Help first vivarium/terrarium!

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bass4lyfe

Candiru
MFK Member
Jun 16, 2010
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Miami, Florida
Ok I was thinking of making my first vivarium/terrarium and wanted to know basically, where do people buy there aquascaping products such as waterfalls, rock backround, plants.....ex. I also wanted to know is it anything different from a regular planted aquarium on maintanence? I would also like if you show your tanks if you have any so I can get some ideas and maybe that would help me.

Thank you!
 
Ok I was thinking of making my first vivarium/terrarium and wanted to know basically, where do people buy there aquascaping products such as waterfalls, rock backround, plants.....ex. I also wanted to know is it anything different from a regular planted aquarium on maintanence? I would also like if you show your tanks if you have any so I can get some ideas and maybe that would help me.

Thank you!

What kind of enclosure are you looking to set up? There's a difference between a vivariums, terrarium, and aquarium.
Terrarium - Land
Aquarium - Water
Planted Tank - Aquarium with live plants (almost like an aquatic version of a Vivarium)
Vivarium - Terrarium that tries to mimic an actual ecosystem in the wild (featuring live plants & animals that would coexist in the wild, like poison dart frogs, etc)
Paludarium - A combo of a Vivarium and an Aquarium (half land, half water)
If you want to set up a Vivarium or Terrarium, then yes, it's going to be a lot different than a planted aquarium.




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What kind of enclosure are you looking to set up? There's a difference between a vivariums, terrarium, and aquarium.
Terrarium - Land
Aquarium - Water
Planted Tank - Aquarium with live plants (almost like an aquatic version of a Vivarium)
Vivarium - Terrarium that tries to mimic an actual ecosystem in the wild (featuring live plants & animals that would coexist in the wild, like poison dart frogs, etc)
Paludarium - A combo of a Vivarium and an Aquarium (half land, half water)
If you want to set up a Vivarium or Terrarium, then yes, it's going to be a lot different than a planted aquarium.




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Yes a vivarium, a example is this picture. I would be putting aquarium fish in the water and maybe some newts. I also would like to know what type of plants those might be that are outside of the water. I also any ideas on how to make a waterfall like that or buy one?
IMG_8715 copy.jpg

IMG_8715 copy.jpg
 
Yes a vivarium, a example is this picture. I would be putting aquarium fish in the water and maybe some newts. I also would like to know what type of plants those might be that are outside of the water. I also any ideas on how to make a waterfall like that or buy one?
View attachment 1063213

Looks more like a paludarium to me but no worries. I'm not sure how to make a waterfall like that one, but I do know that the tall flower above the water is a Bromeliad. I have several in my vivs and they are super easy to care for. But be careful keeping fish and newts together, amphibians all have a certain toxicity in their slime-type coating and some (such as fire belly toads) have a strong enough toxin to harm your fish.


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Tanks like the one you have shown off in the photos are normally all D.I.Y customs in the sense people will pick up the raw materials and put together the scapes themselves while working out how they want the water to flow etc...

As far as the waterfall section, it can be done by either running a low pressure submersible pump to funnel water up to a spray bar with some or no holes covered and letting it drip down the moss to mimic a waterfall type effect...

Then there are people who use canisters and let the return water create a river type stem flowing throw the setup and back to the bottom... so just depends how you want to make the tank, and what you are really after... but i can tell you a lot of research and planning will be needed...
 
Looks more like a paludarium to me but no worries. I'm not sure how to make a waterfall like that one, but I do know that the tall flower above the water is a Bromeliad. I have several in my vivs and they are super easy to care for. But be careful keeping fish and newts together, amphibians all have a certain toxicity in their slime-type coating and some (such as fire belly toads) have a strong enough toxin to harm your fish.


Sent from my iPod touch using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

Thank you very much for your help!
 
Tanks like the one you have shown off in the photos are normally all D.I.Y customs in the sense people will pick up the raw materials and put together the scapes themselves while working out how they want the water to flow etc...

As far as the waterfall section, it can be done by either running a low pressure submersible pump to funnel water up to a spray bar with some or no holes covered and letting it drip down the moss to mimic a waterfall type effect...

Then there are people who use canisters and let the return water create a river type stem flowing throw the setup and back to the bottom... so just depends how you want to make the tank, and what you are really after... but i can tell you a lot of research and planning will be needed...

Thank you very much for your help!
 
The plant on left, that is in flower is a species of bromeliad. The other plants, I can't tell, kind of resembles Java fern.
 
Thank you very much for your help!

No worries, also, another method which i've seen used a few times in the past is also adding a fogger to their paludarium system... it helps keep setups with a lot of moss setup around the tank moist, and gives off a very neat effect as well if setup correctly...
 
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