Building a orchiterrarium - Orchid Board

Clay_pot · #1 09-11-2013, 09:23 AM

Hi everyone, I live in Atlantic Canada and in the winter time my apartment is cold and the light is poor. I have two orchids a phalaenopsis and a mini, they barely made it through last winter so I would like to build a orchiterrarium for them to winter it out (I know they need 'winter' as well and it will be planned for that).

I have a 5 gallon fish tank for them that measures 20” long x 10” deep x 12” high.

I need information on:

- how to create heat within the tank, are florescent lights enough for heat? What about at night will the temperature drop be too much? I've read a fish tank heater in the bottom of the tank placed in water works to create heat and it also creates humidity?

- what type of light bulb is best? I can keep them near a window but I know it's not enough as the sun isn't strong enough. (I have read a few post on here about lights)

- I figured I would just keep them in their clay pots and plop them in a tank, is that acceptable? Put a little lift under them so they aren't in water.

- What medium would be best placed in the bottom of the tank to maintain moisture? Sphagnum moss?

Any and all help on building this would be greatly appreciated; even links to informative and reliable websites would be welcomed!

catherinecarney · #2 09-11-2013, 03:08 PM

Hi and welcome to Orchid Board!

As you set up a terrarium/paludarium/orchidarium, there are some things you need to keep in mind for the health of your phals:

1: Phals (and many other orchids) seem to appreciate a day/night temp difference, but in my limited (I'm still a newbie as well) experience they are resilient and forgiving plants.
2: Humidity can be important, but not at the expense of airflow--the best way to kill a phal (oh, trust me on this--been there, done that) is to put it in a high humidity environment with stagnant air. It's a recipe for turning your plant into mush...
3: Phals are relatively low light orchids, so you have a bunch of fluorescent options out there.

Setups can vary widely depending on your preferences as well--I prefer a more naturalistic set up. but there are many other options out there.

OK, here's how I've got a few of mine set up....I'm using a 20 gallon high to which I added a custom background of foam/great stuff/cork bark (so it's a 3-D background of painted foam/great stuff and cork bark). I have a small water feature in it (a tupperware tub and a tiny pump) which keeps moisture in the air and the air moving. Lighting is a T-5 HO double bulb fluorescent strip (salvaged from a fish tank) with dayllight/6500K bulbs in it. I have a screen top to keep the cats out. Substrate is an inch of lava rock covered by a couple of inches of coco fiber with sheet moss on top. Plants include a couple of no-ID phals and a Bc. Star Ruby pinned to the background, and a couple of jewel orchids and mini begonias (Begonia partita, Begonia Little Miss Muffet, and an unnamed seedling) in the substrate.

I mist the pinned orchids daily or every other day depending on whether they need it. Runoff from the misting soaks into the substrate, which is usually just moist to the touch.

At this point I don't need supplemental heating as I have a decent day/night difference (about 72 during the day and 62 at night) through the winter due to the natural solar gain of the room/house and the heat generated by the computer and lights in the room. If I needed added heat I would probably look at using one of the reptile heat mats that sticks to the outside or bottom of the tank rather than an in-tank heater--if you don't have a lot of water in the tank it's really easy to let it get dry and kill your heater and crack the glass (ask me how I know....).

Take a look at the terrarium growing section on this forum for more ideas. If you get hooked on naturalistic setups you might also want to take a look at what some of the people have done on vivarium forums and dendroboard as well--both sites are geared more to people who keep herps, but a lot of the build threads address the needs of the plants too.

Catherine

naoki · #3 09-11-2013, 04:15 PM

What you are thinking of doing will make the orchids happier! Catherine gave you good info.

I would use a small aquarium heater (set to 15-18C) in 1-2" of water. With glass top, evaporation is minimum. You don't need any substrate at the bottom of aquarium (easier to clean). You'll get 90-100%RH without any substrate. As you said, you can put the pots on top of something, so it's not touching the bottom water.

I agree with Catherine, you'll definitely need a small fan in the aquarium.

With 2 plants and 12" of height, I would use a household LED + reflector, directly sitting on top of the glass cover. I started to use this Cree bulb this summer. It's probably locally available, homeDepot carries it in the US: Cree 9.5-Watt (60W) A19 Warm White (2700K) Dimmable LED Light Bulb (1-Pack)-BA19-08027OMF-12DE26-1U110 at The Home Depot
Or they also have flood light version, but I don't know if it comes in warm white. They have 10 year warranty. Well, there will be better LED after a while, so it's unlikely that we'll keep using this for 10 years.

Clay_pot · #4 09-11-2013, 10:38 PM

Thanks Catherine and Naoki.

I get the tank in a few days so I can start putting it all together and getting a feel for humidity and temperature before the ladies have to go in it!

Catherine, I enjoy the idea of a small water feature simply for added enjoyment!!

catherinecarney · #5 09-11-2013, 10:55 PM

My setup is designed not only for orchids but also (down the line) for crested geckos, hence the background and substrate.

The water feature will give them a constant source of droplets on the leaves so they can drink as well as bumping the humidity up a bit.

Black Jungle Terrarium Supply used to have a pretty good step by step photo sequence of how to set this sort of thing up, and there are similar resources on other terrarium/vivarium/herp forums.

If you do cover your tank with a glass canopy, make sure you have a fan going for good air movement! Humid, stagnant air is a recipe for rot of all sorts--you want what's often described as a "buoyant" or "fresh" feel to the air even though the humidity is relatively high.

Keep us posted on how your setup works!

Catherine