Setting up 2 Terrariums
 

Hello :),

I decided (perhaps with a little less thought than i should have done) to set up two terrariums for my orchids.

One is 90x60x45cm (relatively) warm set up with a mix of oncidium unknown and globuliferum, dendrobium nobile and kingam. Currently it just about heats to 20-21 in the day and drops to 15 at night. Humididty sits around 50-70%

Other is 60x60x45cm cool set up for cloud forest orchids (hopefully) but i perhaps got ahead of myself buying orchids without finding all the information i needed. it sits around 18C in the day and drops to 15 at night. Come winter the drop will be bigger. Humidity is around 70-90%.

I guess im wondering how others have heated their terrariums. my house is cold so i have no trouble getting the night temperature drops but day temperatures could be higher. the 'warm' st up has a heat cable but it only just makes it to 21C. i think a heat cable in the cool one for the day would work but I don't know how to heat the warm one further.

Secondly i couldn't find anything concrete on temperatures for cloud forest orchids. i just have a masdevallia hybrid which came with the instructions "minimum 10C" and thats all.

I'm hoping ill manage to keep updating this with how things go and id appreciate any advice others have. Previously my orchids have just sat under windows but temperatures will drop to 5C with low humidity which theyre not all very happy with.

Will try to figure out how adding photos work, its been a while since I've used a forum.

You need to plan more lol

I made a cloud forest and now only five orchids live there bc I made the purchases before I made the tank lol

Best way to do it on my opinion is decide what you want to grow and then make the box to keep that happy

I absolutely do 😅

But this is fun too atleast until everything dies. There is only the one masdevallia hybrid at the moment but I still can't actually find a whole lot of specific information about it.

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

Do a lot of reading in this "Terrarium" forum.

Temperature information isn't hard and fast. Everything is relative to the other conditions. In most of the orchid world, lower night temperatures equates to cloud forest, which equates to constant dampness.

Dens kingianum and nobile will grow fine in the UK without a terrarium. You could grow them outside most of the year, so long as slugs don't eat them.

Also look through the Pleurothallis Alliance forum and read about Masdevallia. Lots of people grow them well when temperatures, humidity and watering are correct.

Thank you! I will get reading!

The kingham is new but the nobile and oncidium I've had for years and ... Theyre very sad looking. Which is why I've thrown them in a terrarium to try something different.

Use Advanced Search with the key word Yamamoto and my partial username estaci and you will find detailed Den nobile information. Most people who have trouble withthem don't water enough when in growth.

What kind of lighting are you using? Sometimes older less efficient lighting (t5, incadescent, etc) can be of use due to the heat they produce.

I'm using LEDs so they only give a few degrees extra.

Smart idea or not I added a bunch of orchids to the terrariums anyway and despite the heatwave everything has been doing great. nothings dead and instead everything has new growths. All orchids except 2 have been in there atleast a month.

This is the "warm" terrarium, which mostly means theyll have a slightly drier winter and the humidity is lower. its not actually warmer and so far not much cares, we'll see what it thinks of witner temperatures though. The kingham is did move out in the end, it was the only thing less happy but its now just on the side under a grow light and has rooted
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b67a6100_k.jpgIMG_20210620_104825573 by Tasmin Spurgeon, on Flickr

And the "cool" terrarium, whihc mostly means higher humidity without a drier winter. temperatures ahve been hitting 26C in the current weather but everything is growing and the lepanthes popped out a flower

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...502930fd_k.jpgIMG_20210620_104602433 by Tasmin Spurgeon, on Flickr

What's the humidity level?

Good job though.

The warm one humidity is 60-70%, cool one humidity 80-95%

Hi Guerro, loving the setup you have achieved so far.

The problems you are describing I faced with my newly set up tank from last year, I knew I could line the whole thing in insulation which I have done for my hot growers but that doesn't look very good for my display terrarium so a bigger heater had to come out.

I'm surprised you are struggling with a heat cable.. but you haven't mentioned the wattage. To heat an area that is insulated probably requires 5 times less power than to heat the same area in a glass tank that is not insulated. If it is near a cold window it will need even more power. The terrarium will just constantly have to replace the heat it is losing so for your big terrarium you need roughly 50 watts of heating power.

Ok, thats fine, but then how maintain the temperature, and how about maintaining a different temperature at night time?

