A Healthy Terrarium needs the right soil for its healthy life. Using the regular Garden Soil can lead to early death of your terrarium. It can contains elements that can invite mold growth that can completely take over your terrarium resulting in death of your plants.
The Ideal Soil mix at Urban Eco Terrarium that I use has the following components. It contains right amount of nutrients and aeration for your plants in terrarium.
Cocopeat
It adds aeration to the soil and also makes the terrarium light in weight. The most important characteristic of Cocopeat is that it retains the moisture and provides the water to terrarium plants when needed.
Vermicompost
It provides nutrients to the plants. Make sure you get the vermicompost from the right source if it is contaminated it can destroy your whole terrarium with fungus or mold. You may also use Vermicast which is rich in calcium. Adding in controlled amounts is beneficial – adding excess vermicompost can lead to overgrowth of plants in terrarium which is undesirable for the long life of terrarium.
River Sand
This helps in soil drainage and therefore prevents water from accumulating in the soil leading to root rot. It also improves aeration to some extent. I use a combination of coarse and fine river sand.
Activated Charcoal
Apart from layering a charcoal in the terrarium, our soil mix also contains Activated charcoal that helps keep the terrarium soil healthy by adsorbing impurities and putrid gases.
Peat Moss: Based on experience, we avoid using peat moss as it degrades over a period of time and affects the life of terrarium.
You can try the combination on your own for terrariums. If you feel its not working. Connect to use and we can deliver the soil anywhere in India.
Disclaimer: Different combinations are used. You can research on net but this is what has served me best for my terrariums of Indian climate.
Rujit Desai 
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