FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello. I'm thinking of starting a terrarium for carnnivorus plants. There would be venus fly traps, pitchers, sundews and nepheus. This is the terrarium:

http://exo-terra.com/media_exchange/hig ... rarium.jpg

The tank will be 18 by 18 by 24in (LWH) I was told to use the sun lights they have for lizards and leave the light on 14 hours a day until Nov. 24, then cut it into 7 or 8 hours a day untill Valentines Day. This would help through dormancy.Is that true?
I dont want to go through the process by placing the plant into the refrigeator, mom may throw it out.

Also I would like to know:
-Substrate, in. deep?
-What kind of light ex. sunglo
-Any other info, will be great.

Hi and welcome, I would not recommend a terrarium as a first choice for carnivorous plants - outdoors is always best. But since you really want one, I can tell you what I did with my first one -

For the substrate, I used about 1" to 1.1/2" of well rinsed activated carbon (you should be able to buy this from an aquarium supplier or pet store, or even plant nursery) the carbon layer will do 3 things - 1. it will remove some impurities from the water, 2. it will keep the water & soil "sweet" and should stop unpleasant odors from forming, 3. it acts as a reservoir for your plants without water logging the soil.

The soil layer is really up to you, some people use plain long fiber sphagnum moss which can be laid directly on the carbon substrate. Others like to use a mix of of peat and perlite, or peat and well rinsed silica sand or propagating sand. the mix ratio can vary from grower to grower, I like to use 3 parts peat : 1 part sand.
If you are using peat / sand mix you will need to put a piece of flyscreen/flywire mesh between the "soil" and substrate to prevent them from mixing - be sure to use fiberglass flywire, not the metallic one. 4" of "soil" should be plenty for your plants to grow in.

Most Nepenthes prefer to be grown in pure sphagnum moss, so if you are planning on putting some of these in your tank, you might want to leave them in their pots and bury the pot in the soil. I have not tried growing under lights yet but I think that the Repti-glo flourescent tubes used for reptiles should be ok, you can also buy tubes made specifically for plant growth - check with your aquarium dealer.

Dormancy is triggered by both sustained lower temperature and reduced photoperiod (day length) so in addition to shortening your day length, you will also need to provide lower temperatures in order for your plants to enter dormancy. Exo-Terra make some nice tanks - I have 2 x green tree frogs in an Exo-Terra tank in my lounge room - Good luck with your project.

Linton