Carnivorous Plant Care Sheet
WATER- Use distilled, reverse osmosis (RO), or rainwater. Do not use tap water or bottled drinking water.
SOIL- Must be planted in sphagnum/ peat based substrate. Do not repot in gardening soil or potting soil.
LIGHT- Bright. Place near south facing window or under plant lights.
Carnivorous plants prefer wet conditions. Keep plant wet and don’t let it dry out.
For our premade terrariums- water level should be halfway up height of moss.
Saltwater Start Up Check List
You will need:
Tank kit (tank, protein skimmer, pump, LED light)
Mixed salt water: specific gravity = 1.023
(to measure specific gravity use : hydrometer or refractometer)
Beneficial bacteria
Decorations
Test strips
Clean Up Crew
Astrea snails, sea urchins, turbo snails, nerite snails - cleans glass
Nasarius snails, sand sifting star fish and sea cucumbers- cleans sand
Serpent star and brittle star- eat leftover food and dead animals
Hermit crabs (blue legged, red legged, scarlet) -eat algae, scavenges wastes such as dead stuff, and left over food
Emerald crabs- eat any algae. Especially bubble algae
Peppermint shrimp- eats aiptasia (glass anemone), scavenges wastes such as unseen dead snails, leftover food, etc.
Skunk cleaner shrimp- eats parasites off of fish, keeps fish clean and healthy
Suggested clean up crew for 24 gallon tank :
(**start with these items) Add animals gradually
5-10 snails
10-20 hermit crabs**
1 peppermint shrimp
2-3 emerald crabs
1-2 sea urchin
5-10 Nasarius snail (5 if bigger ones) **
1-2 serpent stars
1 sand sifting star
Set up tank, add sand, rock and saltwater.
Two options:
1. Use clean up crew to cycle tank. Feed with frozen fish food or dry flake food once a day. Takes 6-8 weeks to cycle tank. Takes approx. 6 months for tank to become established.
2. Use clean up crew to cycle the tank and also add live sand, cycled water, and beneficial bacteria. Feed with frozen fish food or dry flake food once a day.
Test water in a week to see if it's ready to put more animals in. Nitrite and ammonia must be zero to add more animals to tank.
Corals in order of difficulty:
• Soft corals are easiest.
Some examples of soft corals: green star polyp, zooanthids, leather corals
• Next in difficulty is (LPS)) large polyp stony coral.
Some examples: euphyllia, favia, duncan polyps.
• Most difficult are (SPS) small polyp stony coral.
Among these the acroporas are hardest SPS to keep.
Montipora, stylopora, pocillopora and Seriatopora (bird nest) are easier SPS.
When adding coral, start with hardy corals first-soft corals
When adding fish, add hardy fish first -damsels.
***Add animals slowly in the beginning because tank isn't established yet. *
When do I do the water changes?
After nitrogen cycle is complete (when ammonia and nitrite is zero) then you need to change water. Change 10-20% of water once a week with new saltwater depending on bioload.
Top of tank with RO water if water level lowers due to evaporation.
Lighting- need stronger light to keep Acroporas.
***Because you're setting up an ecosystem, it takes around 6 months for ecological succession to complete. Growing plankton (phytoplankton, zooplankton), coralline algae, copepods, small crustaceans takes time. This feeds the filter feeders (corals, clams, sponges, scallops) ***
Pond Check List
-Must dechlorinate water before adding water to the pond. Be sure to dechlorinate every time you add additional water to your pond.
-Full sunlight will heat up water too much in pond so fish can’t survive in it.
-If volume of the pond is too small, pond can freeze all the way through in the winter and fish will die. The bigger the pond the better.
-Recommend pond to be at least 2 feet deep.
Strong light can cause excessive algae growth.
To combat algae and green water:
-can shade the pond
-grow plants inside and outside pond to shade the pond. Growing plants in pond also helps clean the water.
-UV sterilizer- can kill floating algae (that causes green water)
-Add more plants
-Filter and clean filter often
Water movement:
-Need water movement with pumps.
-Fountain is ok but really need pump to move water from one end to the other side, falls back down, and break water surface so there is good exchange of air.
Adding fish to your pond:
-Add fish gradually. Recommend cycling with fish you intend to keep. Examples: larger goldfish (not feeder fish), gambusia (mosquito larvae eating fish), or koi.
-Start by adding with around 10% of the fish you intend to keep. Let that cycle for 6-8 weeks and then add more fish gradually. The nitrogen cycle can be sped up by adding nitrifying bacteria.
-Feed fish once a day
Pond plants
-Put pot 3-6 inches below water. Top part of plant above water may freeze and die. But the bottom part of the plant that’s 3-6 inches under water won’t freeze so plant won’t die.
-Light- full or partial sunlight. Plant won’t grow in full shade.
-if possible shade the west side of your pond (shrubs or shade cloth. Lotus provide a lot of shade). You’ll have morning sun and shade the afternoon sun when it’s the hottest.
Pond filter
- Use mechanical filter (bucket with bioball and filter pad) good at taking out particulate so water clearer but doesn’t remove nitrate
- Natural filter- plants (another container bigger than what a mechanical filter would be) has medium in it (gravel, lecca ball) and plant plants in and pump water in it and out into your pond to filter water. Removes nitrate but not particulate stuff. So water may not be clear
- Combination of #1 and #2 is the best.