I was gifted this really cute terrarium and Iām excited to try this hobby!
Do I need to check and see if the edges are waterproof? Or is it okay if there are some gaps for air/ moisture to escape from?
Also, any advice is more then welcome š
by Spooky_Foliage_Freak
2 Comments
if you’re planning to add water yes, if not you should be fine unless you’re packing in extremly heavy dirt. i’m no expert tho. good luck!!! send update photos !!
Things I’ve learned in the month I’ve been building & then taking care of my terrariums:Ā
My one build that is definitely not airtight at the lid is the only one I’ve never seen mold in (granted, it’s less than two weeks old, but my newer saran wrap sealed one has definitely shown signs of mold), and it’s also the one where I completely forgot to wash the moss in distilled water before planting it lmao. I would check the bottom and side seams for watertightness just for peace of mind that it won’t water damage its stand, personally, but you do you.
Rocks are really cheap at landscape rock places. I got 80lb bags of 3/8″ local river pebbles (for drainage layers and also miniature riverbed/French drain type features) and 3″ slate chips, plus a cubic foot bag of large lava rocks, which is all the rock I expect I’ll ever need, for under $25. Pretty much everybody agrees it’s safe to clean rocks by pouring boiling water over them, but people disagree about whether it’s safe to bake rocks or boil them in a pot (the concern is that they might break or possibly explode).
You can use sticks you find outside for hardscape, especially if you’re near hardwood trees. I’ve got a park full of oak trees nearby and all my hardscape wood is sticks I found on the ground there. I just rinse it thoroughly, then bake it for about an hour on my oven’s lowest setting, until it’s dry. (I put down tinfoil on the baking sheet first for easy cleanup.)
If you order moss online, maybe ask the seller about how many square inches you should expect to get. I thought I ordered like a couple of meal prep tupperware worth and it ended up filling 7 tupperware.
Long bent tip tweezers and long curved scissors are really helpful for maintenance. Also for building, even in big containers — once you’ve placed some stuff it’s nice to have the tweezers to place other stuff really close by without disturbing what’s already there. And lots of people say you don’t need to pay the aquarium store markup on them, and more power to you if you find what you need cheaper, but I ultimately found that the cheapest way to get what I actually wanted in acceptable quality (10″ long, bent tip tweezers + curved aquascaping scissors) was a $15 hygger brand set at the local aquarium store.