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My new Heli terrarium

that is really awesome, how many heli's you got in there?
 
Great setup. Well done.

You're a hard worker.

I'm building a new setup too.

In one of your first terra, you used 4 X 24W fluorescent at 50 cm.

I plan to use 2 X 54W T5HO at 60 cm.

From your past experience, do you think it will be alrigth ?
 
Thanks a lot for your kind words ;)

I think it should be enough for the plant growth, but you must remember that temperature also has a very big influence on pitcher colouration. Helis are one of the most "light-eating" CPs, so more light=better results ;)
 
Nice work! I don't really understand what exactly the heat sinks and fans are doing there but it looks fancy. I'm actually working on designing a 2' x 2' chamber for cephalotus and HL neps but mine is to sit on top of a wooden shelf rather than inside a rack.

I think an air cooler similar to what I use for my 10 gallon may work for you here better than that peltier.
IMAG0563-1_zps66e2ff38.jpg


That's a $2 mainstay container and about $5 worth of humidifier filter from Walmart, a 12 v 3A adapter from an electronics store and a $20 12 V 3A blower fan. Loaded with cold water it'll keep the tank around 75 with two hot burning 1600 lumen 26W cfls. Should be a cake walk with LED lighting. May need to scale that up though.
 
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Thanks for your kind words :)

that is really awesome, how many heli's you got in there?

Really, not many by now...I'll use this terrarium as my main propagation chamber soon. BTW, you can see my full growlist here:
http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?135226-Wrazik-s-grow-list&p=1134138#post1134138

@Gigantes - the fans and radiators are necessary to cool down the LED lamp. The strips produce a lot of heat, when turned ON all together, and as we all know - cooler diodes=higher efficiency. With all this cooling I managed to keep a normal, room temp. on the panel. BTW, your cooling system looks fine and easy, but I was just trying to build something new - still have some other ideas to use the peltier cell ;) Anyway, i'm moving my whole collection into the basement, so the temps will be much lower than now.
 
Ah, basement. Wish I had one of those. Yeah, I understand they keep things cool but I meant I have never seen a heatsink/fan setup like that before. Usually the fans sit directly over the heatsinks. Shame you need that though, I was under the impression leds burned cooler. Perhaps its the amount you are using.

Well, looks good. Definitely gives ideas. Think I am going to make a few slots on the top walls of the chamber on the back so I can mimic the slots my ten gallon gives that is so convenient.
I was curious in peltiers for a while myself but I ultimately decided not to use them. I like the fact my blower completely changes the air in the tank in about 5 seconds because cephalotus hates stale air. Let me know how that goes, I would be curious.
 
  • #10
Hahah :D No more free space :p Time to build another terrarium :D

WP_20130914_001_zpsb219827f.jpg
 
  • #11
So the peltier works then? :D
 
  • #12
Nope :p We have really cool nights right now in Poland, so opening the window does its job ;)
 
  • #13
Oh, haha, nice. I was hoping it was working so it could give me hope for a shelf rig... but, nope, I think it's best for me to not try that on a HL rig.
 
  • #14
Looks very interesting, and I'm interested in eventually building terrariums with fans. Specifically, is that "cold plate" fan meant to actually function as a cooling mechanism for the terrarium?

I'm gonna provide you with a warning that while those fogging systems are awesome for terrariums, the one I used in the past on my captive geckos ended up having a ton of mold growth in the tube that connects to the terrarium. If you can, you're going to want to find a way to clean and sterilize that tube somewhat regularly.
 
  • #15
I haven't had that issue on low-mineral water.
 
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