Building a terrarium from an aquarium

Hi Scott, I have in mind to make my 200 litre corner tank into a terrarium with a rock wall at the rear, and water running down it. I don’t know how much water I would need or what size pump I would need. Nor do I know whether the pump needs to be submersed or not. I would first appreciate your advice on how to do this, and what I would need to do the best job.

Hello there
Sounds like a great project.
My pumps need to be submerged, so it might require a portion of the tank to act as the reservoir, and you can pump from there.

Avoid having plants in the water, as they will probably drown.

If running the pump all the time, some period every day will be required to allow the plants to dry out a bit.

Root rot is the danger.

If you use a free draining medium like gravel that will dry out fairly quickly once the pump stops so that would be a good way to start.

TO get food to the plant you would need to either use soil (might stay too wet) or a hydroponic solution of dissolved natural minerals.

A bottle of nutrient will cost you from $15 up wards and you would need to pump the water out occasionally and restart as the nutrients in the water won’t last forever.

Electronic testers can tell you how much to add, but its easier and cheaper to dump the water on your garden and restart say once per month for ornamental plants, every 2 weeks for veggies/herbs.

Plants will show signs of nutrient deficiency if the nutrient solution is used up and you haven’t changed the nutrient in time so you can gauge how long that way.

If the water evaporates a little, or the plants are using water, you would just add water in between changes as adding more solution might make it too strong if its mostly evaporating.

Our pumps like the Aqua one range are measured in maximum height they can pump before they stop, and amount of water pumping out when unrestricted at the opening, (i.e. 0cm height power)

101 500litres per hour 50cm RRP $30
102 800 lph 80cm $35
103 1200lph 1.2m $45
104 2000lph 2m $55
105 2500lph 2.5m $70

Hope that starts you on your project…

Scott
Scott Andrew
https://emo.neto.com.au
Nerang Hydroponic Centre 4/50 Spencer Road Nerang QLD 4211 Australia Phone (07) 5527 4155
email checked morning and afternoon minimumon week days only

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