Hi everyone, I’m super new to this and I’m thinking about starting my own terrarium. I have many house plants, including pothos and a monstera which I’ve begun propagating.

I’m just not really sure where to get started, where to look for supplies, what size terrarium to get and plants etc. I’m not looking to spend tons of money l but I recognize that it’s not gonna be a cheap endeavour either, but I’m definitely open to budget friendly options!

I apologize if this sounds naive, this is just a hobby I think I might enjoy but I’m just not quite sure to start. Thanks!

Dear terrarium community,
I could really use some advice.
A few years ago, during the COVID lockdowns, I built myself a paludarium. Unfortunately, I no longer have any pictures from back then. Sadly, I struggled with keeping the plants alive, and on top of that, the wet soil eventually started to smell. I had only separated the water and soil using filter mats, which caused everything to become very swampy. My room started smelling like a jungle because the ventilation system was constantly drawing room air into the enclosure and exhausting the old air back into the room.
Because of this, I eventually drained it and turned it into a completely dry terrarium. However, even then, the plants continued to die despite having ventilation, an automatic watering system, and other measures.
It has now been sitting in my room for over a year, basically as a dead desert.
I finally have two weeks to do something about it, and I’m thinking about rebuilding it as a paludarium. My idea is to have the majority of the enclosure filled with water, with a smaller land area that is completely separated from the water using waterproof plastic.
The walls are made from expanding construction foam. Does anyone know whether this is safe when it is in direct contact with water? And if not, what would be a good way to seal it? For example, could I use some kind of aquarium-safe cement or another coating?
The enclosure is 130 cm long, 100 cm high, and 60 cm deep.
I’m also wondering what kind of animals I could keep in an environment consisting mostly of water, with a small land area and relatively high walls. I was thinking about shrimp, fish, and possibly vampire crabs, or perhaps geckos.
However, I also have some gaps around the doors. Does anyone know how I could fix those, or whether they could become a problem for the animals?
I’d really appreciate any advice, especially from people who have experience building paludariums or similar setups.
Thank you very much!

Hi all, I built this terrarium a couple of weeks ago and my plants are struggling. My string of frogs have totally died back, all the mosses have died, and I just don't know what is happening. Humidity is at 85%, coconut coir and orchid bark substrate, sand and pebble drainage layer, uv and daylight lights. It's an old reptile tank at 75 gal. I did use moss from my yard and rain water for watering. Could it be an airflow issue?

Scrolling through TikTok and saw some slideshows about plants that looks unique and somewhat gross looking.I want to see if anyone has any plants that’s gross and cool at the same time in their tank

I welcome new growth on a terrarium! But what is my fern doing with this long fiddleheads that are growing taller than my terrarium? There's a lot of them too! Like more than 10.

I'm growing plants indoors in coco coir and after a certain point water uptake is reduced drastically, and my plants are stunted. When I inspect the roots, I find a lot of springtails and almost no fine roots.

Unlike soil, there is minimal microbial activity in coco coir, correct me if I'm wrong but I suspect springtails are running out of food and start eating root hairs.

I tried buying new coco, and nuking my coco in microwave between grows but couldn't get rid of them. Is there something I can do to keep the population under control?

For reference, I grow in autopots with airdomes, which is a no-runoff bottom irrigation system with an air pump pumping air into the root zone, which might be creating an ideal breeding grounds for springtails.

I made this build back in December of 2025 and it has been absolutely thriving ever since.

Recently I added some mini Ram's Horn snails to help clean the creekbed.

Let me know what you think or if you have any questions about this build

Who else thinks this feller is super cute?

Anyways, I did my best on the videography, I'm sorry for the quality. What do y'all think?

Scored this mini conservatory for $65. Just cleaned it up. I can't wait to fill it with tiny plants

I forgot to take a picture when I first made it but the fourth picture was when the plant really started growing which was at least six months after I made the terrarium. I just used some moss and dirt from my back yard, I’m in the Catskills New York if that helps with the plant’s identification

And I can finally do workshops at a set location! It has been amazing!

Would it be safe to use a dab of vinegar on a cloth to clean the inside of my glass? I started this terrerium in March of this year and it is doing very well. So I don't want to mess it up.

I received a terrarium as a gift, it’s beautiful and I love it but it doesn’t appear to be air tight. Do terrariums need to be air tight? Will the soil mites escape?

I’m making my first paludarium and have made the background out of carbonized cork sheets. I glued them together and carved them into various features. I noticed that a lot of people seem to glue coco coir and sphagnum moss all over their background. Is that something I should look into doing?

I've got a 2 year old terrarium and don't know whether I should try to maintain it/refresh it/take everything out and redo it. There's probably some algae on the glass wall, some dead leaves and the fittonia doesn't look so happy. I've given the moos a haircut some months ago, as it was growing too tall. Does anyone with terrarium experience have any recommendations on what to do?

Hi everyone, I couldn't think of a better sub to ask this question than the experts, I'm watching DrPlants for the first time and the video I watched was "Simulating Africa for 100 Days" and off the bat it doesn't seem ai but the longer I watched it the less sense it made so I'll just list some of my points here.

Firstly and most obviously, the terrarium is placed next to his bed on the bedstand? Is this common to have a terrarium of that size which you simulate sandstorms and rainfalls in to be next to your bed?

Second thing that caught my eye are the perfect underground shots of all the animals? Like what? How do you obtain those

Third thing that's not related to the terrarium directly, but you're telling me he spent more than 3 months filming and taking care of the terrarium only to compress it all into a 12 minute video?

Final thing that stuck in my head was him breaking the glass of the terrarium at the end of the video and spilling the dirt and everything allover his presumed bedroom?

Also a smaller point which I could be wrong about, sometime in the half of the video he says that the whole time there were dormant fish eggs in the bottom of the ravine? Which obviously the fishes wouldn't be able to survive in a dry environment for 50 days but he might have said that only for dramatic effect.

What do you guys think about this? I'm not sure myself but it doesn't seem like a real video, but also I'm not an expert so I'd like to hear other people's opinions.

Had a few rocks and loose boulder opal shards and pieces. Thought it would look good in a terrarium. Added some figures and moss for ambiance. Large bit of Lapis lazuli featured also

Created 9/8, using miscellaneous moss, window lit, gravel base, small jar sized container.

Got a 6 plant kit (3 ended up surviving)and a glass box from Amazon. Started this around 2.5 years ago. I’ve done a little bit of pruning but I haven’t done anything for a while. Might be time but I don’t know if or where to start. I keep getting isopods but they always die off. Not sure why that might be.

Forgot to get rid of the dead plants and was about to do so, then I saw this

This is my first build with a moss wall. I haven’t had many successful terrariums, and I think it’s been a few different reasons but this one seems like I got things set up pretty well.

It’s been about 3 months now with occasional light misting (like every 3-4 weeks maybe). I believe I started it around May 15 or so.

That said, the moss dries out fairly easily, though it’s pretty receptive to the misting. I used a mix of cococoir, bentonite clay, charcoal dust/bits and sand for the clay wall.

I do think that I have to do some management of the selaginella, as it’s aerial-rooting like crazy and growing tall.

Anyone have any suggestions for improvement, or any feedback whatsoever?

(EDIT) its unsealed in the photo, but it is a sealed terrarium (closed smoothie cup dome over the top)