Highland Terrarium

[DragonGoby]

Hi all!

I'm planning to set up a terrarium to grow highland Neps, but the problem is, Singapore's weather is totally hot! Here are the projected temps:

Day: 83F - 89F
Night: 65F - 68F

I'll be placing the terrarium in an air-conditioned room, so I was wondering if these temperature ranges will be alright for highland Neps? I'm looking particularly at growing species like N.rajah.

Also, how much light will be acceptable for a terrarium of 15" height?

Thanks a lot!

Regards,
Hong Yee

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

Hey Hong Yee, those day temps are fine, but they should be ideally in the 70-80's and not 80's to 90's 90's will not be good for Ultrahighlands,so try some good air circulation and misting with cool water like refrdigerated water..The night's need to be lowered to the 50's for growing Ultrahighlands. Try using ice in bottles that are frozen solid.  It works well for me. I won't be able to respond to this fast as my internet at home is temporarly unavailable. But I will try ASAP! Seeya!  

Also lighting should be with your natural light in Singapore and back up lights should be 2 15 watt fluorescents.

 

[trashcan]

NG: DG says in his original question that he wants to grow highlands not ultrahighlands, so those temps should be fine. I think your plants will do better if you can keep the temps consistent.

Pat

 

[Statik2426]

But he wants to grow N. Rajah.. and isn't that ultrahighland?

I thought that they also require significant temperature drops at night (down to 50F)?

So I agree with NepG.

 

[trashcan]

Oooh. I missed that part, I must be slipping..

I'm going senile!

Pat

 

[Tony Paroubek]

85 or even a little warmer during the day is not a major concern as long as humidity is good and there is decent air movement..

You need to shoot for at least 58-60 night temp if you want to do well with the more tempermental highlands.
Tony

 

[mindmaze128]

I have a similar setup for my highlanders as Ng, but it doesn't have as many moving parts!

I have 2 fans at the back of the 20 gal. tank that move the air, and I put in 4 or 5 bottles of ice during the night to keep the temps down. The only other thing that I do is spray cold distilled water into the tank prior to putting the bottles of ice in there. This brings the temp down to ~6OF for a while, and the bottles keep the tank cool at ~55 for most of the night. I also have small river rocks (like the type that they use for water gardens) on the bottom of the tank (~1.5 cm deep) with the pots on top of it.  I think that this helps to increase the humidity during the night, but it also makes it look more, err, natural. Well, I like it, so thats what counts.

I'm hoping to get some peltiers in there some how in the near future, but it's going to be a challenge to a) get them in there, b) make them work efficiently, and c )make the tank look cool at the same time! Martin wrote about some problem with using peltiers, but I think that having air moving on the heatsink and on the cold side at the same time could help with the cooling. I just need to find a peltier now...

Joel


Oh yes, I forgot! You ppl HAVE to get this spray bottle (or at least a similar one)!!

I have 2 of these (mine are from flo-master), and they are SOOOOOO useful! Just pump it a few times and you can spray for minutes at time! This is SOOO much better than those hand sprayers, and they hold more fluid too! I have found them for ~$6 so they're not that expenive either. Just some FYI.

 

[whispersiren]

Do you have problems with your fans reducing the humidity?? One very hot night i rigged a fan in front of my terrarium and the humidy dropped substantially!

 

[mindmaze128]

I believe that my terrarium has good humidity inside of it during the night since I spray it with dH2O right before I put in the ice bottles. I think that the fans actually help increase humidity since the air movement on the rocks evaporates some of the water there. I'm not 100% sure on that though, so I should problably get a humidistat sometime in the near future (Let me get the RO unit first though

).

Joel