# Planted Tanks > Vivariums >  My 2ft Vivarium

## Cardinal Tetra

Here is my humble 2ft vivarium build that I've setup. 
The tank is a 2ft(L) x 1ft(B) x 1.5ft(H), it has a small waterfall feature and integrated with spray system to moist the plants at certain intervals.
Appreciate feedback and criticisms if any, as I'm new to vivariums and am still learning.
I will share more info and pics on the buildup if anyone is interested.

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## Cardinal Tetra

The tank currently as no fauna yet, and I've not decided if I want to have any at all.
I made a couple of newbie mistakes along the way, and if I were to set it up again, I will have made changes especially to the false bottom.
The reason for the false bottom was because I wanted to have a small pond in the middle, but the result was not what I had expected - the pond was too shallow.
I should have made the pond deeper.

20150830_224950.jpg

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## Urban Aquaria

Looks nice... it'll be a suitable habitat for some small fiddler crabs.  :Well done:

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## Ingen

Looks good. Crabs just need a small water area. How does you misting system work?

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## Cardinal Tetra

> Looks good. Crabs just need a small water area. How does you misting system work?


The spray system is just a simple setup really, just a small pump connected to an air tube with tiny holes just like a spray bar.
I am still trying to configure the perfect timing of intervals to spray the plants.
I will take some pictures of them in action tonight.

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## adidasvintage

Hi,

I am interested to know the followings and hope you can share...

1) Do you have any filtration in this setup?
2) Is the setup enclosed?
3) Did you DIY the background wall or purchase from LFS?
4) Do you design it in a way that the pump can be removed without affecting the scape?

As I am planning for my paludarium setup currently,would hope to understand some tips from you.

Thanks

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## Cardinal Tetra

> Hi,
> 
> I am interested to know the followings and hope you can share...
> 
> 1) Do you have any filtration in this setup?
> 2) Is the setup enclosed?
> 3) Did you DIY the background wall or purchase from LFS?
> 4) Do you design it in a way that the pump can be removed without affecting the scape?
> 
> ...


1. Bio filtration is used for this setup. I added bio home from my previous setup under the false bottom, just for kicks.
2. The tank is not covered yet but I will be getting a cover for it soon if I intend to keep frogs.
3. I used cork bark as the background which I bought from NA. I had much so fun playing around with cork bark and I will use them again for future setups. Initially, I wanted to use a normal black plastic board as the background. I would have regretted it if I did.
4. Both pumps can be removed easily as I've built a partition for it. This is to facilitate the pump with easy removal and to plug my hose into my chiller if necessary in the future.

I will post more pictures tonight when I get home. Perhaps I will share the initial tank setup pics as well.
Next phase is to get a cover for the tank, and attach 2 fans (in/out) to provide good air circulation to the tank.
I am also looking at getting a fogger/mister to connect it to my setup. But that will be at a much later stage.  :Smile:

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## Cardinal Tetra

Here are some pictures of the build phase. Hope it can help others in planning to build their vivariums/paludariums.
Planning the layout and building the false bottom using egg crates.
20150820_233540.jpg

Wanted to use this black board as the background until I managed to find cork bark. The tank would really look weird if I went ahead with this. In the pic, it shows the partition I've created to conceal the pumps. Ignore the cabinet reflection, though.
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## Cardinal Tetra

Found a nice big piece of corkbark
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Work in progress. I really enjoyed sticking cutting the cork bark and sticking the pieces to form the shape of the partition.
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## Cardinal Tetra

I used a simple potting dish to create the pond
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Silicon the gravel to the sides of the dish.
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Done.
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## Cardinal Tetra

Laying out the foundation.
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Added some biohome from previous setup.
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## Cardinal Tetra

From here on the pics are bluish as I had not changed out my marine tubes.
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This is where the problems started. Being the noob that I am, I initially thought of filling up my bottom lay of water with hydroballs.
Big mistake. The hyrdoballs started to float and I totally didn't expected that.
To solve the problem I added 5kg of black sand over the balls and enough to fill up the sides of the tank to cover up the ugly eggcrates.

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## Cardinal Tetra

Tested the waterfall. Next was to plant the plants.
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## Cardinal Tetra

Filling it in. 
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Realised that I've made the pond too shallow.
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## Cardinal Tetra

Next was to incorporate a spraying system to water my plants as the T5s can be really hot.
Attached an airtube to a small pump which is T-ed off for irrigation on both sides.

