Terrarium build thread
 

Hello all,

This is a place for me to document my terrarium build. I am new to this world, but I have 2 existing vivaria - planted fresh water and salt water tanks, and I would like to start a rain forest terrarium. No animals, just epiphytes.

Right now, I have not constructed my terrarium, but I have received my plants. They are now in an empty aquarium with 2 fans on all the time. The humidity in the tank is around 90% and temperature at night is 24C/75F.

Temporary enclosure picture is attached.

Do tell me if you see a glaring mistake in the temporary enclosure. I just put all of them in the tank in their original moss that came with shipping. I don't really want to disturb them, because I know they will be stressed once again when I put them on the branches in the terrarium.

What orchids are they?

A few bulbophyllum, s. fragrans, 2 warm growing dendrobiums.

Mounting my wood on the walls of the terrarium.

https://i.imgur.com/9qMRDvS.jpg

Also, hooked up my nursery tank to a humidity and temperature sensor to get a live reading over the internet. It had been a hot day here in Montreal, but that's good as these are warm temp plants.

Parameters - ThingSpeak IoT

Next step would be to just let the foam dry and then, I will have to proceed to removing the broken glass door from the door frame. (Amazon delivery broke the door). Will then go to a HomeDepot to get new cut glass.

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

Have you grown orchids before?

No. :(

I did grow up around them because my mom has quite a collection and I used to live in the tropics. Do you have any tips for a newbie?

I didn't go down the usual route of grocery store phal to other types of orchids. I specifically chose mini orchids because I would like to keep them in tanks. I think from a care perspective, it might be easier.

I would suggest using the Search feature in the top maroon menu to look up each of your plants here on Orchid Board. Miniatures are not as tolerant of mistakes as are larger plants.

Many plants stay very wet in sphagnum moss unless the growers understands how to use it. However, many Bulbophyllums want to be very wet most of the time.

I don't know what s. fragrans means. There are a lot of genera with a species named fragrans.

And warm-growing Dendrobiums come from a vast area of Asia, so they need varying amounts of water. Some want to stay wet. Others require drying between watering. Which Dendrobiums do you have?

I am going to guess the s. fragrans is Schoenorchis fragrans. If this is correct, do not keep this one wet. In fact I would not wet the plant itself at all. The plant is easily rotted from too much water, let it dry between waterings and give it strong light. My Schoenorchis fragrans gets quiet red in color from the sunlight it receives in a SE facing window.

If the weather is cloudy for several days the leaves return to green color. They do like high light and my plant flowers every year.

Crap, maybe I made a mistake. I should have gone with those phals.

The Dendrobium I have are D. aberrans and D. olligophyllum.

And S. fragrans is Schoenorchis fragrans.

What I am planning to do is to put a layer of moss on the wood, and then use floss to attach the plant to the wood, with their crown pointing downwards. For Bulbophyllum specifically, from my research, apart from the moss on which it rests, I also need to put moss on the roots itself, they like being damp.

I have 2 fans in the tanks, I am planning to mount one under the 'canopy' level, and one more on top of the canopy, because air flows above and under the canopy in a rainforest.

Mounting the Dens on the moss, and Bulbos in the moss, should be fine. I haven't grown Schoenorchis, so pay attention to what Pattywhack says.