TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk
Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
Plants in my new highland terrarium
- Thread starter D muscipula
- Start date
-
- Tags
- terrarium
trashcan
O:-)
Wow! Awesome setup. I have a couple of questions..
First- how did you cut your egg crate?
Second - how much did your temp/humidity sensor cost? I saw it for sale for about $35 somewhere and was wondering if its cheaper anywhere else.
Third- what's the cool red plant in the middle, and the plant just to the left of it? They look really nice.
(sorry for the question bombardment)
Thanks,
Pat
First- how did you cut your egg crate?
Second - how much did your temp/humidity sensor cost? I saw it for sale for about $35 somewhere and was wondering if its cheaper anywhere else.
Third- what's the cool red plant in the middle, and the plant just to the left of it? They look really nice.
(sorry for the question bombardment)
Thanks,
Pat
Thanks for the kind words.
Your answers:
1) It came in sheets that size, but the egg crate i used in my lowland needed to be cut. I used pliers to break each link in turn, but i've heard that tin snips work better.
2) $10 Wal-mart Temp/humidistat. Best deal around! Only problems i've had with it are that it has a tendency to max out on humidity reading around 87% (above that it just says "HI"). It sometimes reads "LO" when it's obviously too high, and that's a nuisance because LO becomes the min humidity reading, so it's impossible to tell how low it actually got. Also a bit bigger than i like, but it's as small as any others i've seen.
3) N. burbidgeae. Mine seems to be unusually red, and another guy who got his around the same time as me says his is red, too. I really like that coloration, too, although at first i was concerned about it.
The plant next to it is an N. diatas meadow form, with the most visible pitcher half withered. It's hard to tell, but the pitcher next to the pot on the right is from the same plant.
Your answers:
1) It came in sheets that size, but the egg crate i used in my lowland needed to be cut. I used pliers to break each link in turn, but i've heard that tin snips work better.
2) $10 Wal-mart Temp/humidistat. Best deal around! Only problems i've had with it are that it has a tendency to max out on humidity reading around 87% (above that it just says "HI"). It sometimes reads "LO" when it's obviously too high, and that's a nuisance because LO becomes the min humidity reading, so it's impossible to tell how low it actually got. Also a bit bigger than i like, but it's as small as any others i've seen.
3) N. burbidgeae. Mine seems to be unusually red, and another guy who got his around the same time as me says his is red, too. I really like that coloration, too, although at first i was concerned about it.
The plant next to it is an N. diatas meadow form, with the most visible pitcher half withered. It's hard to tell, but the pitcher next to the pot on the right is from the same plant.
trashcan
O:-)
I described it a bit more in the other thread, but to reiterate, much like Josh, i ran duct from the window to the terrarium. I installed a 'muffin fan' in the intake of the duct, and it currently sits between double windows (due to Boston's random weather, i can tell already this is going to be very cold sometimes and sometimes too warm, all in one week). The duct vents into a "lint trap" full of water and draped with a cotton cloth that dangles into the water. This serves to slow down and humidify the air, but unfortunately takes a lot of space in the terrarium.
The ventilation parts cost more or less thusly:
$9 120V metal-body muffin fan (Ebay)
$10 lint trap kit (with duct)
$3 hood pipe
+ old sock and random foam for sealing window as best as possible
duct tape - priceless
== as cheap as possible
Lighting is currently 3x 2' fluorescents (2x 5000K and 1x 4100K (cool white) F17T8s). Cost was:
~$3/bulb
$15 ballast (which will power up to four bulbs).
$2/pair of end sockets
$6 replacement cord
The ultrasonic mister seems to be DOA. I returned from school and the humidity is down to '73%', which only worries me for my hamata, which i have babied with an extra cover until now. I plugged in the mister, but nothing has happened so far.
I have a much fancier and more labor-intensive setup planned, but finally decide to throw this together at postpone the deluxe model until i had the kinks worked out and perhaps more time (Riiiiight....).
That's why the leaf is greenish, Josh. Unfortunately, most of the plants have been languishing away in random plastic bags or small terraria on the floor of the room, and not always getting their cool nights or enough light. That's also why i decided i better go ahead and put together something - fast!
The ventilation parts cost more or less thusly:
$9 120V metal-body muffin fan (Ebay)
$10 lint trap kit (with duct)
$3 hood pipe
+ old sock and random foam for sealing window as best as possible
duct tape - priceless
== as cheap as possible
Lighting is currently 3x 2' fluorescents (2x 5000K and 1x 4100K (cool white) F17T8s). Cost was:
~$3/bulb
$15 ballast (which will power up to four bulbs).
$2/pair of end sockets
$6 replacement cord
The ultrasonic mister seems to be DOA. I returned from school and the humidity is down to '73%', which only worries me for my hamata, which i have babied with an extra cover until now. I plugged in the mister, but nothing has happened so far.
I have a much fancier and more labor-intensive setup planned, but finally decide to throw this together at postpone the deluxe model until i had the kinks worked out and perhaps more time (Riiiiight....).
That's why the leaf is greenish, Josh. Unfortunately, most of the plants have been languishing away in random plastic bags or small terraria on the floor of the room, and not always getting their cool nights or enough light. That's also why i decided i better go ahead and put together something - fast!
trashcan
O:-)
Oh, i realized later that i should have specified that, as i had a hard time finding it myself. It's not in the garden or yard section, it was in or near the hardware section, where things like cordless drills and light bulbs are. Hopefully your Walmart stocks them. If you can't find them, i'll check when i go home for Christmas (no walmart access here) and let you know more specifically.
Yeah, i wouldn't cut it with pliers, but you can torsion the cross pieces until they break, one by one, and then break off the remaining bits.
Yeah, i wouldn't cut it with pliers, but you can torsion the cross pieces until they break, one by one, and then break off the remaining bits.
Joe:
I don't have all the plans worked out yet. The way things are now, i actually have the outside (storm) window closed, and the intake fan between the inner window (closed down to the foam i cut out around the pipe) and the storm window. It gets plenty cool that way now. I'll have to keep an eye open when it gets < 0F to see if it's getting too cool. I doubt it, because it's sitting in my room, after all. As the delta T gets bigger, the heat coming in from my room will increase.
It is looking like i'll need to turn the fan off occasionally in the day to let the temps rise. Shouldn't be a problem, i'll set it up on an X10 switch and fiddle around with the timing. Same thing goes for the ultrasonic mister. Turns out i just hadn't turned on the switch (duh
), because it's working now. However, it doesn't help the humidity much because it's buried underneath the plant shelf. I'm trying to figure out what to do about that.
I don't have all the plans worked out yet. The way things are now, i actually have the outside (storm) window closed, and the intake fan between the inner window (closed down to the foam i cut out around the pipe) and the storm window. It gets plenty cool that way now. I'll have to keep an eye open when it gets < 0F to see if it's getting too cool. I doubt it, because it's sitting in my room, after all. As the delta T gets bigger, the heat coming in from my room will increase.
It is looking like i'll need to turn the fan off occasionally in the day to let the temps rise. Shouldn't be a problem, i'll set it up on an X10 switch and fiddle around with the timing. Same thing goes for the ultrasonic mister. Turns out i just hadn't turned on the switch (duh
