I had a Phal in full water culture for about three years, and it did great. I would just change the water occasionally, and there were no problems. Then, very suddenly, all of the roots in the water died. It seemed like it happened overnight. Nothing I was doing with it had changed, so I have no idea what happened. The plant had a lot of roots that were growing outside the container also, so I just potted it in bark like my others and it has done fine since then; in fact it is in bloom right now, but it was such a strange thing. Something must have happened, but I don't know what it was.

I'm sorry your orchid didn't do well in water culture. I'm hoping mine are OK with it; if they're aren't I'll certainly repot them in bark. I'm still very new to orchids so I hope I can recognize when they're not doing well. Thanks for sharing your experience.

A lot of people grow very nice plants in full water culture, so it is a reliable method. I apparently just had something weird go wrong with mine, but that is not most people's experience, so your plants will probably do very well for you.