Little terrarium

[Kimbubbley]

Hi Guys!

Please find attached, pics of what used to be my hospital tank when i kept tropical fish. Its really tiny...
H25 x W35 x D21 cm. I also have a beautiful piece of wood from the tank.

I bought a exo terra compact 30cm light unit, which was a few centermetres too small for the top of the tank... so i used a wooden picture frame and altered it so that upside down the light unit fits int the frame and sits on the ledge where the glass would have originally been

I have a 27w exo terra glo 2.0 bulb fitted the specs are 6700k and 98cri which i believe is good for plants? With my light meter i get 580fc at the bottom of the tank and 1440fc at the top of the wood i want to mount.

The wood has been bleached and throughly rinsed, i have hydroton on the bottom which was washed in Di water and orchid bark which i blanced in boiling water.

The temps once the light has been on go up to 27deg C and over night drop down to 21deg C and humidity is 83% daytimes and 94% over night... i have ordered a
40mm cpu fan that should arrive tomorrow!

I need to see what the temps etc do when the fan is running but i originally thought i would be looking at low light LOW temp plants... now it occurs to me that maybe low light INTERMEDIATE/WARM plants might be easier to maintain?? If the temp drops substantially when uk winter comes then im guesing its probably easier to warm a tank than it is to cool it??

But now im stuck!! how do i go about finding plants for the tank specs?? Temps i can find for miniature species, but not so much on light requirements?

I love
Aerangis fastuosa
Schoenorchis fragrans
Leptotes bicolor
Bulbophyllum stormii
Centroglossa macroceras

and im still researching!

Can anyone confirm if im going along the right lines for my tanks specs Pleeease!

[Wjs2nd]

Tank looks awesome. I agree about the temp and warm or orchids. You might even want to consider having the fan on a timer to vent some of the air out of the tank. I believe the humidity is usually keep at around 50-60% for the setups I have seen. Venting the air out should drop your temp and humidity a bit. Good luck!

[denvervet]

Very nice Kimbubbley!

[denvervet]

Very nice Kimbubbley!

[ezil]

I love terrariums, and have quite a few myself. Your conditions would be ideal for lepanthes calodyction and telepogoniflora, also dryadella edwallii. They all like int/earm temps and high humidity.

[Bud]

take a look at this and maybe you can exchange notes:

Orchid Heavy Vivarium - The Peninsula

[denvervet]

Thanks Ezil and Bud for the great information. Tonight I am going to put water in the aquarium for the first time, I had to reseal it, small leaks, I really hope I fixed it, it was a lot of hard work.

[Kimbubbley]

Hi guys! thanks for the compliment Denver the tanks been set up for a couple of months now... I'm still learning with it but so far so good! Lepanthes bicolour followed by aerangis punctata were the first babies in there... No deaths thank goodness and both plants are growing ROOTS! :-o yippee!

Epi. Porpax was next in a couple of weeks ago and it's still settling the flowers it came with haven't blasted and the bud it had has since bloomed! It's gorgeous and I'd rather watch me tank doing nothing than tv with hubby any day! Infact it become quite a habit and if I'm not watching the tank, it's now my german shepherds favourite spot to sit too

I've been tinkering with the temp and humidity by venting the tank... About 24c with light on and down to 18c without the light, so it's getting there. It's hard to balance water for the moss I'm trying to grow with less water for the plants tho... Humiditys been in the 80-90s. Too wet for porpax by the look of the leaves, so last night I drained excess water from bottom of tank and vented for 12hrs... Humidity now 60% so will see how porpax is in a couple of days and if the leaves look less spongey

LOVE telipogoniflora it's next on the hit list!

[Paul Mc]

I would love to see some updated pictures with your orchids in there now!

[denvervet]

Yes, if you can pictures would be great. Thanks for the update and reply!