new setup, not sure which way to go

[chilipepper]

I found a guy with a 40 gal. Terrarium, doors on the front. 38"×18"×18" overall. Screen top which I'm not sure about. It also includes a 2 bulb light strip, not sure of the length. I have a cpu fan ready to go in it. My confusion stems from lighting. I have a 150 watt hps rig and now I'll have the 2 bulb florescent strip which I could use 1 cool and 1 warm bulb. I'm not sure where I'm going to put the tank yet so I don't know how much sunlight it will receive but for the sake of the question let's say not much. Any suggestions from a terrarium grower would be much appreciated. Thanks

[Paphluvr]

What do you plan to grow in it?

By the way, I like your user name. I'm another chilihead.

[chilipepper]

Thanks fellow chili, I have paphs, phals, catts, oncs and a denphal. Planning to add more maybe today. As far as for the orchidarium I'd like to get some catts in there maybe some mini phals in a lower lit and cooler area maybe lower and put the catts up higher on pedestals. What do you suggest?

[chilipepper]

I do realize when I say raising the catts up higher that I cant raise them very high being in an 18" high tank, nor would a full sized phal be able to spike with a cover on the tank. If this " experiment" is successful I can see myself adding additional tanks later.

[Paul]

Very nice score!

I'd say you will likely be better off going with no sun -- can be too unpredictable both with regards to light supplied and overheating of the tank.

I would be very leery of using a hps in a terr -- the heat output would be too great, I would think. You could go with 4ft shoplights laid across the tank (the light quality of the 6inches on either end of the tubes is much poorer than the rest of the bulbs so doing so would have you using the best section of the bulbs to light your terr. Depending on the orchids used and their location within the tank, 2 bulbs may be inadequate. If you or someone you know is handy with wood, you could make a hood to fit the terr and rig a series of cfls -- some 200W equivalent and some 100W eqv.

I would suggest more than one PC fan.

[chilipepper]

Thank you Paul, I really like the hood idea. I had not even thought of cfls. Low heat but some heat which is what I want then I could have a decent night temp reduction. What would be your best guess of the number of cfls if I mixed 100 and 200w equivalents? Maybe 3 each or 4 each?
I went and picked up the tank tonight and the guy threw in a waterfall (which I may try and see what it does to the humidity level) and a nice piece of driftwood.