Beginner needing help setting up exo terra

[Texanlady]

Hi guys! I'm totally new not only to this board, but growing orchids in general. I have an exo terra 36x18x36, and I'm wanting to turn it into a completely living terrarium. I want to grow orchids in it, but I also want to house dart frogs in it as well. The problem is I've never had a living terrarium before. I've never grown orchids before. I don't want to introduce the frogs until I have the environment of the exo terra stable. I'm not planning to get the frogs until August, but I'd like to have a fully functioning enclosure by then. So I guess I'm here for help. I've bought several growing orchids for dummies and beginner books, but none of them really detail how to grow in a terrarium like this.

If anyone else grows orchids in an exo terra and could give me some pointers it would be of great help. I have a friend that has one of these, but she just puts her potted orchids inside it. She told me that trying to make it a living terrarium would just be a lot of work, and more than likely everything will end up dying. I don't believe that, and I just can't let this cage go to waste. Since this is such a large and beautiful cage I really want to pimp it out. I'd like to build a waterfall and small pool to house several small fish. I'm just not sure where to start.

Any help would be much appreciated. I look forward to hearing back from those far more experienced than me.

[Discus]

I have considered a project like this, but am stymied in that dart frogs are basically illegal and totally unobtainable in this country.

There will be lots of people who have done this, but as a general "way forward", you'll want to make sure that the environment for both types of living things is right - both the frogs and the orchids. AFAIK, dart frogs like it quite warm and humid. You will probably need to find a way to keep the temperature inside the terrarium "right" by using a heater of some sort; either a "pad" under the terrarium or a suitable fishtank heater in a "sump" area should do the job. My plants may glare at me next time I visit the balcony, but I would always prioritise the needs of the animals over the plants.

A misting system will probably help with the humidity.

One thing I would almost certainly do is create a recirculating system with a small pump that takes water from the bottom of the case and then sprays it along the top of some ecoweb/epiweb that lines the back wall, trickling through the medium. This will encourage that mossy growth that tends to look cool and keep the plants happy. You can go wild with branches and the like.

Make sure you have suitable habitat for the frogs to breed in, if you want that.

Many orchids won't actually like being all that warm and humid; smaller bulbophyllums and things like Macodes petola and the warmer growing pleurothallids should enjoy this environment, providing the light and air circulation are right.

You will likely need to pay some attention to lighting; T5 is probably your best bet.
Air circulation is important too, so give some thought as to how you can get some fans in there safely (both electrically and for the animals).

Remember if it gets hot where you live, you may need to give some thought to cooling too; room air-conditioning is often the easiest way of achieving control.

Get a max/min thermometer and a humidity meter too so you can keep an eye on things.

Let us know what other questions you have, hope this is helpful.

I imagine the dartfrogz forum will be quite useful Dart Frog Forum on Husbandry and Habitat Information - Powered by vBulletin

---------- Post added at 11:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:42 AM ----------

I imagine you'll find some useful advice in
Terrarium Gardening - Orchid Board - Most Complete Orchid Forum on the web !

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...errariums.html

also Vivarium Forums

This post is quite helpful: http://www.orchidboard.com/community....html#post3409

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[DweamGoiL]

I have some experience in this although a bit wayside, but the things that will make your life the easiest are a rheostat so you can put on the heat mat on automatic according to temperature, you may also need a fogger for the frogs if your conditions are not very humid (exo terra makes a strip extension chord with timers, which will make things a lot easier), a temperature and relative humidity gauge (some are pricey, but you can go with a relatively basic one as long as it shows both readings accurately), and a heat mat. IMO, the best ones are made in Ireland and if you PM me I can send you a link to a vendor in the US if that is doable for you to have shipped from. These mats are not sticky so you can reuse them and are very adjustable with the rheostat. Some people also use a dimmer to control the temperature, but then you have to babysit the tank a lot to get the intervals down to a science. I much prefer to automate everything and make sure the 'environment' is how it's supposed to be.

What type of medium will you be using? I don't think frogs would appreciate bark and you will need some type of pond like structure with a bubbler for the frogs to drink and bathe in. I use Eco Earth for my hermit crab tank. I have a 65 gallon tank with 2 bubbler pools and fake plants, or else the crabs will eat them, but the maintenance is pretty much the same. I try to make things as easy on myself as possible for my benefit as well as the crabs.

I think you may need a mix type of substrates - maybe some Eco Earth near the pool (s) and bark on a drier side of the tank for the orchids. I think it will be difficult to regulate the moisture in the Eco Earth if it's all in there together, particularly if you need depth to hide the bubler pool (s). The Eco Earth retains a lot of moisture within the depth of the substrate to help maintain the humidity in the tank, but the orchids do not like soggy feet so they may not be thrilled about that as a medium. Also, remember that in order to keep your humidity in balance, it will be a fairly closed environment so airflow may be a problem unless you live in a FL like environment where it is humid all year round and you won't need a glass top to seal in humidity.

[Discus]

Originally Posted by DweamGoiL

Some people also use a dimmer to control the temperature, but then you have to babysit it a lot to get the intervals down.

A Rheostat and a dimmer are (electronically at least) effectively the same thing - you probably mean a "thermostat" when you're talking about automated control of temperature
Some thermostats have rheostats in them however (in order to change the setpoint(s)), although a potentiometer (slightly different to a rheostat) is more common.

I would certainly use a thermostat to control temperature on a terrarium; it's too easy to get the dimmer/rheostat set wrong - and of course the right setting of a "dimmer" changes as the ambient heat does.

[DweamGoiL]

I have a rheostat I got from a farming site, and unlike a dimmer, which does not read the temperature and adjust accordingly, this does.

[Discus]

Whoever sold it to you labelled it incorrectly (IMO), or as a marketing thing thought it would make a nifty name; I don't doubt you have obtained a product [I suspect incorrectly] called a "rheostat" but if others are going out to find what they're looking for (something that compensates for temperature, rather than simply changing the resistance/voltage/current of the circuit), they'll have more luck and be more likely to buy the right thing if they hunt for a "thermostat" instead of a "rheostat".

This is why I made my post.

[awest]

This sounds very exciting. I have little experience with a setup on this scale, but I agree with the first poster. Focus on getting it right for the frogs then simply find mini orchids that like the same environment (I expect that wont be hard).

I'll hope you post some pictures as you go, or at least at the end. I'd like to see how it turns out.

[Orquiadicto]

Yes, please. Do post pictures. I'm actually planning on doing the same thing.

[Ray]

THE place to learn about Exo-Terra setup, dart frogs, and even a little bit about orchids in those environments (although less knowledgeable about the plant) is at the dendroboard forum. (For you orchid folks, "dendro" in this case is not short for dendrobiums, but for "dendrobates", a genus of PDFs)