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Used a needle to poke the holes. Some holes are meant to spray water, others are meant to drip on the cork bark to make it wet for mosses.
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## Cardinal Tetra

Last pic of the water spraying system in action.
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I am still deciding what kind of fauna to keep. Some bros here suggested crabs but I read that they will tear up my plants!

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## Cardinal Tetra

The setup was designed to make it look as naturalistic as can be, without having any equipment seen.
Also the design included a partition for easy removal for the pumps.
Along the way I've made mistakes and learned from my experiences. If I could have done it again, I would not go for the false bottom, and got myself a deeper dish for my pond. The fun part of the setup is that whatever mistakes you make, just cover it up! Thats the fun about vivariums. Everything backend is fake so don't worry about being neat, the plants will cover up any false parts.
Hope I've helped give you some ideas to your design and helped to answer your queries.  :Smile:

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## Ingen

Nicely and thanks for sharing all the details! Too bad we don't have dart frogs available in Singapore. I saw some small crabs (Batik Crab - Metasesarma Obesum) about an inch big at Aquatic Avenue last week, did some reading and they are mainly terrestrial and only need very little water, mainly for molting purposes. May be a good fit for your set up. Was planning to get them but my vivarium/paludarium do not have much land for them haha.

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## karlyau

Nice setup.
Is it possible to take a top view of the waterfall area?
What pump you use for the waterfall?


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## Cardinal Tetra

> Nice setup.
> Is it possible to take a top view of the waterfall area?
> What pump you use for the waterfall?
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


I am using eheim compact 1000 for the waterfall.
I'm not sure what you mean by top view. Do you mean top down view of the pump compartment?

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## karlyau

Yes the top view of your pump compartment.
wanted to do a waterfall but still not sure how to do it.


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## Cardinal Tetra

Herr you go, I used eggcrates covered with cork bark to make the partition.
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## karlyau

Thanks


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## gorilla83

Nice bark background! :Well done: 

I think you still can deepen the pond if you want? But it is nice as it is now too.. cool water feature too.

For the mosses, you can try adding different kinds of mosses to see which one grows better in your tank. But you will need some patience for the mosses though.. it takes a few months to occupy your tank. Try to keep the tank cool and humid. If it is warm and humid, it will favor the growth of mold. But you will still see some mold grow in the initial phase too, don't worry about it. The mold will die off afterwards, and the moss and algae will take over.

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## Cardinal Tetra

> Nice bark background!
> 
> I think you still can deepen the pond if you want? But it is nice as it is now too.. cool water feature too.
> 
> For the mosses, you can try adding different kinds of mosses to see which one grows better in your tank. But you will need some patience for the mosses though.. it takes a few months to occupy your tank. Try to keep the tank cool and humid. If it is warm and humid, it will favor the growth of mold. But you will still see some mold grow in the initial phase too, don't worry about it. The mold will die off afterwards, and the moss and algae will take over.


Thanks for the tip, can you recommend any easy to keep mosses, preferably without constantly having to keep them moist constantly?

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## Cardinal Tetra

Just a quick update here on the tank. I'm letting the plants grow in so not much has changed. Fittonas have shown the most growth.
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## Cardinal Tetra

In the meantime I'm experiencing some browning out of my nana leaves. Can anyone help tell me why it is 'burning' out?

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## Cardinal Tetra

Another plant that doesnt seem to be doing well. I think it is what people here refer to as HC? I bought this at C328 and it seems that some parts of the leaves are drying and looking fried despite regular watering. Could this be from excessive watering?

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## gorilla83

> In the meantime I'm experiencing some browning out of my nana leaves. Can anyone help tell me why it is 'burning' out?
> 
> 20150911_010114.jpg


Happened to the plants in my tank too.. not sure why, it only appears on those leaves that are always wet for me... maybe it's the wetness? But quite ironic as I thought this plant likes wetness.





> Another plant that doesnt seem to be doing well. I think it is what people here refer to as HC? I bought this at C328 and it seems that some parts of the leaves are drying and looking fried despite regular watering. Could this be from excessive watering?
> 
> 20150911_010957.jpg


I think it could be due to some of the stems and roots being damaged/squashed during transplanting/handling, as this plant is so small and delicate... Just need to give it some time to acclimatize and grow.

