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Lights for a terrarium

Hi
I have a question. Ive been using an undertank heater by zoo-med and its not working. It only raises it to 71F and I know this is not enuf for a bical,raff,ventrat,ventricosa,coccinea, and MAYBE a ceph. Does anyone have reccomendations on how to make the undertank heater more effective? Ive tryed it both on the side and bottom but both dont work. Im using one 25 watt compact bulb equivelent to 100watt and Im not sure if this is enuf light either. Last, wat is better as a heating source a ceramic heater or infrered light? Ive used the infrered light b4 but i think it burned my plants. But not sure. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
try this...put a light inside the tank. one 50watt bulb is the difference between a highland/intermediet tank and a lowland tank. the night time temps went from 60 to 75* and day time temps went from 70 to 85* humidity was still very high.
just to tell you now cephs need cooler temps than what your tank is
alex
 
cooler???, u mean a 75f temperature will kill my cep!!!, oh my gosh!
 
Im keeping my ceph in 71F and its all brown with out pitchers!!!! It has pitchers but they are all brown and kinda mushy. I think it mite be a goner. O ya and how do u put a lite IN the tank? Last, how do I help my CEPH??!?!?!
 
I'm growing mine in my window. Temp ranges from somewhere in the middle to upper 60s at night to as high as 90°f during the day during the last week. Day temp averages about 80°F. It gets direct light during the afternoon and indirect light 'till sunset. It's growing like crazy and producing new pitchers.
 
I don't think that a Cephalotus belongs in the same environment as N. bicalcarata. In fact, I'm not even sure that N. bical and ventricosa are compatible. The Cephalotus, N. ventricosa and x. ventrata will do fine with temps in the 70s - you could maybe even get the N. rafflesiana and N. x. coccinea working as intermediates in that kind of tank. But N. bical is a big plant and it needs care specific to lowlanders, so you might as well keep the N. raff and x. coccinea with it. My Ceph, N. ventricosa and alata x x. ventrata all do fine in a tank with 35%-70% humidity and temps from 62 to 72 daily. How are you watering your Ceph? I find mine very forgiving of light and temps so long as I keep it well watered and drained.
~Joe
 
Im just watering it over-head every few days like, every 2 or 3 days. Ill definetly move my bical once I can another terrarium. Maybe I can keep the bical in a windowsill in my bedroom that receives bright indirect light? The temps there are 75F during the whole day.
 
If you need to find a new terrarium on the cheap, I'd recommend calling around to aquarium shops and pet stores and asking if they have any old aquariums or tanks with scratches or cracks. As long as the bottom is good, you can patch it suitably for use as a terrarium. Another place to check is your local newspaper classifieds, and craigslist.com. You can often find large tanks for free, so long as you go pick it up yourself. Best luck.
~Joe

PS - How are you top-watering your Ceph? I was surprised to find that it's not good to wet the foliage of Cephalotus while watering, as the fuzz on the foliage and its compact growth habit make the crown of the plant prone to rot when wet. Watering around the perimeter of the plant prevents this.
 
ummmm, the fog maker sometimes wet the leaves of my chep should i move it away?
 
  • #10
No I think a little thing like a fog maker wont damage any leaves. Just leave it if the plant has been okay in the past. Seed-Jar: I never knew that u shouldnt water the foliage! Ill take pre-cautions about that next time I water. Thanks!
 
  • #11
Ok thanks U all are my true carnivore friends!!!, and sure all in the forums!,
 
  • #12
Justin,

The reason your under tank heater isn't working correctly is because your tank is not insulated. If you are using a traditional rectangular shaped glass aquarium you have 5 potential heating surfaces to work with; 1 bottom, 4 sides. At present you are only heating only 1 of those 5 sides and the other 4 are continuously subject to cool outside air making the cooler surface area 4x larger than the heated surface area...are you with me so far?

There are a few solutions to help improve the overall effectiveness of the heating pad WITHOUT having to put a pad on all 4 sides.

1) Get yourself some Reflectix silver insulated bubble wrap and wrap all 4 sides of the aquarium sealing the heating pad between the glass and bubble wrap. The heat won't be able to escape except through the top which should be covered with a pane of glass with a high power compact flourescent light on top. Most if not all of the heat will stay inside the tank. The downside of this is you won't be able to see the plants very well....but they'll be warmer.

2) Place your aquarium (without the insulation, with heat pad attached to one of the sides and a pane of glass covering the top) inside another much larger aquarium. You should also have your light inside here as well sitting on top of the glass pane on the smaller aquarium. Put a reptile hot rock or two in here as well..inside the larger tank, but outside the smaller one. You don't want any water in the larger tank (water and electircity hate each other!) Cover the larger aquarium's top with another larger pane of glass sealing in the light, hot rocks and glass covered grow tank with heat pad attached.

You should find an immediate rise in temerature that you can regulate (with practice) by sliding the top pane of glass over to let some heat escape...if you need to.

If you want to really heat things up then you can cover the outside larger tank with the silver bubble insulation. Again the downside of this is resticted view of the plants...but a VERY warm terrarium. This procedure works great for petiolaris type Drosera.

Just a few ideas for you to toy around with. Maybe someone can elaborate on these principals more creatively.

Good growing!
 
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