Hey. I have had this paludarium for a couple of months now and I have about a 1 to 1.5" gap between my leca drainage layer and my soil layer, but somehow my soil is soaking wet at all times. What could be causing this? How can I alleviate the issue? My plants seem ok so far, but some of my mosses seem waterlogged and have died.
Thanks!
by Pareeeee
5 Comments
Wicking 🙂 my guess is the cork background. Any time a porous material touches water and soil at different points, the water will wick in any direction.
More pictures of the water section will help. Moss also wicks super easily.
If you have moss in there it’ll soak up the water and hold it and that would be my main guess
This is why I use an egg crate later and create an air gap between the water and the substrate.
The clay balls wick water, and if you have even the slightest amount of dirt, wood, plant etc touching the water and the soil, the water will transfer between them.
Because LECA wicks upwater after a while.
You need to install a pipe drain that you can use to siphon out the water with.