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## gorilla83

> Thanks for the tip, can you recommend any easy to keep mosses, preferably without constantly having to keep them moist constantly?


I think most mosses can survive some period of dryness by staying dormant, but maybe you can try finding some Singapore moss to try out.
http://www.aquamoss.net/Singapore-Mo...apore-Moss.htm

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## Cardinal Tetra

> I think most mosses can survive some period of dryness by staying dormant, but maybe you can try finding some Singapore moss to try out.
> http://www.aquamoss.net/Singapore-Mo...apore-Moss.htm


Thanks for the info. Nowadays there are so many different kinds of mosses. I remember when I first started planted tanks there were only java moss. Xmas moss was just being 'discovered' then.

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## Cardinal Tetra

This came in the mail today!

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## Cardinal Tetra

Did a temporary hookup to the tank to see how it works out. 
Very pleased and well worth money spent! For those thinking of buying the aquarium mister, consider buying a humidifier instead. Cheaper and it blows cool air too.
Will be going to the LFS to buy some proper hoses and will post more pics once I've set it up properly.

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## AQMS

Brilliant!! :Well done:

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## Urban Aquaria

Nice!

Btw... if you want to try using a mist maker (the ones that are put into the water and generate a fog layer via ultrasonic effect), can check at Qian Hu, they currently have a clearance sale on them at only $5 each (huge discount from the original retail price of $40-$50). I bought a few recently to try out for a paludarium project and they work well.

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## Cardinal Tetra

> Nice!
> 
> Btw... if you want to try using a mist maker (the ones that are put into the water and generate a fog layer via ultrasonic effect), can check at Qian Hu, they currently have a clearance sale on them at only $5 each (huge discount from the original retail price of $40-$50). I bought a few recently to try out for a paludarium project and they work well.


I heard that such mist makers tend to heat up the water after prolonged use. Maybe you can share with us whether its true, as I'm planning to get one myself.

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## Urban Aquaria

> I heard that such mist makers tend to heat up the water after prolonged use. Maybe you can share with us whether its true, as I'm planning to get one myself.


Well, the mist makers should be connected to plug timers, so you just schedule it to activate at intervals... like a few minutes every 30mins or an hour.

I've used them to grow out plants that are undergoing DSM, so i don't need to manually mist them anymore. I put the mist maker in a small cup of water and it activates at fixed timings to humidify the tank.

They don't heat up the water, unless you leave it running continuously non-stop for hours (the instruction manuals also mention not to leave it on for long periods).

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## Ingen

I tried it once. It provide very nice and nature looking mist. However, it also mess with the PH and TDS monitoring system, shooting the PH to 12 and higher and erratic TDS readings. Unsure if they are any effect on fauna as I test it when my tank was still cycling. It also need to be place at just a few cm below the water surface for it to perform at optimal level, meaning it topping up and monitoring evaporate has to be constant. 

With that said, if you desire a nice misty effect like those water features, mist maker is the way to go, will try to retrieve the deleted short video that I took when I tested the mist maker.

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## Ingen

While I love the effect, I didn't get around to test if there were any ill effect on fauna, but there were people who shared that they did not notice any effect at all and safe to use.

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## Urban Aquaria

Just to add on... here is a quick test video of the mist maker unit that i use:




Depending on the water depth, there will be some splashing so just hide it at the back of the tank like what Ingen did in his setup.

Can also use it to create the boiling effect in a witches cauldron at a Halloween party, so its got multi-purpose use.  :Grin:

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## Cardinal Tetra

Thanks for all the replies guys. I realised that the mister will not work for my setup as my water area is too shallow. Nevertheless, it makes a great piece of equipment for paludariums. I like it when the mist effect forms up out of the water.

Fortunately, I managed to set my humidifier output hose at the bottom of the tank and got similar results.

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## Cardinal Tetra

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Next milestone, create a cover for the tank.
Bought 2 sheets of acrylic from Seaview at $5 each. It fits the tank nicely, but I have to get more tank cover adapters to sit the cover over the tank.

Another problem is that my money plant pot is sitting on the overflow wall with its vines spilling down to the tank. I might have to relocate it or cut out the shape on the acrylic to fit. Looks like I still have a long way to go.

