my vivarium with orchids

[critterguy]

I'd love some advice on plant placement here. The most up to date pictures are the beginning of the video with narration-no need to see the rest.

Orchids in video
-Zootrophion atropurpureum(on hygrolon lianas in middle of tank)
-Restrepia(on hygrolon lianas next to Zootrophion, put it sideways to allow water to drain off better. This has been in the tank the longest and is sprouting new growths so it seems happy)
-Pleurothallis grobyi(on branch with sphagnum around base)
-Masd. herradurae (attached to hygrolon "tree" at back right)

-Stelis argentata(at top)

Also I was a bit concerned about the Stelis up at the top and may have overreacted. Tank is running a reptirain mister that is set to go off 4 times a day-aiming at the center of the tank and one on the top aiming at to the right(and dribbling on the Stelis...) The Stelis came in coconut/perlite and I surrounded it with epiweb chunks and sphagnum. It seemed a little wet up there so I ended up taking it out, removing a lot of the media from the Stelis roots(and a lot of roots that look a bit soft-I think they may still have been good, no black just greenish versus white. Some of them did come apart pretty easily in hand though) and have it drying above the tank now. A yellowing leaf was what concerned me-that leaf did fall off but it did have a little keiki on it(which I managed to knock a new growing tip off of...argh!)-so I'm hoping the rest of the plant is ok. I'm hoping I didn't damage the plant too much and I hope to put it back but this time higher up in the epiweb sphagnum mix with the roots more exposed. I'm guessing the grower had it growing fairly dry so it will need some new roots to accommodate these conditions better.

Another possibility would be to have the Stelis and the P. grobyi switch places. Seems tough to keep the grobyi wet enough up there. I hope to put in a drip system on a timer using a aqualifter dosing pump as well so that may negate that problem.

[WhiteRabbit]

Cool

[critterguy]

Added notably Dracula mopsus and cordobae-as well as a few other ssp.

[critterguy]

Orchids in bloom.

3 species have bloomed so far! Stelis argentata which fired out 5 spikes that I did not take photos of.

I noticed this bizarre bright purple flower from Zootrophion atropurpureum.





and Dracula cordobae is opening a bloom. Smaller plant has 3 spikes larger one looks like 8-may cut some off that are going in unpromising directions to save plants energy.



Full tank shot for perspective on how big this bloom is.