Terracotta pots for cooling a terrarium?

[Kevinator]

Hey guys. I was wondering if terracotta pots would be an effective way for keeping the temperature of a terrarium down by say, five degrees? My house has an ac, but without my knowledge, our family registered for a program that would save us money but the ac can be turned on or off by the electric company to supply it to factories in the summer. Because of this, the house can get up to 86 degrees F at times. I have also observed that the terrarium absorbs heat through a greenhouse effect, raising the temperature by at most 3 degrees F. Would the overall temperature drop if enough clay pots are used? If not, then is there any other way of temporarily reducing the temperature of the enclosure at night? The plants should be fine as long as the night temperatures drop comparatively to the daytime temperature .

[RandomGemini]

Cooling fan. Most cooling setups I have seen retrofit a computer cooling fan for the job.

[Tindomul]

How would you use the terracota pots? I'm confused about that.
Are you using an artificial light? IF so, see if you can get the coolest lights. Also have a fan constantly blowing between the lights and the tank so that heat does not accumulate. Does your tank ventilate by exchanging air from out side the tank and air from inside the tank. Completely enclosed terraria often are 3-10 degrees warmer than the room they are in, depending on light source.
Good luck.

[Kevinator]

Sorry if I wasn't very clear about my conditions. I was thinking that the idea of transpiration utilizing moist terracotta pots may work to cool the enclosure, but I'm not so sure that would work in a poorly ventilated area (aka my enclosure). I have a cooling fan placed inside, although it doesn't really cool down anything (again due to poor ventilation). The terrarium is right next to a shaded southeast window, so excess heat from lights shouldn't be a problem.

[Tindomul]

In order for it to cool off, the heat has to go somewhere. As long as the enclosure is completely sealed off from the outside it will always be a few degrees warmer than the temperature of the space it is in.

[RandomGemini]

Agree with Tindomul. You need to create some ventilation. My terrarium has a screen top and still manages to stay cool and humid. You'll need something like that in order to have a place for the hot air to go and to draw cooler air from.

[Kevinator]

Sorry for the late reply but thank you guys so much for the suggestions. I have now placed a screen top over the terrarium with a covering plastic food wrap to create an adjustable lid, if you would say. I'm also experimenting with frozen water bottles to cool down the tank in the afternoon and at night. So far, its looking like a good option. If you have any suggestions please feel free to comment. Thanks!

[harpspiel]

The terracotta pots, or something like Kool-logs, work via evaporative cooling. Evaporative cooling is most effective in environments with very low humidity (I live in New Mexico, where evaporative coolers are often the only means of a/c and can drop the temps in a house by as much as 20 degrees). I would think that if the humidity outside the tank is relatively low, and you run a fan and keep the pots wet, that should work pretty well. Using an ultrasonic humidifier kept in a dark place and piped into the tank could also help via the cool water. Check out my thread to see how I have mine set up:
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...iate-tank.html

Keep in mind that according to a lot of the experts, night temperature drop is much more important than daytime highs. I don't have personal experience yet, but I do have it on good authority that species like cuthbertsonii can take highs of 90+ during the day as long as they have a sharp drop at night.

[DelawareJim]

How big is your terrarium? Any chance you can move it into the basement under artificial lights for the summer months?

Cheers.
Jim

[Kevinator]

Originally Posted by DelawareJim

How big is your terrarium? Any chance you can move it into the basement under artificial lights for the summer months?

My terrarium is actually a 20 gallon fish tank. I don't have a basement (due to my location in SoCal) and I can't find any sort of safe, effective, and cost efficient lighting system for my plants. So far, my method with frozen water bottles is working perfectly. it drops the temperature from 78 degrees F to 68 degrees F at night. Top that off with a terracotta pot, the area around the bottle and the pot stays at around 66 degrees F. Thanks for all of your suggestions!