terrarium

More Set-ups

Larry's Terr (2000)

Larry's a friend of mine from my orchid society. While not as fancy as some set ups, I know, I still thought it was pretty cool. He was utilizing items he already had lying around. Among other things he added a small fish & some large pond snails [algae control] to the water section.

It contained mostly orchids [too numerous for me to name them all -- sorry], an abundance of moss, and a few cp's. One I will point out is a Heliamphora -- a type of pitcher plant. It is located near the base of the waterfall in the right side of the picture. The mini orchids are suspended from a large piece of chola "wood". Air circulation and humidity are taken care of by the waterfall and stream running through his tank. Light is provided by a two bulb 48" shop light. So far this seems to be working quite well. There is no 'lid' to this vivarium.

Small Terrariums

Have any friends with "black thumbs"? This terr is one I made for just such a friend. If everything is right, all she will have to do is give it bright indirect light. The top is "sealed" so watering is not an issue for a year or so.

Plants consist of a miniAV and one fern. The fern is planted in a film cansister which has had the bottom removed. My hope is that the canister will keep the fern confined.

This is a terr I made for my grandfather. Originally I was just going to go w/ the simpler version, but later decided to add some "wildlife".

The plant in this one is a miniAV.

My 30 gal Vivarium ( 2001)

This was a bit of an experiment in many respects. Of biggest concern to me was whether or not the lighting would prove to be sufficient. The two 18 inch 20W bulbs I started with proved to be insufficient for most of the plants to do anything more than just survive. A couple months later, I replaced one of the 18 inch bulbs with 2 compact coiled fluorescent bulbs. (Can't remember the wattage though I think each was supposed to be equivalent to a 60W bulb.) Not long thereafter, several of the low light orchids started sending out new growths and spikes.

Quite a few different plants resided in it. Some, like the catt orchids, were only temporary. There were a number of mini-orchids that I left in there. It had proven too difficult for me to grow some of them on my plant stand -- they dried out too rapidly. There were also several cps, some Selaginella, and a few AV's. For the temporary plants, this terr served as either a nursery [in the case of the mini AV's] or a 'hospital" [the catts].

For air circulation there was a fan in one corner that ran 24/7 and, to help with the humidity, a fogger resided inside the 'temple'.

This terr eventually was dismantled after I received a 55 gal tank from the father of a friend of mine.

still more terrariums >

some terrarium how to's

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