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