Lego's Cacti/Succulent collection - New pics!

[legomaniac89]

This has been a while in the making, but I finally got it done earlier today. I had an old 20g long tank sitting around and a few random succulents in my window, so I just put them together.

Tech specs:
Dimensions: 30"x12"x12"

Substrate: bottom layer - 2" of coarse gravel for drainage
top layer - 3" of Cacti/Succulent soil/Perlite/play sand mix

Lighting: 2 27W Fluorescent Desk Lamps, the kind you can buy at Wal-Mart

Photoperiod: 14 hours a day

And here are the pics



Top view


Left Side


Right Side


With lights


So what do you think? I'd love any suggestions you've got.

If anyone's interested (or cares to know ) I can make up a list of all the plants in there, with pics included of course.

Adam

[demosthenes]

wow, thats really cool! you should try to find the desert equivalent of HC and make a little foreground in the front sides and back center.

are you planning to put any animals in here? i have no idea what exactly you'd house in such a tank, but it seems like there could be something really cool in there. maybe a scorpion! haha ew...

[speedie408]

Adam,

Tell me you're putting some lizards in there... maybe a snake? At least you don't have to worry about trimming haha, asumming they are very slooooOoow growers.

[legomaniac89]

Originally Posted by demosthenes

wow, thats really cool! you should try to find the desert equivalent of HC and make a little foreground in the front sides and back center.

Man, you know, I saw one like that earlier today. Now I wish I would have grabbed it. I do need to fill in a couple of empty spots yet, I'll probably get everything I need tomorrow.

are you planning to put any animals in here? i have no idea what exactly you'd house in such a tank, but it seems like there could be something really cool in there. maybe a scorpion! haha ew...

Originally Posted by speedie408

Adam,

Tell me you're putting some lizards in there... maybe a snake? At least you don't have to worry about trimming haha, asumming they are very slooooOoow growers.

Nope, no lizards or arachnids or anything planned. When this fills in there won't be much room for anything to move around . Speedie, some of these grow faster than you'd think. The Euphorbia (thin, green plant in the bakc left corner) is an extremely fast grower. I've only had it for a couple days and there's already a good amount of new growth. Many of them are pretty slow growers, though.

[CL]

Nice tank! I have never seen a desert terrarium that was actually "scaped" (plants arranged in some order)

[FrostyNYC]

I'd be afraid to add lizards, for fear that they'd scratch up those succulent leaves.

What's the white stuff spread out everywhere? It looks like the white stuff that's in potting soil sometimes.

I really dig this tank. The only negative, maybe, is that you have so many species of plants that it looks unnatural. But I'm not sure you were going for natural, so it looks awesome anyway.

[vtkid]

a couple plants that would be cool
old mans bones
sugar almond
stone aloe

and green anoles would love a habitat such as that they would chill on the plants... i would think

[legomaniac89]

Originally Posted by clwatkins10

Nice tank! I have never seen a desert terrarium that was actually "scaped" (plants arranged in some order)

Thanks CL, it's kinda a new concept for me too.

Originally Posted by FrostyNYC

I'd be afraid to add lizards, for fear that they'd scratch up those succulent leaves.

What's the white stuff spread out everywhere? It looks like the white stuff that's in potting soil sometimes.

I really dig this tank. The only negative, maybe, is that you have so many species of plants that it looks unnatural. But I'm not sure you were going for natural, so it looks awesome anyway.

Thanks Frosty! The white granules is the Perlite, to help keep the soil from compacting. I was kinda going for a terrarium version of a collectoritis dutch desert. Not real natural by any means, but I like all the contrasts in color and texture the plants give

[legomaniac89]

Originally Posted by vtkid

a couple plants that would be cool
old mans bones
sugar almond
stone aloe

and green anoles would love a habitat such as that they would chill on the plants... i would think

I'll have to check those plants out, vtkid. I have some that are pretty similar to those.

I'm not planning on having any kind of lizard in the terrarium. I believe that anoles like a good amount of humidity, so they would probably fry in here. Plus without a top in the tank, they'd be running free in no time .

[bartak]

very cool. I would lose the light and put in in front of a window.

[legomaniac89]

Originally Posted by bartak

very cool. I would lose the light and put in in front of a window.

Thanks bartak, I would but I don't have 30" of window space to keep this in. I could move it outside also, I have a west-facing patio that this would do good in, but moving a 20g half full of rocks and dirt would get tiring real quick I think.

Anyway, everything's doing pretty good. I'm noticing new growth on a couple of the plants. I took demosthenes' advice and found the "desert equivalent of HC" for the front corners, and added a couple more succulents.





The desert HC, can't remember the real name.


New growth on the Titanopsis

[hydrophyte]

nice. this is a novel idea.

you know one group of animals that could perhaps be kept in a system like this are ants. obviously some types ants could do a lot of damage, but others might get along OK with the plants. i remember a while back seeing a Website for a company somewhere in Europe that dealt in really cool tropcial ants, like Atta leafcutters and weaver ants. the "ant farm" ants that you can buy form severla places mail-order i believe are harvester ants, which are the ones that live in the desert and collect seeds. there are probably lots of cool ants that one could look for in local environments.

i remember seeing an exhibit at a zoo that was something like this and featured live ants. they kept the ants in the display by smearing a greasy film (silicone grease?) around the rim.

[legomaniac89]

Ants...hmmm, that would be interesting. I may have to look into that. That would definitely be unique

[hydrophyte]

check this out.

http://www.antstore.net/shop/index.p...c-Species.html

i see they only have a couple of species available. i'm sure there are tight restrictions against importing live ants to the US.

as with most tropical fauan/flora hobbies, the Europeans are light years ahead of us.

[crimsonbull57]

the only suggestion I have to make is that because its suposed to be a desert I would add some Cacti, just the small cheap ones from Kmart or Walmart work very well and are undemanding. Stocking with Ants would be cool just make sure you have a tight lid, or maybe you could find some neet beetles or centipedes. Just suggestions