I just want to let you know how much I appreciate you all, and your friendships. The friends I’ve made here mean the world to me. In fact some of you have encouraged me to keep this thread alive even though the reef itself is gone.
I’ve decided to do just that! This way I still get to interact with my
#Cronies and you all get to see my vivarium build as it progresses. It IS a build after all, so keeping this BUILD thread going is just logical!
Today not much has changed. I let the viv have a 24 hour “dry spell” so that my orchids could have their leaves dry off completely. I don’t want them to rot. Just as the rain began in earnest, more or less, I watered and misted everything.
Wednesday will be a different story though. I have more springtails and tropical dwarf isopods on the way. New substrate, called ABG mix (Atlanta Botanical Gardens), is also coming. 7 gallons worth. There’s also a creeping fig in the mix. All these goodies will be here Wednesday.
I’m going to take the leaf litter out once the soil mixture is ready so I can lay down the new substrate. Once that’s done I have some plants that need to be planted. I’ll then replace the leaf litter, probably adding a good amount to it. While it’s out I’ll make sure no bad bugs have made their way in while I wasn’t looking. I’ll also grab Lycos the wolf spiderling and put him in another enclosure while I’m at it.
I’ve already laid down about an inch of pea gravel as my drainage layer. I also laid down some fiberglass screen mesh so the substrate can’t get into the drainage layer. Anerobic bacteria would be bad so I want to keep everything but excess water out of that layer. I’ll also need to be able to draw that excess water out.
I’m going to use a simple airline tube for that. I’ll keep a siphon in the tube and keep a ball valve on it. Actually I might just use RO tubing and a push connect ball valve on it. Right now I don’t go crazy with the misting and watering so I rarely have much water in the drainage layer.
That’ll change though once I get a Mist King setup. My wife is even on board with me doing that. I’ll be saving up for a bit though since they’re $200 to $300 depending on which system and how many nozzles one needs.
The Mist King is just like what some grocery stores use to mist their veggies. In fact they make systems for grocery stores too. It’ll truly be a rainforest in there! Of course they use a decent amount of water so it has to be drained several times a day depending on how long the system runs and how many times per day it runs. For my purposes, I’d probably run it twice, and possibly as much as three times a day.
I can see some signs that the plants I’ve already planted are establishing. The orchid blooms are growing right towards the lights and the pothos is growing fairly rapidly. Even the ivy cuttings, which are wedged into loose bark on one of the logs, are growing towards the light and look great. Now I need my springtails and isopods to flourish.
If everything goes according to plan I’ll be ordering my first two Dendrobates Leucomelas. I’ll buy one or two a month after that until I have eight. I’m going to breed them of course. They’ll be loving life if I have anything to say about it!
