I have a naturalistic setup in an ExoTerra 45x45x60cm with plants planted directly into the substrate (EcoEarth) - my problem is keeping the plants alive!
I have gone through the list of safe plants and tried Ficus (died very quickly), Kalenkoe (died pretty quickly) Impatiens (died very quickly), Bromeliad (lasted reasonably), bamboo (lasted reasonably) and a plant I know as Mother-in-Laws-tongue (lasted reasonably) but none of them have flourished.
I have about 2 inches of gavel in the base for drainage then 4-5 inches of Eco-Earth, the viv gets sprayed daily but I don't directly water the plants very often except for putting water into the Bromeliad for the Cresties to drink, they have a 2.0 UVB compact on during the day.
I am trying to give the cresties cover to hide in and also things that they can climb, so reasonable sturdy - I've got one plastic plant covering one side of the viv and a couple of branches for climbing. I can get more plastic plants and some jungle vines to twist around if necessary but I'd like to keep it natural if I can. I don't mind replacing the plants occasionally but am I doing something drastically wrong? I am intending to seperate my 2 cresties soon so I will have one setup that I can start from scratch at least.
Oh - and I have woodlice in there to help with the viv cleaning but the plants were dying prior to that so I don't think I can entirely blame them!
I have gone through the list of safe plants and tried Ficus (died very quickly), Kalenkoe (died pretty quickly) Impatiens (died very quickly), Bromeliad (lasted reasonably), bamboo (lasted reasonably) and a plant I know as Mother-in-Laws-tongue (lasted reasonably) but none of them have flourished.
I have about 2 inches of gavel in the base for drainage then 4-5 inches of Eco-Earth, the viv gets sprayed daily but I don't directly water the plants very often except for putting water into the Bromeliad for the Cresties to drink, they have a 2.0 UVB compact on during the day.
I am trying to give the cresties cover to hide in and also things that they can climb, so reasonable sturdy - I've got one plastic plant covering one side of the viv and a couple of branches for climbing. I can get more plastic plants and some jungle vines to twist around if necessary but I'd like to keep it natural if I can. I don't mind replacing the plants occasionally but am I doing something drastically wrong? I am intending to seperate my 2 cresties soon so I will have one setup that I can start from scratch at least.
Oh - and I have woodlice in there to help with the viv cleaning but the plants were dying prior to that so I don't think I can entirely blame them!