I’ve got leca and coco fibers for filter layer and some simple black substrate about a inch and a half deep for burrowing. Going to add water once I have plants and decor to start the mold cycle. Any advice on som simple cost effective plants? This will be for vampire crabs, about 3
by Bright_Discount7139
5 Comments
Hey 🙂 The coco fiber blocks will make this into an anaerobic moldy mess and also foul the water. They are not suitable to be used like this. Instead you’ll want to go with a non wicking material like filter foam, a false bottom with mesh or lava rocks. Leca clay balls are also possible to use, but may wick water and cause water logging if your substrate has no bark for drainage.
You can however reuse the coco blocks by mixing it into soil, peat, sphagnum, bark, sand, charcoal, leaf litter etc. Most good soils have lots of organic materials both to hold moisture and aid with drainage.
I’m by no means professional or very knowledgeable, but coco blocks are meant to be soaked before you can even use them! They actually double or triple in size, so try cutting some portion which you will use for substrate (after setting up proper drainage)
There are a lot of YouTube tutorials that show great low budget or easy paludarium builds
Literally only commenting to save this for myself bc the dynamitella comment is so helpful!
Good luck on your journey OP! My LFS just got a random shipment of these crabs on their betta shelf too
serpa design on youtube is a great resource. really cool builds.