Opinions wanted on concept

[Ray]

1) I have EcoWeb, not Epiweb. (to be legally legitimate)

2) I had not considered that! Thanks, I'll give it a try.

[Connie Star]

Do you have a picture?

[littlefrog]

As your sphagnum ages it will drop through the 'eco-web' a bit, and it will wick just fine... Probably too well.

I tend to build my terrariums with a two or three inch layer of hydroton (or prime-agra, or medium diatomite, or whatever i have open), and put about 2" of fluffy sphagnum on top. To aid in removing excess water, I always put in a 'pond' - a clay or plastic pot sitting on the bottom of the tank that I fill in around. Extra water fills the 'pond' from the bottom, and you can suck it out with a turkey baster or siphon if you don't have a better drainage system.

I've stopped doing backgrounds for the most part. Permanent backgrounds look good for about 3 months, and then somehow just start to look ratty. Frustrating. I now usually take a good sized piece of cork (or a few, if I'm feeling fancy), mount my plants to it, and just lean them up against the walls in a hopefully somewhat natural way. Sometimes I'll use nice looking pieces of wood or sandblasted grapevine, too. If I ever need to pull a plant out or re-work the background, I can just pull the cork out and play with it till I'm satisfied. Since I build these to house frogs, the added advantage to this way is that there is more cover for the animals, they use the open space behind the cork as hiding places. If there are lots of places to hide, you actually see the frogs more because they are more confident.

[Ray]

An update:

Based upon Rob's comments, I made a couple of modifications to the substrate. Instead of moss sitting on top of EcoWeb, with a "standpipe" to allow the water to make contact with the top layer of sphagnum (yes, it did stay too wet, even after a few moments of contact), I replaced the EcoWeb with a 2" layer of PrimeAgra and lowered the standpipe.

When the pump is on, the water only rises to about 3/4" depth, but the wicking of the LECA transfers enough moisture to the moss that it stays damp and airy, not soppy.

[johnblagg]

The gulp sounds like siphoning occuring which might be stopped by placing a smalled tube inside a larger tube to act as a vacume breaker?
But then you would have to have the drain tube out the side or bottom through the glass.

[Ray]

The drain tube is through the bottom of the glass.

A "breather tube" worked, but slowed the drainage too much, so I cut a "v" notch in the lip of the tube to directionalize the flow.