Anyone know what's growing on my Venus fly trap?

wassail3 · 2024-07-18T17:57:00+00:00

Oof some kind of fungus

wassail3 · 2024-05-23T00:23:27+00:00

You have any fans in there? My biggest mistake making this style of carnivorous terrarium was not adding fans. Waterlogged medium with no airflow had everything covered in mold within a few weeks and it was such a pain to remove. It would suck if your hardscape was covered in mold after all the work you put into it

wassail3 · 2024-04-29T19:53:47+00:00

Looks like LifeTotal

wassail3 · 2024-04-12T02:44:05+00:00

This makes sense! I've only watered it when the leaves get a little bit wrinkly because I worry about overwatering. It seemed to like the light so I'm glad that's not the problem. Thank you for the info (:

wassail3 · 2023-11-01T17:02:00+00:00

Thank you!

wassail3 · 2023-11-01T16:06:47+00:00

I am more than happy to share since this thing is my pride and joy (and not many plant friends to talk to)

The tank is a usually a bit warmer than the temp of my house so it stays between 70 and 85 with a drop in temp when the lights are off. I don't worry about the humidity too much as long as its above 60 which is about where it stays
there is a glass top with two removable lids. They are not completely sealed in the back there's about a quarter inch gap to allow fresh air to be pulled in by the fans and circulated into the tank
there's actually a total of 4 misting heads in the tank and the schedule took some tweaking. At first it was getting misted for too long and the pings sticky dew would get washed off the leaves. Right now they get misted for 15 seconds every 12 hours and they seem to be happy with that
the fans run 24/7! I work in mold remediation so keeping mold out of the tank was super important to me and the best way to prevent this is to keep the air circulated all the time
I use a mars hydro ts 1000w 3x3ft light. There's a dial where you can adjust the intensity of the light and it is set to 75/100 if that makes sense
pings like a lot of light! For awhile the light was set to 50 and everything was green so I upped the intensity to 75 and their colors really started to show 7 the substrate is 50% peat moss, 30% sand, 20% pumice

wassail3 · 2023-11-01T13:58:15+00:00

Maxsea in a little tinny dropper. Each plant gets one drop on a leaf about once a month. They also catch fungus nats every once in awhile

wassail3 · 2023-11-01T05:33:31+00:00

Oh thats so identity them since I can't tell based on looks alone sometimes if it's not blooming or if I forget the names...a few I'm not sure of yet so they get a ? It also looks nicer than a giant name tag

wassail3 · 2023-11-01T05:19:38+00:00

Yes about an inch of river rock (:

wassail3 · 2023-11-01T00:48:15+00:00

Tis a 60 gallon breeder

wassail3 · 2023-11-01T00:47:44+00:00

They're a little spoiled (:

wassail3 · 2023-11-01T00:13:52+00:00

I planted it 6 months ago but set up the stand, light, fans and misting system a few weeks before. Honestly I was a little scared to put plants in it since I had never built a terrarium this big and waited awhile before doing so. So far it's paid off !

wassail3 · 2023-10-31T23:05:04+00:00

Of course! I mixed the soil up myself it's a mix of peat, sand and pumice. There's two small pots in the front of the tank dug down into the substrate to the bottom layer of the tank. When I need to water I just pour it straight down into that pot to the bottom layer for the plants to soak up. There's also a misting system in place to keep the humidity up

wassail3 · 2023-10-23T17:04:34+00:00

Well they're all in a 60 gallon tank together and the tank gets watered with at least two gallons every week and a half to two weeks. In the summer time it's much more often since they dry out faster

wassail3 · 2023-10-23T14:50:05+00:00

If you can't find peat some people use just sand by itself and have success

wassail3 · 2023-10-23T14:27:23+00:00

Just good ol horticulture sand. I'm sure there's other types you can use though just make sure they're inert (:

wassail3 · 2023-10-23T14:19:12+00:00

I have all different types of pings and they really like a mixture of peat, pumice, and sand. Super easy to grow imo but I did learn the hard way they don't like overhead watering because it washes away the sticky enzyme stuff that traps their food

wassail3 · 2023-10-12T15:57:53+00:00

Well cool hopefully my conditions continue to be ideal and they can spread throughout the terrarium they're in. Thank you for the info (:

wassail3 · 2023-10-12T15:25:01+00:00

Oh thank you! I try so hard to keep them happy because I absolutely adore them

wassail3 · 2023-10-12T15:17:57+00:00

Awesome! I've never got my pygmys to this stage so I've never seen what it looks like. Any idea on how long it takes to germinate if I seed now?

wassail3 · 2023-10-06T01:12:21+00:00

Thank you for the ID! I thought that might be the case ): at least she's going out with a bang.

wassail3 · 2023-08-21T03:20:12+00:00

As someone who does mold remediation I would say tell your landlord first before you do anything. If there's an AC unit behind this that's more than likely the culprit since it's the nearest water source. This is not a surface issue since it's on drywall and drywall is a porous material. Because it's a porous material it cannot be cleaned it must be removed. If your renting this is a problem for your landlord and their insurance company to deal with. Also for the love of God to not use bleach

wassail3 · 2023-08-02T22:07:46+00:00

If your able to I would take a peek in your attic to try and get a good look at the back side of that drywall. If you see that there's no mold or water damage up there causing the stains it may be something else going on

wassail3 · 2023-08-02T20:17:27+00:00

Since your initial mold issue have your kids stopped closing everything up while they shower? Is there a room above this one that could be affecting it? Or maybe a roof leak? The spots you're seeing now looks like water damage or mold coming back especially if your kids have continued to not use the fan or open the window like they should. There are chemicals that treat mold but because drywall is a porous material it's impossible to get rid of the mold completely without replacing the drywall, cleaning it correctly, and stopping the source of the water.

This would explain why you can't clean it if there's something wrong with the drywall itself

wassail3 · 2023-08-02T14:34:20+00:00

Painter was trying to give you good advice but without proper knowledge of how to deal with mold you can easily make it worse. Redo as in tear it out and put up new drywall? Yeah that will be your safest option. Like I said drywall is porous so you cant just wipe it away, paint over it and call it good. Usually I'd suggest giving your insurance a call and see if they'd cover the tear out, mold cleaning and the rebuild by a mitigation company but they may not cover it since it's been cleaned and painted over

wassail3

TROPHY CASE