FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi all,

My mom and I are going to build a pingdom. I don't know what the best method(?) to build a false bottom is. I have seen a few ways like adding river rock with window screen on top at the bottoms of that terrarium. Then add pvc from the top of the soil to the river rock and water it by pouring it down the pvc. Is this the best method?

I also don't know the best medium for a pingdom. I don't know if having a false bottom changes anything. Does it? I think the best thing to do is just use a 1:3:2 peat/perlite/sand mix? And if I use a background which I can plant things in, use lfsm as the medium to help keep the plants secure? What do you all think? Hopefully that all made sense Thanks!

Bump

It sounds like you already have a container or tank and an idea of what you want it to look like. If you can share pics of what you have to work with and/or what you have in mind that would help. I’ve seen pingdoms that are literally a chunk of rock in a dish with water, all the way to full palludarium setups. So what are you shooting for? Do you have a list of plants that you want to incorporate? That will determine the substrate, temp, humidity, etc.

Same goes for watering- if it’s not a huge setup you might not need a pvc pipe or anything special for watering. I have a bowl setup with pumice gravel as the substrate and I can just pour water anywhere in the gravel as long as it’s not a heavy stream that would move stuff around. I have a taller tank that has more of a peat-sand substrate and I made a splash pad with a chunk of gutter foam and live sphagnum that I can pour water on without making a mudslide or disturbing plants.

We have a 10 gal fish tank for the pingdom. I added a screenshot of an extremely large version of what we'd like to do (a 10 gal tank would, of course, be WAY smaller). But the basic concept is the same - some on the floor, some on the back wall. We hope to use a variety of pings, some Utricularia, some sundews, etc. If there's space we considered some draping spanish moss off a branch, maybe some air plants or mini african violets. Our plan was to start small with just 6-7 different plants then expand from there as time and finances allow.

My mom and I would like this to be as low maintenance as possible, so we're trying to set it up right and keep things as basic as possible.

I did a quick search to get a bigger picture of your example, and found that CalCarn actually posted a video of making a 10 gal version!
https://www.californiacarnivores.com/bl ... a-ribbecke

Thanks so much! That'll definitely help!