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Pro tip: my terrarium crashed hard after I added too many springtails

I set up a closed terrarium about 3 months ago and it was doing great for the first 6 weeks. Then I dumped in a whole culture of springtails thinking more would mean cleaner soil. Within 2 weeks the humidity spiked to 100% and mold took over my fittonia. Had to rip everything out and start over with just a pinch of springtails. Has anyone else overdone it with cleanup crews in a small terrarium?
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2 Comments
nathan_bailey
...yeah I think it's more about the balance than anything else honestly. Springtails are great but a whole culture in a small jar is just asking for trouble. They don't really clean up mold if there's already too much moisture and food for them to eat... they just add more poop and activity which makes it worse. People forget that a sealed terrarium has a tiny ecosystem and you can't just dump a bunch of life in there without things going sideways. Just a spoonful of springtails is plenty for most small jars.
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wren_smith44
Blame the springtails when it was probably too much moisture from the start.
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