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## Cardinal Tetra

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Got more tank cover adapters.

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Figured out a way to get the cover in place by ramming the money plant pot into the partition.

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## Cardinal Tetra

Cut out spaces for the humidifier hose and wiring.
The cover fits nicely as planned.

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## Cardinal Tetra

With paper removed.

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Shot under the cover showing the tank cover adapters.

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## Cardinal Tetra

FTS with cover. 

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First problem, immediately after the humidifier is off, condensation formed up on the glass. Does this mean there is not enough ventilation?

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Next phase would be to install a mini fan if necessary. Will let the tank run for a couple weeks before adding fauna.

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## Cardinal Tetra

Been a while since I last updated. Figured out how to work around the space attachment issue by uploading pictures in AQ gallery instead.

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## Cardinal Tetra

I haven't been really taking care of the tank, letting the money plants grow over the fittonas, causing them to melt.
Just did some trimming today and this is how it looks. Too green for my liking though, will find time to go get some new red plants to break the contrast.
Tank is still without any fauna, may dump in some vampire crabs when I feel like it. I kinda enjoy it without fauna and I just let it run for days on its own, topping up water only when the pump starts to run dry.

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## Cardinal Tetra

Bought 2 plants and did a little replanting.

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## Cardinal Tetra

New fittonia that I just aqquired. Love the red constrast it brings to the tank.

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## Cardinal Tetra

The pond is now sheltered with overhanging leaves. Making it an ideal place for any fauna to hang out.

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## Cardinal Tetra

Updates. Been busy setting up a mesh cover for the tank.

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## Cardinal Tetra

Bought a packet of baby feeder frogs. 4 of them had a unique stripe on the body. Not sure if they are also bull frogs though.

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## Cardinal Tetra

Enjoying their new home!

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## Cardinal Tetra

A strange new world....

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## gorilla83

looking good.. the frogs are the same type that I had before! :Wink: 

Good that you made the mesh cover... mine escaped a few times in the past :P

http://www.ecologyasia.com/verts/amp...field_frog.htm

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## Cardinal Tetra

> looking good.. the frogs are the same type that I had before!
> 
> Good that you made the mesh cover... mine escaped a few times in the past :P
> 
> http://www.ecologyasia.com/verts/amp...field_frog.htm


Hi bro, thanks for the id on the frog. Glad to know its not a bullfrog as they can get really big. The mesh is not totally foolproof as its flimsy but it shall do for now.

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## Cardinal Tetra

Time I updated this thread. This serves as a 6mth progress log for my vivarium. Can't believe its been more than a year since I've set this up. Here is the tank now side by side with my green tree frog enclosure.
I've been thinking of removing all the plants on the right side and replace them with a HC or ricca carpet. Fauna now consists of a sole surviving frog and 2 vampire crabs.



Till the next update.

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## Cardinal Tetra

With much consideration, the setup was taken down for the purpose of replacing it with a bigger setup for my green tree frogs.
I had wanted to sell the setup as a whole and get a new tank to start from scratch but no one was interested in the setup. 
Therefore, I began the process of painstakingly tearing the setup apart, and removed the partition that I used to hide my pumps. This gave me more room in the tank.
I didn't take pictures during the tearing down as there is nothing interesting about tearing down a setup. 
Here is a picture of the hardscape, branches are collected from the roadside after heavy rain.

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## Cardinal Tetra

I reused all my plants from the old setup as it is a waste to throw them away.
I am going to let the plants grow in for a while before transferring the frogs into the tank.
Will be going to the farms to get some mini birds nest and broms if I can find any. Somehow I'm not entirely pleased with the setup.
What do you guys think? Share your opinions please.

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## Cardinal Tetra

A trip to the farm settled the problem. Very happy with my setup now, just as I had envisioned during planning phase.
Next challenge is to maintain the health and quality of the plants.

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## Cardinal Tetra

Just sharing my all time favourite vivarium build video.
The guy has mad skills and my setup is still nowhere near his. Some call him the Amano of vivariums.
If only I had the space for a 4ft tank, I might do something like this.
Cheers and enjoy the video.

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## Cardinal Tetra

Enjoying their new home!

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## Cardinal Tetra

One more.

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## blueface

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...psokmcm2ae.jpg


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## Cardinal Tetra

3 month update on my green tree frog tank.

