So in my previous house, the ambient temperatures were always around 75 F (23 C) and I kept my terrarium down in the basement where the temperature would get to about 65 (18 C) at night with the fluorescent lights off.
I recently moved and am now in a house at around 80 degrees with no basement, and am about to go mad trying to figure out how to achieve a temperature drop to keep my nepenthes happy. I recently tried a method I read somewhere about pumping air from a minifridge to the terrarium, but my results have been dismal.
Here's a diagram of my current setup.
Few basics, it's a 4x2.5x1.5 tank, 55 gallon. Acrylic sheets are between the lights and the terrarium (lights are about half a foot above). I have a humidity pump on either side keeping the humidity from 80-100%.
The recent thing I've tried involves the minifridge. I've got a piece of tubing that leads to the open air of the fridge out to a funnel and fan in the terrarium (sealing hole in the fridge with silicone putty around the tube). The idea being to suck air from the fridge into the terrarium. My results have been poor, and I'm sure there's all sorts of reasons why that might be the case (tube too thick, tube too long, terrarium not sealed enough, fan not powerful enough). The air coming out just doesn't seem all that cold.
I'm not sure what to do now and am welcoming all advice from people more experienced than myself. Before the fridge thing, I tried bottles filled with ice with a humidifier blowing across them, but that only got the temperature down to 74 at the least. That was a wee bit of a hassle and required a lot of attention.
I've read about peltier coolers, but those seem frightfully expensive and difficult to get it working perfectly.
I've also considered instead of using air, using a waterpump that takes cold water from inside the fridge (from some kind of tank), and then lining the inside of the tank with tube, to then lead back to the fridge to cool again.
Thanks in advance for any help.
I recently moved and am now in a house at around 80 degrees with no basement, and am about to go mad trying to figure out how to achieve a temperature drop to keep my nepenthes happy. I recently tried a method I read somewhere about pumping air from a minifridge to the terrarium, but my results have been dismal.
Here's a diagram of my current setup.
Few basics, it's a 4x2.5x1.5 tank, 55 gallon. Acrylic sheets are between the lights and the terrarium (lights are about half a foot above). I have a humidity pump on either side keeping the humidity from 80-100%.
The recent thing I've tried involves the minifridge. I've got a piece of tubing that leads to the open air of the fridge out to a funnel and fan in the terrarium (sealing hole in the fridge with silicone putty around the tube). The idea being to suck air from the fridge into the terrarium. My results have been poor, and I'm sure there's all sorts of reasons why that might be the case (tube too thick, tube too long, terrarium not sealed enough, fan not powerful enough). The air coming out just doesn't seem all that cold.
I'm not sure what to do now and am welcoming all advice from people more experienced than myself. Before the fridge thing, I tried bottles filled with ice with a humidifier blowing across them, but that only got the temperature down to 74 at the least. That was a wee bit of a hassle and required a lot of attention.
I've read about peltier coolers, but those seem frightfully expensive and difficult to get it working perfectly.
I've also considered instead of using air, using a waterpump that takes cold water from inside the fridge (from some kind of tank), and then lining the inside of the tank with tube, to then lead back to the fridge to cool again.
Thanks in advance for any help.