A vivarium (Latin, literally for "place of life") is a usually enclosed area for keeping and raising animals or plants.
I wanted to do a rain forest environment. It was quite a challenge to find the correct ingredients for the substrate. The soil consists of orchid bark, coir (ground up coconut husks), leaf litter, pea gravel and a tropical moss.
Believe it or not the hardest to find was the orchid bark. Every store had it but only one brand. Of course that brand had lots of added chemical fertilizers in with the bark. That is a BIG "no no" when adding live animals to the terrarium. Even when I finally did find a different brand at a local garden center they had to call the manufacturer. We were trying to find out what this ambiguous ingredient "other plant stimulating ingredients" actually meant. Turns out that it refers to a fungus-- can't spell it--that's naturally in soil. It helps plants take nutrients into their roots. That sounded good to me.
Brought that one home to add to my mix bowl. That brand did add charcoal, which I took out.
The final mix below.
"Sticky" checking out her new home.
Hanging out.
