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Booth's Terrarium/Auto-watering set up - VIDEO

B

bootheatsbugs

Originally posted on FlytrapCare.com forums where I spend most of my time. Figured I would post here to see if I could get any feedback as I have zero responses over there.

Well I was rearranging and updating my whole system this week and I decided to make an update video since my phone takes good vids :)

Here's my current set up, with both my "rain forest" and "swamp". Specs are as follows

Rainforest
264 GPH pump - 5 min cycles 5 times daily, 2 hour intervals
4' 4 bulb T5HO - 2x 6500k bulbs, 2x 3000k bulbs -16/8 hour cycle

Bog
132 GPH pump - 5 min cycles 5 times daily, 2 hour intervals
4' 4 bulb T5HO - 2x 6500k bulbs, 2x 2800k bulbs -16/8 hour cycle

Both watering systems are fed from a 27 gallon reservoir with 2 airstones

Credit for the auto watering system can be given to Growinold on terraforums, you can view the post where I got the idea from on the link below
http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?129252-RainMaker!&highlight=rainmaker


Here's the video of my set up- Enjoy!


Comments?

Thanks for watching!
 
The constant water running sound made me have to go to the bathroom... but cool setup nonetheless :-D. Maybe either talk about the setup or your plants in the video if it's going to be so long.
 
Cannot see the video.
 
My browser is blocking the video for some reason. When I cut and pasted the link into Seamonkey I was able to view it. Very nice setup.
 
If it were me I would put the pipes closer to the pots so you don't get as much splash and the water just drains through the pots. If you are going for a rain effect then no need to improve.

Like great btw.
 
interesting and inspirational.
 
Nice looking!
Thanks for giving credit! Glad it helped someone!
You might try putting some live shagnum in a pot under the rain also. I have found it eventually grows like mad in the "rain". Eventually over-runs the plants to the point where you can't even see the plants! I have to trim mine a couple + times per year!
Glad to see it working for you.
It is the easiest set-ups to water & keep the humidity right. On one of my self watering set-ups (I currently have 4 or 5 going) I have "water emmitters" where it doesn't rain down, but the water goes right into the pot. I did this so it would keep evaporation down even more (on my one set-up I didn't want to refill as much) but while good in one way, I don't like it as much as it does nothing for keeping humidity up. The "rain" wetting the leaves acts as an artificial humidity right where needed. Works much better than any other set-up I have tried. Even better than the foggers I used to use.
I have to clean my system about once a year, but otherwise very little maintenance. Only problem is that I don't have to pay much attention to my plants! Not good as it make it easy to grow more plants than I could normally handle otherwise, and sometimes I don't notice when a plant does need dividing or other real maintenance! It makes it too easy to not pay attention when it really is needed! But otherwise, it has been great for my lifestyle & the time I have (as well as all the plants I want to grow!).
Well, good luck & glad to see the nice job you did!
Paul
GrowinOld
 
Very nice set up y'all
 
  • #10
Nice setup! I also drew inspiration from GrowinOld's rainmaker thread and created an auto watering system too. I used a garden sprinkler and hose timer (my neps are outside)to water them four times a day. It makes my job SO much easier!
 
  • #11
I am taking inspiration from this as well....this is what I am thinking all the pieces below should do well......I believe I will plug all the hoses and punch about 10 or so pin holes in them and insert them into each of the pots. since each port has an adjustable valve i can install splitters if necessary.

http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&productId=1054547&cId=

http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&productId=3036184&cId=

http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&productId=3387070&cId=

http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&productId=3396648&cId=
 
  • #12
Yes! thanks all for the replies! Paul, I can't tell you how many times I read through your thread before I actually picked this up. Of course our set ups are slightly different however the objective is the same. I even set up a flood table for all my bottom watering pots. now I only have to water my N. Raven because it's too big for the rainforest and my D. binata dichotoma giant for the same reason. Small update, the sphagnum in the nep pots its growing well even though my hygrometer shows a stead 40-45% humidity.

Booth
 
  • #13
Call me inspired! I went out and built a similar system today. I'll post pic's if I get a chance.
 
  • #14
Nice, thanks for sharing this
 
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