Adogowo
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Wow this is the second time I am doing this I accidentally closed the page before and lost an hours worth of work.
any way here it goes.
This is my moss terrarium right now. In a 20 day period it has gone from barren to filled with mosses. It all started with this which I bought at Hobby Lobby.
I then epoxied all the red flagstone rocks to the walls of the plastic tank. I filled in any voids in the rocks with Turface (the dry sweep kind see pic next to a standard toothpick) to give any roots of future plants a larger growing area. I used a toothpick or skewer to plant the mosses depending on how far back the crevice was. The moss will stick to the 'shovel' if you wet the tip first then you can place the moss where you like it. I also used clay (local Colorado clay from a stream behind my condos) in some of the crevices and on rock faces. I set it iin place dry in chunks and the wetted it with drops of water on my skewer then moved it futher into the cracks if it needed it. If you lightly brush through the moss with a toothpick you will rub off small bits of moss fragments and use these to start moss on vertical surfaces or crevices.
The initial setup looked like this when I started. All you see here are a few lichens I am planting in the cracks I left for them. That is a Dime that is for scale (17mm wide) the dimensions are 4 wide x 4 deep x 5 inches tall (10x10x12 cm) that is wall to wall not rock to rock. The fog is the Humidifier running I will explain that later.
The lighting is a single 13 watt compact floresent 6500K color. I made a light for it for about $20 US including bulb. I want to switck to LED as this fixture is nearly the size of the tank. If you want specifics on how i bult the fixture i can post those too.
This little cave maybe 2in deep was my inspiration for the design.
Here is the first days of set up being planted.
I then collected some liverworts form the pots at a local nursery. They didnt mind me taking this pest from their pots and even gave me a paper towel to carry them home in. This is the first day the liverworts (Marchantia polymorpha?) are in the tank.
While this is currently a bryophytearium?(Ha) with an open front, a door would be added for any newt efts. The moss in the second picture (with the dime) growing at the lower left corner of the rock is Silver tipped moss (Bryum argenteum) and normally is common through out the world in cracks of sidewalks and in nursery pots. It likes more sun than most mosses and stays compact if it gets it. Here In thes next pics I can tell it would like to be closer to the light.
It looks like a bush when compared to the same moss higher in the tank. This moss is at 5 1/2 in below the light whereas this moss is at 3 in
Now for some nice side by sides befores on the left and afters on the right.
B4
After 20 days
B4
After 20 days
B4
After 20 days
I have obviously just added the large branching moss that looks like a juniper bush but other than that the growth has been steady and constant. 2 mm every 3-4 days for the trailing moss now that it has its rhizoids (roots) set. You can see it inthis blury pic starting to climb the back wall.
Ok now for the humidifier and all the irrigation parts. I sarted off with a travel ultrasonic humidifier that I bought at Walgreens for $30 US ( I would buy a bigger one if you can they are almost the same price) Then retrofitted the exit hole with a 1 1/4 in slip (smooth) x 1/2 in female threaded bushing which I screwed in a 1/2 in x 3/8 in barb into (these go on the bottoms of sprinkler heads for an irrigation system and are called swing pipe fittings or funny pipe fittings) I then connected a piece of vinyl tube inside diameter 3/8 inch to the barb and ran that to the back of the tank and connected it to another 1/2 in male thread x 3/8 in barb elbow. I then threaded an electrical conduit nut into the 1/2 in elbow and placed it through a hole I melted into the back wall of the tank with my wood burner with a fine tip installed.
I used a 1/2 in threaded pvc cap to clamp the elbow to the tank. Before I installed the cap I drilled some holes in it at an angle to allow for condensation to fall back down the tube into the humidifier. Keep watch that the tubing does not have any low points in it where water will pool and block the fog. (Side note if you want to do some different things with fog i have split the lines coming from humidifers into many smaller lines, but with smaller lines you must cut at least a 45 degree angle sometimes a 30 degree angle to allow surface tension to be broken when the water condenses on the sides of the tubing. If you don't the water will plug your tube.) ????? I have a question though. I am currently running Distilled water inthe humidifier will this harm any caudates esp. the lungless species????
The last thing I did was put in a drain. It consists of a hole drilled into the side of the tank that allowed for a tight fit of the 1/4 in line (make sure the tubing will stay flexible with time so the drain won't leak.) I saw there was a bit of water left in the bottom still and it was keeping the floor too wet so I inserted an absorbant string (anything in cotton should work shoelace, embriodery thread, etc.) leaving a 1/4 inch to dip into the last bit of water in the bottom of the tank and this wicked it up nicely. Oh the drainage layer in the tank is some expanded shale that I use with my bonsai trees as a soil. Turface MVP or gravel of some kind would do the same thing. Be sure to add enough fine sand or the dry sweep on top to prvent accidental ingestion. I ran the drain into my sink which sits just below the tank and it drains perfectly i can acctually water with a tiny watering can and flood the tank's floor and it all drains away down the sink. The wicking effect can take some time 2-4 hours but it gets it all eventually.
Finally, do you all think this would work for a single eft or up to 5 perhaps? Are there enough places to hide in the rocks or would a leaf litter work better keeping moss on the walls? Also when I close it in i want a fan to be in there to keep down the molds and fungus I found one that is 4 cm (1 1/2 in) wide that I hope will work once I move to an LED lighting plan.
any way here it goes.This is my moss terrarium right now. In a 20 day period it has gone from barren to filled with mosses. It all started with this which I bought at Hobby Lobby.
