Exo Terra terrarium growing

[Alla]

Hello all,

I built my orchid housing with the help of these forums so I decided to share my work with everyone as well. This is Exo Terra 36X18X36, with TetraFauna waterfall filter, Mistking 2 nozzle misting, t5 lights from Home Depot and 2 PC fans for ventilation. Its been setup and running for about 3 weeks now and plants are growing like crazy. Humidity keeps between 60 and 80 % and brassavola is starting to spike. Thank you everyone for sharing your setups which, in turn, helped me build mine. Let me know if I could be of any help.

Alla

	Mistking Looking for a misting system? Look no further. Automated misting systems from MistKing are used by multitude of plant enthusiasts and are perfect for Orchids. Systems feature run dry pumps, ZipDrip valve, adjustable black nozzles, per second control! Automatically mist one growing shelf or a greenhouse full of Orchids. See MistKing testimonials

[Tindomul]

Oooh, very nice. Thats my next tank build.
I like your fog, maybe if you pointed the fan at the pond you would get the fog to circulate the entire tank. I love it!! Good job.

[Alla]

Exo Terra is built with the air strip ( black plastic thinnie above the water level) so if I point fans at the water , all the fog is blown out of the tank ( looks very funny actually, like the terrarium is smoking). Fogger is mainly for the mood, I turn it on for about an hour in the evening and I have to turn off the fans while fogger is on. Overall though ventilation had been great. Area around the terrarium smells of forest right after the rain.

[Tindomul]

Originally Posted by Alla

Exo Terra is built with the air strip ( black plastic thinnie above the water level) so if I point fans at the water , all the fog is blown out of the tank ( looks very funny actually, like the terrarium is smoking). Fogger is mainly for the mood, I turn it on for about an hour in the evening and I have to turn off the fans while fogger is on. Overall though ventilation had been great. Area around the terrarium smells of forest right after the rain.

Thanks for that info. I was going to build a tank with a vent at the bottom, but I really want to use a fogger to fog up the enitre tank and don't want it leaking out. Gives me something to think about.

[Alla]

Actually for me the front strip is very useful- I can have both fans blow down and air just goes out up front. If I had no strip, id had to point one fan to blow air in and another to blow air out. Also, you can always put a layer of silicon on top of the air strip if you wish to seal it off permanently for your housing.

[Paul Mc]

Beautiful!!! Very creative! Love seeing that.

Question. Do you use the screen top that comes with these or did you do something else? I put a thin piece of plexiglass over mine as the humidity wasn't staying in the range I wanted. Of course, I was going for a minimum of 80% though. Just curious.

[Alla]

My boyfriend helped me cut 4 acrylic pieces for the top. 2 pieces were drilled to fit misting nozzles and fans.

Top came with metal mesh, we took mesh out and siliconed the acrylic instead. After the first try , the acrylic came off due to air and moisture. We re-siliconed with a layer under the acrylic panel and above the acrylic panel to attach it to the frame. The double silicone seems to be holding well. We used waterproof GE brand from Lowes.

I can get humidity to 95 but it is not needed for my plants. I have a variety there from Catts to Neos to oncidium, miltonia, brassavola, vanda.. all kinds of stuff.. Between 60 to 80 works the best.

To answer the question, why on earth would I put plants that dont require a vivarium into a vivarium- well, I wanted a rainforest, I only have 1 t5HO grow light and need to fit it all together and I am lazy to water- my misting system is on a timer and , as they say, you cant overwater mounted plants. If a plant starts declining, I will take it out but thus far each plant seem to be growing new foliage and much faster than outside the vivarium.

I will try to remember to post a picture of the remodeled top once I get home tonight.

	Mistking Looking for a misting system? Look no further. Automated misting systems from MistKing are used by multitude of plant enthusiasts and are perfect for Orchids. Systems feature run dry pumps, ZipDrip valve, adjustable black nozzles, per second control! Automatically mist one growing shelf or a greenhouse full of Orchids. See MistKing testimonials

[Paul Mc]

Wonderful! I'd love to see the top you guys created! Thank you very much. I, too, love the rainforest look.

[Alla]

Ok folks, here are some more pics of the top, entire setup,a flower spike, chiloschista segawai all happy and how the fog gets blow out if fans are on full speed...

[Paul Mc]

WOW!!! So creative! Jealous here slightly, lol...