About two weeks ago I helped a friend set up a terrarium for his son (I'm new to CPs myself). We are using a 10g tank with three fluorescent tubes (GE PLant & Aquarium Brightstiks--33W each). Lowes happened to have several Nepenthes, no species name given, so we took home two.
The plants were quite moist as we got them, and nicely green. There were no pitchers, but most leaves had short tendrils growing. Now the plants appear to be fading in color, the leaves drooping somewhat, and the tendrils have gone brown. I'm afraid we've messed up our first attempt at a terrarium, but hoping it's merely a bit of temporary shock.
The lights are on a timer (16hrs), and I applied mylar around the sides and back. A piece of acrylic sits on top of short strips of weatherstrip on the tank rim, leaving air slots all around. During daytime the tank temp is about 80F, and humidity varying usually 60-70%. Night temps drop to about the lower 60s (elevation is ~5200ft). The 3-inch pots sit in trays with distilled water about 1/2 inch deep or less.
Have we made a serious mistake somewhere in our setup? Since I don't know which species of Nep. we have, I don't know whether a cooler or warmer regime is appropriate. Are the Neps sold at homecenters more likely to be lowland or highland plants, or some sort of hybrid?
Any help would be most appreciated. Because of the elevation here, and the mountain climate (usually dry air), we thought a terrarium would be our best bet for keeping CPs.
The plants were quite moist as we got them, and nicely green. There were no pitchers, but most leaves had short tendrils growing. Now the plants appear to be fading in color, the leaves drooping somewhat, and the tendrils have gone brown. I'm afraid we've messed up our first attempt at a terrarium, but hoping it's merely a bit of temporary shock.
The lights are on a timer (16hrs), and I applied mylar around the sides and back. A piece of acrylic sits on top of short strips of weatherstrip on the tank rim, leaving air slots all around. During daytime the tank temp is about 80F, and humidity varying usually 60-70%. Night temps drop to about the lower 60s (elevation is ~5200ft). The 3-inch pots sit in trays with distilled water about 1/2 inch deep or less.
Have we made a serious mistake somewhere in our setup? Since I don't know which species of Nep. we have, I don't know whether a cooler or warmer regime is appropriate. Are the Neps sold at homecenters more likely to be lowland or highland plants, or some sort of hybrid?
Any help would be most appreciated. Because of the elevation here, and the mountain climate (usually dry air), we thought a terrarium would be our best bet for keeping CPs.