FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

hey my name is Dan and i recently bought 2 Venus Fly Traps from a local garden center and i live in thunder bay, ontario, canada so it gets cold in the winter and not really that hot in the summer and i live in an apartment so i don't have any really good windows facing the sun. so what i did was went out and bought a 2.5gallon fish tank and a reptile/plant light and thermometer and hygrometer. the VFT's r in a plastic pot with holes in the bottom and they r planted in Spahgnum moss i think( i attached a pic of my setup ). so my question is should i have water in the bottom of the tank all the time during growing season? or just keep them damp? cuz someone told me they will get root rot by leaving them in the water like that . and how much is too much light? ive bin turning it on around 8 - 830 when i wake up and turning it off around 10 - 11 at night but it gets kinda hot in there it starts at about 68 in the morning and gets to about 82 by night. i take the lid off for a lil while during the day when the sun is shineing on them so they can get fresh air. the humidity goes from 60% - 75% . i got a bag of Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss and it looks like rich soil, should i replant them in that instead of what they r in ?
sorry about soo many questions but im really interested in plants in general but these things r amazing i fed them both a cricket from the petstore yesterday so ill see how that goes its quite amazing.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and thanks in advance for helping me out.
-Dan

Dan,
Your plants look very healthy in the photos.

DanTheMan wrote:so my question is should i have water in the bottom of the tank all the time during growing season?

With a setup like that, there's no need to keep water in the bottom of the tank. That will surely promote rot. Just check the sphagnum from time to time to make sure it isn't drying out. It's likely that you won't even have to water once a week.

DanTheMan wrote:and how much is too much light?

You should get an automatic timer and set it for 16 hours of light and 8 hours off. That's the easiest thing to do.

DanTheMan wrote:i got a bag of Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss and it looks like rich soil, should i replant them in that instead of what they r in ?

They're fine in the sphagnum. When you do decide to repot, the peat moss will work well.

Good luck and if you have any more questions, feel free to ask! Hopefully some of the other growers will chime in here with their opinions as well.