Orchidarium, how would you clean it? - Orchid Board

Becca · #1 04-10-2011, 07:20 PM

Gosh I'm not sure what forum section this question best belongs posted to so here it is.

It's cleaning day for my swamp pond....I mean my Orchidarium. As I am cleaning it...I'm wondering what products would be best to use for cleaning it. Currently I take out all removable parts...such as the plat forms, which are basically white lighting grid or whatever it is called, and then the rubber liners. Everything that can fit into the dishwasher...well in it goes! But that still leaves the stainless steel bottom to be cleaned because I modified the Orchidarium and installed a MistKing misting system. A lot of mist builds up on the sides and runs down the sides, and also from me spraying my mounted orchids...so water gets under the rubber liners and sits and gets icky with green algae stuff. The water also gets into the slider track for the doors. So what is the best way to clean this? Currently once I remove everything I soak up all the excess water with a towel, wipe everything down to dry it and then spray it with a solution of Physan 20. Then I let that dry and then I make sure I don't have any remaining gunk built up anywhere and get all the water out of the sliding door tracks and then put everything back together. I'm getting faster at it, but it still takes a majority of the day. So I'm wondering if I am even using the right product to try and kill the algae and if just using that is enough? Is there something else I should be doing? I only clean it like this every few months...when it starts smelling nasty to me....and super nasty to everyone else...lol. So please let me know what you would do differently! Hopefully I didn't leave anything out!