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The latest iteration of my tank :). Just waiting for the water parameters to stabilize before adding fish

A list of the plants:

Rotala rotundifolia

Assorted crypt lol who knows

Water Wisteria

Java fern

Anubia of some variety

Christmas moss

Lobelia Cardinalis

Tiger lotus

Brazilian pennywort

Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus "stargrass"

Bucephalandra Aragon

Ludwigia sp. Atlantis

Some other ludwigia

Pierogi's tank has been a major sore point for me lately. It's had a lot of issues I've been troubleshooting for the past few months when I have time for it. Things like out of control mold growth, a persistent smell, and an inability to keep my cleanup crew alive all strongly suggest I need to completely redo the soil layer with better materials and design.

The first flaw- The soil mixture retains too much moisture for too long. I followed a recipe I found online which called for a great deal of coco fiber and sphagnum moss, which leaves my soil too moist considering I have to spray the glass everyday. As a result, there are out of control mold blooms and musty smells emanating from the terrarium.

I'm going to address this issue by ordering some soil from the biodude, who a lot of people trust. It pains me to order expensive pre-mixed soil when I could buy cheaper bulk ingredients, but I currently don't have the time to make more terrariums or make my own proper soil, so this seems like a good investment.

The second flaw - The mesh I used to separate the soil from the drainage layer is not fine enough, which causes my cleanup crew to fall into the drainage later and not be able to get back up. This is a much cheaper solution fortunately; I'm going to use proper landscaping mesh whose holes are much finer. The downside is my umbrella tree will not be able to take root in the drainage layer as easily, which will limit the amount it can grow.

The third flaw - My soil is not deep enough in some areas. Although I did this intentionally to provide a gradient for the cleanup crew, I think it exacerbated the issue of the cleanup crew falling into the drainage layer.

Although I'm hoping these interventions will give Pierogi's terrarium a new life, it's going to take some time to prepare them. I'm going to have to completely restart my isopod culture from scratch for a few reasons. The biggest one was the soil I was using for their enclosure was the same I used for Pierogi's. And like her enclosure, the isopod's also had a major mold bloom that never went away even after several weeks. I was also raising dairy cow isopods, which were never going to last long in Pierogi's enclosure given how strong her hunting instincts are. Whenever I tried to reintroduce them, the following night I would hear her in the leaf litter mass murdering her custodians. Dwarf whites will be much more appropriate for her, given their small size and propensity for burrowing.

Fortunately my springtail culture has been kept alive on charcoal, water, and yeast for several years without issue. The new Dwarf white enclosure will also serve as a way to expand my current springtail colony.

Oh man, the Java fern is Not looking good. It's rotting away and losing a lot of matter. From what I've read online it's likely receiving way too much direct light, so I'm considering putting a film in front of the light to dim it a bit. In my last tank there was a layer of duckweed that blocked a lot of the light, so I'm hoping the melting will stop once the duckweed reestablishes itself.

New tank + this time it has a proper solid bottom. It's likely the fact I didn't have a solid bottom on the last tank was a potential cause of failure. It's currently living on an old textbook that I never read haha.

I was about to go out tonight when I heard some dreaded water drips coming from my plant area. Sure enough, I see beads of water slowly leaking out the bottom of the tank.

This is just a reminder that your stuff can fail at anytime. I did a leak test with the aquarium, and it passed. It was weeks after I set this up before it started leaking. I was very lucky that I caught it right when it started since no water got on the floor.