needing a lot of maintenance besides trimming the plants, which was what motivated me in the first place.

Again, thank your for your advices mate, really; it helps me a lot understanding.
 

ShadyStump

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Sure no problem Shady, I'm from France, which can explain why i speak english so badly lmao.

Thanks for the advice regarding lighting, I'll take a look at that tonight so that you can tell me if i'm going well or totally wrong :D !

I'd like to use real rocks, fell in love with the seiryu stones but I thought since I want to make a tall structure, that it would weight too much on the aquarium, so right now i'm thinking about using slates, to make like a mountain shaped facade.
I'll definitely take a look at root over rock (totally what i'm trying to achieve !)

If you don't mind me asking, what is necessiting air circulation ? Because on the videos I watched regarding closed the terrarium the main benefit was that it had its own "ecosystem" because there was no air circulation, the water would condensate / evaporate and so on. Thus not needing a lot of maintenance besides trimming the plants, which was what motivated me in the first place.

Again, thank your for your advices mate, really; it helps me a lot understanding.
Ton Englais et moujer de mon Francais, allors tout bon. 😜

The closed system terrariums use certain plants that do well with them. If you are adding whole trees, that changes the dynamics. They need more air, and some don't do well with the mold that can grow. Also, trees grow like your muscles. If they don't get the little bit of damage from movement from wind and animals, the wood is week.
If you can arrange the inside to use the movement of your waterfall and the heat from the light to help keep air moving around you might be able to get around some of this, but it would have to be a BIG tank.
You could turn a fan blade into a water wheel so your waterfall is running the air around for you, but it might not be the level of fresh air trees might need.
 

Julien9566

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Alright I understand the principle (thanks for making it easy to understand haha) !
I would only have this bonsai tree, the rest would be plants / moss. Regarding mold I thought of using springtails that feed on it.
If you think that I still need a fan, I have some spare computer fans, I'm sure I can work something out with it.
The tank is quite big actually, I'll have to take the measurements when I can (It's at my mother's home currently).

By the way, do you think microcarpa ficus would work since its leaves are thinner/shorter ? It's more common over there than benjamina.
 

ShadyStump

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Microcarpa should do just as well as benjamina.
I failed to mention before that trees will have much greater nutrient demands on the soil than the traditional terrarium plants. You may find yourself having to fertilize routinely, or else use other plants that will help add different nutrients to the soil. This brings up the idea of peas again. They help fix nitrogen in the soil.

I have to say, this all sound like a very interesting project. I'm the weird project/experiment guy, so I really hope you share as this evolves.
 

Julien9566

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Great for the microcarpa ! I thought of putting the bonsai in the middle of the right mountain facade, so it wouldn't have direct access to the soil, so I think fertilizer is a must then, I don't know if that's even possible to do.
I'll share a drawing tomorrow so that the project can be more clear.

Of course i'll share as it evolves, I gotta take the aquarium back on new year, and maybe it'll take a bit of time to buy the rocks, moss, plants and everything as I'm a complete noob and don't have any of those stuffs at home :D !
Again, thank you for your kind advices and clear explanation Shady, that helps a lot !
 
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