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## Cardinal Tetra

Update again on my tank, plants are starting to flourish although I still prefer the looks on the original Dec 2016 picture.
One thing I like though are the roots from the money plants growing on the branch growing downwards, giving it a jungle feel.

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## veridicaldream

Fantastic 


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## delhezi

How did you manage to attach the pothos to the branches and the wall?

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## Cardinal Tetra

> How did you manage to attach the pothos to the branches and the wall?


For the branches I use cable tie to attach them and let the new roots cling onto the branch. Same as for the corkbark but I use toothpicks instead.

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## Cardinal Tetra

Heres a pic of the pothos on the branch with cable ties. 
I like how the roots have started to grow downwards giving it a true jungle feel.

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## veridicaldream

Nice eventually it will cling to the branch 


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## Cardinal Tetra

> Nice eventually it will cling to the branch 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Yes the only problem that I faced is that one end of the pothos must be submerged in water or else the whole vine will dry out. I have tried tying those mini test tubes in test kits filled with water and sticking those shorter vines into it but they only lasted for a couple months before turning yellow.

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## veridicaldream

cover the branch with damp moss? 


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## veridicaldream

When I cut vines to Repot sometimes they do dry up. Not all of them will root in wet soil. What a strange plant 


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## Cardinal Tetra

> When I cut vines to Repot sometimes they do dry up. Not all of them will root in wet soil. What a strange plant 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I'm not an expert on plants but I watched on youtube that they usually place the pothos cuttings in water for a couple days before repotting into soil.

Damp moss on the branches will dry out too quickly as I'm running 4x24W T5HO without any misting system. I manually mist the tank once a day.

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## veridicaldream

I keep them in Super wet soil coz water roots are said to be fragile and break easily but yes they root fast in water 


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## ZIr

> Got more tank cover adapters.


 H Bro, may I know where did you get your tank covers from? From Seaview as well?

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## AQMS

Hey ZIr , i saw the same thing at KK aquarium.

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## Cardinal Tetra

> H Bro, may I know where did you get your tank covers from? From Seaview as well?


Yes the tank cover adaptors can be found at most LFS.

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## Cardinal Tetra

> vivarium is just plants?


The correct definition of a vivarium is a tank with inhabitants. You can google the difference between vivariums, terrariums, paludariums etc.

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## Junneh

Hey Cardinal, its been a while. I see u are still conjuring good lookin vivariums. Haha. Keep it up!

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## veridicaldream

I would be interested in purchase if I had money and space 


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## veridicaldream

Looks great. the thing with fittonia is that if the plant gets too wet it will have yellow leaf . Even in terrarium fittonia can be difficult. I had some develop wet rot on the leaf (prolly inadequate light and air circulation 


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## veridicaldream

The latest set up with fern and Brom is good due to the high humidity levels 

Money plant while easy can develop brown spots due to too much moisture as the cells burst 

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## Cardinal Tetra

> Hey Cardinal, its been a while. I see u are still conjuring good lookin vivariums. Haha. Keep it up! ��


Hi there friend, really been a while.
Thanks for your positive comments, by the way my vampire crab babies have taken over the original office tank as the adults have died off (due to old age most likely).

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## Cardinal Tetra

Hi veridical, thanks for the tip on fittonias, I'm still trying to get different coloured plants aside from green but they tend to die off after a few months.
Space is always an issue for me, hope to set up a 4x2x2 vivarium tank one day. Perhaps when I move to a bigger house.

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## veridicaldream

I like fittonia but they are temperamental. It's hard to balance the soil as you keep your vivarium pretty wet


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## veridicaldream

How about cryptanthus. I never had crypts so I can't say how durable they are.

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## Zacquir

Hi bro CardinalTetra.
Care to share what brand or type of silicone you got and where you bought them from.

I recall not all silicon are aquarium safe. Planning to build a 3ft vivarium.

I like the corkbark background idea. Was thinking of incorporating it with the pu foam sealant spray too. Saw it on youtube (GreatStuff Pond sealant) not sure if they have similar foam spray that is aquarium safe here.

