Turning An Aquarium Into a Lush Terrarium Ecosystem

In this video I'll show you how I turned this glass aquarium into a thriving terrarium ecosystem. Let's waste no time and get straight into it. The tank that I'm using measures 36x18x24. It already has a frosted background which I think helps frame the scape in much better. As for lighting I'm simply using this LED aquarium light. This one is 20 watts but you can get away with half that power. Now let's start building the terrarium. The first thing that I need to do is to create a drainage layer and for that I'm going to use some fine leaker. This stuff is really lightweight and very porous making it perfect for terrarium drainage. A good alternative to this is pea gravel which you can get pretty much anywhere. For this terrarium I want to try something slightly different for the foreground. I'm using this board to pull the leaker back so it's tapered and empty at the front. The reason I'm doing this is because I want a really thin layer of moss in the foreground. I think this will add a unique and natural look to the terrarium. Next I'm going to place in some window screen mesh on top of the leaker. This will act as a substrate barrier and stop the substrate from getting into the drainage layer. As for the foreground I need to use something that can tolerate being damp and be a good growing medium for the moss. The obvious choice to me is some sphagnum moss. This stuff is a great growing medium and best of all it doesn't mind being on the wetter side which is perfect as there's no drainage layer underneath it. I will have to be wary to not overwater this terrarium as the limited drainage in the foreground could cause problems if I overwatered. I should mention that I prepared the sphagnum moss by rehydrating it with water and then sterilizing it in the microwave for a couple minutes. This will stop it from springing back to life and out competing the moss that I'll plant on top of it later. With the foreground done I'm now going to add some terrarium substrate behind it. The substrate that I'm using is a mix that I made myself and it really is perfect for terrariums. If you want to learn more I've got a video on my tutorial channel showing you exactly how to make this substrate mix. I'll put a link on screen now as well as one in the description. I'll add more substrate later but for now I'm going to start working on the hardscape. I've picked out this really cool piece of driftwood that I think will look great inside this terrarium. Due to its size there's really not too many options on placement but I think it looks great right here. I love how it splits the scape in two and creates a clear foreground and background. To improve the hardscape I'm going to place in some of these geo rocks. These will add some really nice detail and their light color will be a great contrast to the wood. It only took a small amount of trial and error to find an arrangement that I liked. Now that the hardscape is complete I'm going to build up the substrate layer in the background. This will not only add some more height to the background but it'll also provide the plants with more substrate that they can spread their roots throughout and pull nutrients from. Before getting any plants in I'm going to give the tank a light spray down as it is looking quite dry. I'm going to start off with the moss that I'm going to plant throughout the foreground. This is some Christmas moss that I just pulled out of one of my aquariums as you can probably tell from the duckweed scattered amongst it. I could plant it as it is but instead I'll show you a technique that will help it go much further. I've clumped it up into a ball and now I'm trimming it down as fine as I can. Now that the Christmas moss is trimmed up into hundreds of tiny pieces I'm going to spread it out on top of the sphagnum moss. By cutting it up it helps you cover a larger area with less moss but more importantly it helps stimulate new growth. This moss is typically sold as an aquarium plant but it actually grows great inside terrariums as well due to the high humidity inside. With time the moss will grow and spread into a lush carpet. As for the background I'm going to plant in these stunning crocodile ferns. As you can probably have guessed it gets its name from its scale-like veins on its dark green leaves. Before I can plant them inside I need to prep them first. I'm taking it out the pot and then removing as much soil from the roots as I can. I'll do this with my hands and then wash it off with a hose outside. The reason I'm doing this is to help minimize the chance of introducing pests into the terrarium. In the past I've had pests like slugs hitchhike on plants and cause problems throughout the ecosystem. Although this won't guarantee that no pests will be introduced it certainly will lower the chances and it's a good habit to get into. The next plant that I'm going to add is this Anubias which has these dark green deep ridged leaves. To plant it I'm wedging it between the rock and wood and then pressing its roots down into the substrate. It's important to keep the plants hydrated as the aquatic plants that I used are prone to drying out. Next I'm planting in some smaller Anubias as well as some patches of Bucephalandra. I think these smaller delicate leaved plants will add a nice natural look to the terrarium. I want to bring a bit of life to the wood by planting on some Oakleaf Creeping Fig. I've placed some sphagnum moss underneath to act as a growing medium. I'm planting another patch at the base which should slowly climb up the wood with some time. I'm liking how it's looking but I think I need to do something with this open gap that's on the right side. I'm going to place some more sphagnum moss down and extend the Christmas moss carpet. I think I'm going to stop the plant in there to leave plenty of room that the plants can grow into. These tiny bugs are known as springtails and they're going to help keep the ecosystem clean and healthy. They'll do this by eating things like mould and decaying matter which could be a threat to the fine balance of the terrarium. Before leaving the terrarium to grow and establish I need to address one problem and that's the lid. If the terrarium was left open with no lid the plants would dry out and die in no time at all. I made this lid with glass from a picture frame that fit perfectly on top with a small addition on the left side. The terrarium is now 70 days old and for the most part it's doing really well. One of my favourite aspects about this terrarium is how wild and natural the foreground looks. The Christmas moss has slowly been spreading just as I planned and it's even started climbing up the rocks which I think looks really cool. You might have noticed that there is another plant mixed throughout the foreground with the moss. I planted this in a couple weeks ago and it's already started spreading. I like the variety and texture that it adds to the foreground. Now let's take a closer look at the ferns growing in the background. A few of the old leaves are slowly dying off but there's plenty of new growth to take their place. These are some of the new leaves and they've got some absolutely stunning detail. I can really see why this plant is nicknamed the crocodile fern. One thing I wish I would have done was plant another more towards the right to fill out some of the empty space. One thing that didn't quite work out the way I hoped was the oak leaf creeping fig on the wood. I've been giving the tank a light spray down every week but unfortunately this wasn't enough for the oak leaf creeping fig and it did dry out. Despite that I'm really happy with how this terrarium's turned out and I think it's only going to get better and better with time. If you enjoyed this video why not check out this one next where I show you how to turn a cube aquarium into an ecosystem for dart frogs.