realized the water in the drainage layer kept rising despite not watering for a week… cant reseal the partition without starting from scratch!
taking this as an opportunity to do better, otherwise im just defeated.
im thinking a textured background might be cool, but might be too big since its cramped as-is. possibly cork flats?
considering mixing in more oak substrate to accomadate an American millipede.
what would you do differently?
by CarrotChunx
3 Comments
I would just use the divider as a retaining wall, lowering the water level and raising the drainage layer. You’ll always risk leaking and wicking, so being one step ahead will help if that happens 🙂
Always test for leaks before adding anything else to the tank. A solution for this is to increase the height of the drainage layer and add a small pump that is either activated manually, or via some automation (water detector, timer, etc.). The best solution would be to razor out the silicone, scrape away all excess and reseal the divider fresh from both sides, making sure to use a finger or something to press the edge, let cure, and retest for leaks.
You’re never gonna prevent the water from going horizontally, so the answer is to just not place dirt at the same level of the water. I’d recommend to like put a Tupperware in there with some holes on the side and build the land up top of it, (so let the water into the tupperware, beneath the land)
And for the land, don’t use a lot of dirt, I usually do just a little bit on top of foam and plant into the foam…