That's where the info kind of drops off, if you want to grow orchids in 5 degree climate's that need 20 degrees during the day and 10 degrees at night -how do you achieve that with just one set of heating elements?

I think Inkbird do do a dual day night thermostat but there was something about the functionality that I can't remember that I disliked at the time and it is also as expensive to buy as buying a second set of heating elements so I have mostly got 2 heating elements in each tank, one for day time, one for night time.

You need to make sure it can maintain the temperature you need it to. I was experiencing some issues with one of the heat mats not heating up as well anymore so needed replacing but in order to replace it I had to take out every single orchid, remove a shelf to get to the heat mat. So try to keep things as accessible and replaceable as possible.

A heat cable is good for this. I can highly recommend 30 watt wine heating cables available on ebay. They provide a good amount of heat.

Otherwise if you have the space one of my preferred ways of heating is using this Dimplex ECOT1FT Wall-Mounted Tubular Heater 40W 408 x 81mm | Heaters | Screwfix.com

Now is a good time to buy one because come halloween over Winter they will be all sold out like last year again and then they won't get any more stock till spring because of shipping container issues.

They have a built in thermostat (not very accurate but good enough) to maintain a set temperature but you have to set it up correctly, you need to let it heat to the set temperature on max power and watch it, then at the right time when it hits the temperature you want you turn the adjustment dial down till it clicks, then it will be set to that temperature - the manual will say do not hook it up to a timer. We have to for our purposes and it is just a safety precaution on their end because it can reset the thermostat if you turn the power off but so far mine is working exactly like it should for about a year now and I just have a thermometer to check it is working as it should.

If you need more precision you can use reptile thermostats like this one Aquarium Reptile Digital LED Temperature Controller Thermostat Control UK PLUG | eBay

For one I need to maintain a constant day and night temperature I use 2 of those thermostats. with 3 heatmats, 2 for the day, 1 at night.

I know it sounds a bit ridiculous but I literally moved a phalaenopsis from it's warm environment to my living room to enjoy a recent bloom and plop within a day the flower fell off. Took me waiting for it patiently for over a month and I had to laugh this morning looking at the wilted flower now.

So yeah phals do not like the cold and my sister who has moved abroad would not believe how cold it has gone in the middle of June here when other places are gearing up for the yearly wildfires again and we either can't grow them or we need to try to keep them happy.

It is a bit excessive but it only seems that way because it is a plant, tropical fish and other exotic pets needs to be heated too.

So yeah I know how little info there is out there and some of my phals closest to the glass did struggle still so I am hoping having replaced my heat mat things will go better this winter.

Thank you so much shade flower thats really good information!

At the moment it is a 50W heat cable so im guessing its down to heat loss? I couldnt really find much information on what wattage was required so i guessed based on when im doing aquariums. ill need to look into insulating it better from the sounds of it. I've got the same cable in the cooler one in anticipation of winter temperatures to keep the day night temperature change. On the few cooler days ive had that hasnt struggled getting temperatures up to 18C which was good to see but we've had really hot weather since.

For night temperatures im just relying on the house temperature because we dont heat it at night so it gets cold anyway, probably more so in winter so thankfully temperature drop isnt a problem, just getting high enough day tempertures! I've got a timer plug for the heat cable plus the thermostat so in theory that should do it but if more insulation doesnt work I'll take a look at getting the heater youve recommended thank you. I was really strugglign to find information on what might be trustworthy in a humid environment. I found a lot of very dubious uses of electronics and some diy little umbrellas for them!

I was banned from setting up any more aquariums so now im on to terrariums.... still working on trying to get them looking pretty, i think the warm one wants a bit of work still and some growing in.

The phals second flower has opened. These are a much more vibrant purple than i was expecting!
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...410c6828_k.jpgIMG_20210627_085754801 by Guerrero Orchid, on Flickr


The Schoenorchis fragrans appears to be getting ready to flower to so im looking forward to that

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...1d5742e8_k.jpgIMG_20210626_190644721 by Guerrero Orchid, on Flickr

the lepanthes telipogoniflora also tried to flower! Then there was a *cat*astrophe as a certain little kitten got in the terrarium so its since dropped the big bud (?) after it was knocked about a bunch but I took the chance to get a clearish photo of it. It has got a second bud so maybe thatll still open Thankfully leaves all seem fine

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b5c85e61_k.jpgIMG_20210624_090154239 by Guerrero Orchid, on Flickr