I then epoxied all the red flagstone rocks to the walls of the plastic tank. I filled in any voids in the rocks with Turface (the dry sweep kind see pic next to a standard toothpick) to give any roots of future plants a larger growing area. I used a toothpick or skewer to plant the mosses depending on how far back the crevice was. The moss will stick to the 'shovel' if you wet the tip first then you can place the moss where you like it. I also used clay (local Colorado clay from a stream behind my condos) in some of the crevices and on rock faces. I set it iin place dry in chunks and the wetted it with drops of water on my skewer then moved it futher into the cracks if it needed it. If you lightly brush through the moss with a toothpick you will rub off small bits of moss fragments and use these to start moss on vertical surfaces or crevices.
The initial setup looked like this when I started. All you see here are a few lichens I am planting in the cracks I left for them. That is a Dime that is for scale (17mm wide) the dimensions are 4 wide x 4 deep x 5 inches tall (10x10x12 cm) that is wall to wall not rock to rock. The fog is the Humidifier running I will explain that later.
The lighting is a single 13 watt compact floresent 6500K color. I made a light for it for about $20 US including bulb. I want to switck to LED as this fixture is nearly the size of the tank. If you want specifics on how i bult the fixture i can post those too.
This little cave maybe 2in deep was my inspiration for the design.
Here is the first days of set up being planted.
I then collected some liverworts form the pots at a local nursery. They didnt mind me taking this pest from their pots and even gave me a paper towel to carry them home in. This is the first day the liverworts (Marchantia polymorpha?) are in the tank.
While this is currently a bryophytearium?(Ha) with an open front, a door would be added for any newt efts. The moss in the second picture (with the dime) growing at the lower left corner of the rock is Silver tipped moss (Bryum argenteum) and normally is common through out the world in cracks of sidewalks and in nursery pots. It likes more sun than most mosses and stays compact if it gets it. Here In thes next pics I can tell it would like to be closer to the light.
It looks like a bush when compared to the same moss higher in the tank. This moss is at 5 1/2 in below the light whereas this moss is at 3 in
Now for some nice side by sides befores on the left and afters on the right.
B4 After 20 daysB4After 20 daysB4After 20 daysI have obviously just added the large branching moss that looks like a juniper bush but other than that the growth has been steady and constant. 2 mm every 3-4 days for the trailing moss now that it has its rhizoids (roots) set. You can see it inthis blury pic starting to climb the back wall.
Ok now for the humidifier and all the irrigation parts. I sarted off with a travel ultrasonic humidifier that I bought at Walgreens for $30 US ( I would buy a bigger one if you can they are almost the same price) Then retrofitted the exit hole with a 1 1/4 in slip (smooth) x 1/2 in female threaded bushing which I screwed in a 1/2 in x 3/8 in barb into (these go on the bottoms of sprinkler heads for an irrigation system and are called swing pipe fittings or funny pipe fittings) I then connected a piece of vinyl tube inside diameter 3/8 inch to the barb and ran that to the back of the tank and connected it to another 1/2 in male thread x 3/8 in barb elbow. I then threaded an electrical conduit nut into the 1/2 in elbow and placed it through a hole I melted into the back wall of the tank with my wood burner with a fine tip installed.
I used a 1/2 in threaded pvc cap to clamp the elbow to the tank. Before I installed the cap I drilled some holes in it at an angle to allow for condensation to fall back down the tube into the humidifier. Keep watch that the tubing does not have any low points in it where water will pool and block the fog. (Side note if you want to do some different things with fog i have split the lines coming from humidifers into many smaller lines, but with smaller lines you must cut at least a 45 degree angle sometimes a 30 degree angle to allow surface tension to be broken when the water condenses on the sides of the tubing. If you don't the water will plug your tube.) ????? I have a question though. I am currently running Distilled water inthe humidifier will this harm any caudates esp. the lungless species????
The last thing I did was put in a drain. It consists of a hole drilled into the side of the tank that allowed for a tight fit of the 1/4 in line (make sure the tubing will stay flexible with time so the drain won't leak.) I saw there was a bit of water left in the bottom still and it was keeping the floor too wet so I inserted an absorbant string (anything in cotton should work shoelace, embriodery thread, etc.) leaving a 1/4 inch to dip into the last bit of water in the bottom of the tank and this wicked it up nicely. Oh the drainage layer in the tank is some expanded shale that I use with my bonsai trees as a soil. Turface MVP or gravel of some kind would do the same thing. Be sure to add enough fine sand or the dry sweep on top to prvent accidental ingestion. I ran the drain into my sink which sits just below the tank and it drains perfectly i can acctually water with a tiny watering can and flood the tank's floor and it all drains away down the sink. The wicking effect can take some time 2-4 hours but it gets it all eventually.
Finally, do you all think this would work for a single eft or up to 5 perhaps? Are there enough places to hide in the rocks or would a leaf litter work better keeping moss on the walls? Also when I close it in i want a fan to be in there to keep down the molds and fungus I found one that is 4 cm (1 1/2 in) wide that I hope will work once I move to an LED lighting plan.