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## Cardinal Tetra

> Hi bro CardinalTetra.
> Care to share what brand or type of silicone you got and where you bought them from.
> 
> I recall not all silicon are aquarium safe. Planning to build a 3ft vivarium.
> 
> I like the corkbark background idea. Was thinking of incorporating it with the pu foam sealant spray too. Saw it on youtube (GreatStuff Pond sealant) not sure if they have similar foam spray that is aquarium safe here.
> 
> Sent from my X9009 using Tapatalk


I just use normal clear silicone that you can buy from any hardware store. I'm not too concerned about it being not aquarium safe, as since the vivarium is not filled with water unlike an aquarium. I've not used the GreatStuff sealant before but I'm assuming you are referring to the GreatStuff expanding foam that most people use in the US. I heard that you can get them either online or at a store in ubi area but they don't come in cheap.

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## Cardinal Tetra

Time for another periodic update again.

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## Cardinal Tetra

The tank is starting to take off..Thinking of adding 2 more green tree frogs and a couple of baby bullfrogs into the vivarium.

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## grey

Hey man, wah very nice setup! your frog is super cute, looks fat and happy hahaha,

Can I check with you, before using the tree branches you collected from the roadside, did you have to do any kind of treatment to it? did the wood develop mold or turn soggy?

I am thinking of using tree branches too (raintree those kind), cause I want to set up a tank to keep orchids and the bark on those branches are perfect for the orchid roots to grip, but i'm not sure if it will introduce any parasites or something bad. I dont keep any frogs yet but was thinking of doing a forest stream setup with wild bettas or licorice gouramis in the shallow water.

I have a current small setup using an exoterra tank now, the constant humidity level is usually 98-99%, i have a fan that i set to mimic a breeze periodically throughout the day, do you have any problems with humidity? is my humidity too high?

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## Cardinal Tetra

> Hey man, wah very nice setup! your frog is super cute, looks fat and happy hahaha,
> 
> Can I check with you, before using the tree branches you collected from the roadside, did you have to do any kind of treatment to it? did the wood develop mold or turn soggy?
> 
> I am thinking of using tree branches too (raintree those kind), cause I want to set up a tank to keep orchids and the bark on those branches are perfect for the orchid roots to grip, but i'm not sure if it will introduce any parasites or something bad. I dont keep any frogs yet but was thinking of doing a forest stream setup with wild bettas or licorice gouramis in the shallow water.
> 
> I have a current small setup using an exoterra tank now, the constant humidity level is usually 98-99%, i have a fan that i set to mimic a breeze periodically throughout the day, do you have any problems with humidity? is my humidity too high?


I do not do any major treatment, just washing off the dirt with water. Boiling the branches is recommended but they are usually too big unless you have a bathtub to soak them in. Then I sit the branches outside and let them dry off completely for a few days so that any living organisms would die out. I am not too concerned about parasites, mold or algae. The vivarium should be as natural as possible but I do have springtails in my tank though.

I don't know how you get such high humidity, the average humidity in our climate is around 70%, unless you replace the top mesh of your exoterra with acrylic sheet. 98-99% is too high in my opinion, considering you already have a fan. I think you should double check if your instrument readings are correct.
I usually mist my tanks once a day or once in two days whenever I remember, and mist more when I see the plants starting to get dried up.

Hope this helps.

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## grey

> I do not do any major treatment, just washing off the dirt with water. Boiling the branches is recommended but they are usually too big unless you have a bathtub to soak them in. Then I sit the branches outside and let them dry off completely for a few days so that any living organisms would die out. I am not too concerned about parasites, mold or algae. The vivarium should be as natural as possible but I do have springtails in my tank though.
> 
> I don't know how you get such high humidity, the average humidity in our climate is around 70%, unless you replace the top mesh of your exoterra with acrylic sheet. 98-99% is too high in my opinion, considering you already have a fan. I think you should double check if your instrument readings are correct.
> I usually mist my tanks once a day or once in two days whenever I remember, and mist more when I see the plants starting to get dried up.
> 
> Hope this helps.



You are right, I replaced the top mesh with a plastic cover, heh. I see, will experiment with using different covers or increasing the fan duration, thanks so much for the advice!

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## Cardinal Tetra

> You are right, I replaced the top mesh with a plastic cover, heh. I see, will experiment with using different covers or increasing the fan duration, thanks so much for the advice!


Trying adding more holes for ventilation, try to keep your humidity at 60-70% and you will be fine, too high would lead to mold growth and rotting plants.

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