4 ft x 3 ft x 16” cool growing terrarium in so cal, the impossible?

[Jmbaum]

We all want what we can’t have.

So after seeing all the trials and tribulations from other attempts on other orchid forums, dart frog keepers, and nepanthes growers… I’ve decided YES… I will build a large cool growing terrarium for a sunny room in Southern California.

No compression refrigeration nor Peltier coolers either, just passive circulation, age old evaporative cooling and heat sinks. Engineers and AC specialist please chime in.

I stumbled upon a deal of 50”x 36” x 16” custom reptile enclosure from a neighbor that is moving.

Aiming at keeping a plethora of Lepanthes and wide assortment of other species primarily from neotropical cloud forest in SE Ecuador.

It was a beast to move, but safely managed to get in and started sanitizing and cleaning it yesterday. Likely will need to patch up some silicone and figure out how to get the buildup on glass clean. I’ve tried vinegar and CLR so far.

Toying around with ideas on how to handle the back wall as the main growing surface. Grodan sheets on some support structure maybe? Need help with this aspect. I want to keep the plants on mounts… But also would like to closer approximate nature… not really into those sterile grid wall systems for myself. Who has experience and/or photos on that end?

So I’ll continue to update here, your thoughts and wisdom is appreciated greatly.