Orchids and new PDF vivarium - Orchid Board

Pescador · #1 11-04-2008, 06:40 PM

Hello all
Inspired by the lush tropical forests we experienced on our honeymoon in Costa Rica a year ago, we hope to have our own slice of the tropical rainforest.
This vivarium includes orchids and other tropical plants, a waterfall going into a small pool, and a MistKing system. This environment will also house three D. leucomelas poison dart frogs.

The vivarium is an 18”w x 18”l x 24”h Exo Terra that has been modified with an acrylic/screen top to keep the humidity levels up. The vents and door gaps are screened and sealed to hopefully prevent any fruit flies from escaping.
The background is driftwood, cork bark and spray foam covered with a coco mix. There is a false bottom and water lines embedded in the background to supply two Aqualifter pumps that feed the small waterfall.

I picked up some orchids at Paramount here in Calgary, what an amazing place.
What I got was:

Macodes petola

Dracula astuta

Bulbophyllum lasiochilum

Harella odorata

The other plants are:

Selaginella kraussiana
Hypostes phyllostachya (polka dot plant)
Peperomia rotundifolia
Peperomia clustifolia var. tricolor
Pilea cudrei (aluminum plant)
Vasicularia Dubyana (Java moss)
Tillandsia cyanea

I should be starting some fruit fly and springtail cultures this week so should be ready for frogs soon.

Link to some of my Costa Rica plant photos a lot of them still need naming

PacMan · #2 11-04-2008, 11:44 PM

hey man, Welcome. Nice to see another person living in alberta! paramount is a wicked place. Went there to look at some orchids for me PDF tank. lol

Your tank looks really awesome. like the water feature lots! If you are intrested i might be able to spare some riccia(moss). Its really nice and does well in PDF tank's

Keep us posted. the orchids looks awesome.

DelawareJim · #3 11-05-2008, 08:03 AM

Nice set up. You did a really good job on your back ground. Are the sides Great Stuff and coco fibre?

I've got to do a terrarium/viv!

Cheers.
Jim

Pescador · #4 11-05-2008, 01:19 PM

Thanks guys

Thanks for the moss offer I'm hoping my Java will take hold as well.

The sides are Great Stuff, then brown silicone with a mix of cocofiber, coco bark chunks, and some moss.

PacMan · #5 11-05-2008, 09:29 PM

kool man. What misting system you running?

Pescador · #6 11-06-2008, 11:38 PM

It's a 2 nozzle MistKing with the 1 sec. timer. A really nice kit, with a top quality pump. A little overkill for me but I'm kind of an automation junkie I think it comes from having a reef tank.

I got some springtails and 2 D.melanogaster cultures today from understoryenterprises and a culture kit from Josh's.
One of the springtails I added to the viv and the other I started 2 more with. The flies I started one culture from each. Man I'm going to have a lot of flies before I have frogs.

calvin_orchidL · #7 11-06-2008, 11:59 PM

Welcome! Nice to see some more canucks getting into vivarium building...(and given our sucky winters, we sure as heck need little slices of rainforest in all our homes). Great setup you've got there - keep the pics coming! What frogs are planning to get?

PacMan · #8 11-06-2008, 11:59 PM

oh man, Its good to get your FF cultures down. its always go to have a back up in case one culture crashes.

The misting system is the "value" system? thats the one i plan in ordering pretty soon, right now im just misting by hand. I dont mind but like you, i like the automation part of it.

keep us posted man.

Pescador · #9 11-11-2008, 01:20 PM

The mist system is the standard and I added their timer.
I'm hoping to get 3 leucs for it.
One thing about the timer, I wanted to remove one of the programed times so instead of deleting with the "R" button (Doh) I set the duration to zero seconds.
It had added an inch of water before I caught it.

cb977 · #10 11-11-2008, 01:23 PM

The tank looks really cool! Nice job!