Here's the terrarium as it exists today! The primary goal in assembling it was to create a contained space of higher ambient humidity so my pitcher plants would be happier - particularly Victor, the one in the skull, [which has been a bit sickly and not producing pitchers. *
After some examination I think this is actually a problem with the root system failing to expand into new media after I repotted it, but we'll see. Definitely not root rot at least.I've been putting it together for about a month and a half, and the plant population is more or less at its goal state. It houses four nepenthes [ventricosa, spectabilis x platychila, spathulata x dubia, and a seed-grown ventricosa x mikei], four butterworts plus a few leaf pullings [laueana, cyclosecta, emarginata, and laueana x heterophylla "Naiad"], a terrestrial bladderwort [u. pubescens], an aquatic bladderwort [u. gibba], a smattering of rosetted sundews [d. tokaiensis], live sphagnum moss, and a smattering of volunteer moss transferred from the media of the other plants. The nepenthes are all in containers to allow them to be repositioned as needed and removed from the terrarium when they get too big.
Before buying anything, I drew up some plans for exactly what I wanted to make. Nepenthes are vines and can get tall really quickly, so I needed something with plenty of vertical space and a small enough footprint to still fit on my desk. I ultimately settled on the ExoTerra mini/tall, which is 18" tall with a 12"x12" base.
Exo Terra products are designed for reptiles, so this had some pros and cons. I love the double doors, which give a real display-case vibe. And the big margin below them gives an awesome view into the substrate - perfect for bladderworts. The lock I can take or leave - I wasn't planning to have anything ambulatory bigger than a grain of rice, but it does help me remember not to leave the doors open. The big problem was the ceiling, which is mesh for airflow. Not great for humidity! So I leaned into the display-case vibe and designed a fancy wooden lid to house the grow lights and trap moisture.
Okay so, actually building the damn thing
Alright, alright. With everything planned out I ordered the terrarium and moved my pitcher plants into it as soon as it arrived.
So handsome! So glorious! So not stuck on a windowsill! But not good enough. Time to terraform.
I started with a "drainage" layer made up of a mix of pumice, perlite, coarse sand, and shredded dried sphagnum moss. I carved out a reservoir in one corner - less to act as a water feature and more to make it easy for me to monitor the water level inside, but creating a habitat for bladderworts was a cool bonus. I topped it with a mix of long-fiber sphagnum moss(LFSM) mixed with perlite, sculpted into mounds for some varied elevation. Finally, I dressed that with the baggie of very sad-looking live sphagnum moss I ordered through an online nursery. (Don't be too hard on it, shipping is rough on plants)
At this point I moved the nepenthes back in to test their positioning, and they all very predictably fell over because I am a fool who did not sculpt stable bases. I figured it out eventually.
Ta-da! Carnivorous Terrarium alpha build, complete. The nepenthes are in their planned spots, and a pinguicula is marking where the water will be... eventually. The substrate is nice and moist here, but I wanted to wait until I had some milled peat to line it with before filling the reservoir itself. But this post is entirely too long, so that will have to wait for part 2.