Orchidarium almost ready! Thoughts please!

[orchid lover]

Well i bought the 24" t5 H.O. twin tubes , called Nova Extreme. Tonight i repotted my mini dend, and others. Cut the 2 dowels to place under the plexiglass, that i still need t cut. got a max/min thermometer and humidity. Bought a fan, but its about 4 " tall as wide. couldn't find any appropriate ones, the ones for the computer, stores would tell me they wouldn't be good, because of the wiring that comes along with it. The fan i bought is 3volts. 2 speeds, fast, slow. I still need to buy some plastic type trays to put under orchids that are in pots. Right now i have the brassovola hanging inside. The masd is tied amongst live moss and on a piece of driftwood, on the bottom of the aquarium. I have since put the plexiglass half over the top of aquarium for circulation right now. Due to the fact that i noticed some tips of the masd, on some of the leaves are turning white. i think that is because of the fluorescent tubing, that i am using for the phals. As i mentioned before, I will be using one side of my fluorescent tube lite stand for the phals, and phaphs. the other 1/2 of the stand which will still be under the lights will be my orchidarium. The top of the orchidarium will be covered with the Plant lights i bought. Hope this all sounds good! If not, hope someone will give me some other ideas Getting late and need to be up extra early, so i will say Goodnight to everyone till next time . Before i go will try one more time to post my new phaph, that i really coldn't afford, but just had to have If it works great, if it doesn't show up, i will try gain another day

[orchid lover]

Here is the finished Orchidarium. Hope if the pic comes thru you don't ROBL!! If it doesn't look right, please , please give me your feedback. I value your opinions!! Thanks! On the tp right shelf is mini dends, mini catt. hanging are brasavola, and a mini dend. there is a larger dend on the bottom left(only a few leaves on the stalks. very bottom on driftwood is my masd with fresh moss. Took me 2 -3 hrs to get it looking half decent. As you can see my phals are on the left side under the fluorescent light fixture. Orchidarium is to the right of them. Looking foreward to your feedback please!! Thank you!

[orchid lover]

, i'm still hoping that someone will check out my orchidarium that i finally finished. I would love to hear comments as to whether it looks okay, or if there is something else i should be doing. the thumbnail with the pic is in this previuos post prior to this post. Hope to hear from you. Thank you.

[orchid lover]

, i think i may have posted the pic of my orchidarium in the terrarium gardening or style,setup. Maybe i had put it in the wrong place and possibly why i haven't any feedback yet .Or i could be totally wrong. Have no clue, just hope you check it out and give your Take care

[Ross]

I think your tank setup looks just fine. Looks like pretty bright light (which is good). As I have recommended before I would add a small fan like this one I got mine at WalMart for 4-5$ US last year. I found it in the aisle with all the fans. It's about 5-6" diameter and does real well cooling the area under those lights before all the heat gets into the tank. Here's my setup Hope this helps.

[Royal]

Yup, looks good to me! What's your humidity looking like? Are any plants perking up yet?

[orchid lover]

to my teachers! . Well so far so good! I took me 2 days to not figure out how to post a thumbnail or whatever it's called, of my Orchidarium. Took my husband 30 mins to do. I wrote what he did all down as i want to try posting a pic of my newly bought phaph. Temps seem to fluctuate abit . Bring it down with fan that is outside the orchidarium. No fan inside. Humidity has gone up to 91 x 1, but i had misted a few hrs earlier. Went down later. By the way, i know the info is probably on this huge mega,site somewhere, but i have alot of different orchid books. I've been growing orchids under fluorstand stand x 10 yrs or so. THey range in levels in different orchid books. Now with Orchidarium, what is the nite temp range/day temp range. Plus humidity range Should the humidity always be between 50-70? My orchidarium is cool-intermediate, mostly cool. Well thats it for now, hope not too many requests

[Ross]

Originally Posted by orchid lover

to my teachers! . Well so far so good! I took me 2 days to not figure out how to post a thumbnail or whatever it's called. Took my husband 30 mins to do. I wrote what he did all down as i want to try posting a pic of my newly bought phaph. Temps seem to fluctuate abit . Bring it down with fan that is outside the orchidarium. No fan inside. Humidity has gone up to 91 x 1, but i had misted a few hrs earlier. Went down later. By the way, i know the info is probably on this huge mega,site somewhere, but i have alot of different orchid books. I've been growing orchids under fluorstand atend x 10 yrs or so. THey range in levels in different orchid books. Now with Orchidarium, what is the nite temp range/day temp range. Plus humidity range Should the humidity always be between 50-70? My orhidarium is cool-intermediate, mostly cool. Well thats it for now, hope not too many requests

Sherry, night temps should be lower than day temps in a perfect world. But what can you provide? The tank will slowly acclimate to your room temps. For instance, mine is in my basement since that is cooler in summer. Right now it is 78F (26C) in the basement, but the tank shows 85F (29C) because of the lights. At night, the tank will drop to the 70s. This is too hot, right now, for Draculas to bloom (and mine have quit for the summer) but Aerangis and Angraecum do just fine with these temps. There is only so much you can do. If you absolutely must grow a cool grower in a warm tank, then you must start reasearching cooling techniques. There has been a lot of discussion here on this board of all the creative techniques people use. So the short answer to your question is: get humidity as close to the range your intended orchids really desire. Get temps also close to their expected temp range. But in all, remember, most common orchids (there are exceptions) don't really require high humidity. They also don't really require a certain temperature range (with a few exceptions). However, just about every orchid genera requires a certain light range (thus the t5's) and may not bloom without things like high light, change from low to high, change from high to low, etc. These factors are descernable from the books you say you have. Usually, folks here can help with specific requirements, so if all this seems like Greek, then ask away. You are entering the twilight zone! Where nothing is as it seems, and there is a new challenge and reward around every corner. Nothing better than going through all this, having one of your choice orchids bloom after all the care you gave it and posting the pictures (of course ) Welcome to the dark side.

[orchid lover]

Thanks for the info. I do have a lot to learn and thankfully here i will have alot of help, even with the stupid questions. Maybe instead of the Vodka for the mold, i will just drink it while i tend to my orchidarium Bye for now