What's new
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!

Air Circulation Question

I searched for a thread pertaining to my problem but I couldn't come up with what I was looking for so if this is a repeat I apologize.

Im building both a highland and lowland chamber for my neps. Ive got a handle on everything minus the air circulation. I want to hook up a couple computer fans to some dc cellphone transformers but my actual dilemma is what direction to place the fans and how many i may need... not sure why I cant get it through my head, but if I placed a fan on one side of my terrarium facing outward(blowing the air from the inside to the outside) with a vent on the opposite side of the terrarium, wouldnt I have a good amount of air exchange? Or do I not even need the vent on the otherside to let in air (all sides will be enclosed). Or should I have a fan just hangin out inside the terrarium to push some air around once in a while. Im trying to keep in mind my requirements for high humidity as well. Any help would be appreciated, hopefully someone can decipher my freak paragraph I just constructed.

Thanks,
-Peat
 
I would try to place them in a manner such that they are blowing air upwards. With air circulating up it will allow moisture to be taken away from the medium and fall back once it hits the top of your chamber and recirculate. This will allow for good evaporation through the leaves and force the plant to transport water efficiently. I've used this set up before and it's worked well for me, not to say that other set ups wont work or be as effective.
 
okok noted thanks, anybody else have other experiences?
 
Peat,

I dont think there is a black and white answer to your question. A great deal depends on temperature.

If heat is your issue then I would suggest at least 2 fans and 2 power supplies. Always think redundancy when dealing with expensive plants. My T5's get approximately 165f, now imagine if i depended on one fan or one power supply and that unit failed while i was at work.

It is better to use smaller, multiple units then depend on one large unit under critical operation.

Usually with hot lights, I would recommend a "wind curtain" type set up ("wind curtains" are used in grocery store display cases to form an invisible barier between the two temp zones)

If temps are not an issue, then you can pretty much do what you feel like.... one small fan inside.... or whatever, its not critical

Typically humidity will be inversely proportional to air flow, so if you start moving lots of air you will have to suppliment humidity somehow.

etc etc etc....

Basically, you will have to experiement and see just exactly what you need

But think "redundancy" for closed enviroments where temps can go critical mate,


Av
 
Experimentation it is then : ) Thanks guys that helps a lot.
 
Alot of people might disagree to this, but this is what I do with my terrarium. I took a computer fan 12v from my brother because he got new ones. Then I took solar panels from those garden lamps, 4 is enough (in series) which goes to 10v. The light for my terrarium is sunlight, but it doesn't get hot at all, its a cool location in the house and it gets morning sun and the plants grow great. For now I just have the fan in the terrarium hanging on the side with space on the back and the front blows toward the plants. When the sun is directly on the terrarium, the fan moves and it works really nicely for me. The humidity levels are nice. Also, if you hook the fan to 15 volts of panels, the fan would run longer in the day and be more sensitive to lights.
Just saying, because its something different and I've never heard it done before.
 
Back
Top