Building a Planted Terrarium. What to use for Drainage?

I am building a planted terrarium. I have my plants, my substrate, fertilizer, etc all ready to go. One thing dont have is something to use for drainage on the bottom of the cage.

I was going to use Gravel as I have done dozens of times in the past when settingup planted terrariums, however, I want to be able to move this around, and gravel will make it alot heavier.

I see black jungle sells something called "Terra Lite" that they market specifically for this useage, but I really dont feel like mail ordering that stuff. I was wondering if anyone knows if I can find some equivelant material locally, perhaps in Home Depot or Walmart? That is where alot of my other reptile supplies come from (those 2 stores are a Herpers best friends, lol).

If anyone is curious to know what I will be doing, I have a Large Exo Terra Glass Terrarium (The 18" Cube one).

My Plants include:

Dwarf Mondo Grass
Rabbits Foot Fern
Lemon Button Fern
Golden Pothos
Java Moss

And for the Water Area,
Anubias frazeri
Duck weed

I am using 2 parts Coconut Husk, 2 Parts Leaf Litter, 1 Part Fir Bark for the planting mix (Along with Organic plant fertilizer and macronutrients).

This is going to be a waters edge/forest terrarium and I will be housing 3-4 adult Tiger Salamanders in it.

Anyway, back to the question, if anyone knows a good material for me to use other then gravel, that I can find locally, it would be greatly apreciated. Also, I dont want to use Bio Balls, as I want a natural looking substrate.

You could make a false bottom and you wouldn't need any substrate if you do it right. The terra lite stuff can be bought at some specialized gardening stores that sell hydroponic supplies. It is sold as hydroton or expanded clay balls. If you were close to Atlanta I would sell you some, I have over 100 liters of the stuff taking up space in my garage.

Yeah, I found out about the Terra Lite, being the same product as Hydroton, or other LECA products. Doesnt look like Home Depot or any other stores near me have any hydroponic supplies though. Tommorow I will try some actual garden centers (they are all closed by now), but I will most likely have to order it online.

I cant really do the false bottom in this setup because I want to have a low area which will be a pool, so I would rather use an actual substrate so I can create a natural slope going down to the pool area. Also I think there is more of a chance for the water to go stagnant using the false bottom, and you have to drain it more frequently. Without the drainage substrate there is not much surface area for beneficial bacteria to grow.

What about perlite? Not sure if it owudl work for that but I use it in th ebottom of my plants to help with drainage and it weighs nothing really.

You can get bags of pearlite in large pieces at garden supply stores and nurseries. The pieces are about the size of a quarter. They work great, they are both lite and hold moisture well. You could also try lava rock. It looks more natural than the pearlite and is also lite but is not very absorbant.

Yeah, I was thinking perlite could work, I have some around the house also but mine is really fine since it's what I use to incubate eggs in.

Do you think Home Depot would have Large peices of Perlite? If not the Lava Rock could work, but is that going to affect pH at all?

I don't know if Home Depot carries the large pieces. I know around here you have to go to the nurseries. I don't think that I would be concerned about the lava rock leaching enough to affect the pH that bad. If you are worried about it changing the pH you should also think about decay leaching nutrients when using a Coconut Husk, Leaf Litter, and Fir Bark soil mix. Actually all of these things will affect it over time but the terrarium will probably need replanting long before that.

Well, I got some Hydroton Today. All set to finally build this terrarium now.

One thing I want to ask, maybe someone can answer, is how important is it to put leaf litter in the substrate blend?

I was going to use leaf litter from my yard, but after I collected some of it I remembered I put down Scott's Super Winterizing fertilizer about 2 weeks ago. It was impossible for me to pick up leafs without also picking up grass clippings, so I dont think I should use this now.

I really would like to avoid having to go into the woods to collect leaves, and I would like to start building this thing soon as my Mando Grass is not doing well in the starter trays I put it in, it needs to be properly planted. Should I just forget the leaf litter and just use Coconut Fiber, Fir Bark, and some organic fertilizer?

Okay, well I finally went and got the leaves today. Went down to the woods, followed a trail a decent way in, and then walked a good while off the trail, as I wanted to gather leaves from areas where people dont throw their beers and crap while walking through the woods, lol.

I brushed aside the largest leaves from the top and below it was a layer of partially composted leaves. I gatherd a nice shopping bag full, and of course mixed in some nice whole leaves as well.

I got home, spread it all out in a large pan, added a little water, just to mosten things a bit, and I covered it with foil with some holes punched. I put it in the oven at 300ºF for about 3 hours. I put a tray of water in the oven too to make sure it remained humid, didnt want things to dry out too much, little fire risk then, lol.

And now, the tank is all complete. I will take some pics tommorow. I already put my Tiger in it, and she hasnt stopped walking around, exploring. I guess its alot better then her previous home (a 10 gallon tank filled with sphagnum moss, and a water bowl). I just hope she doesnt uproot the plants, although she probably will.