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How can I keep my terrarium cool?

I live where temp in the summer can climb up to 37C (In a really hot day), and usually (in all the other summer days) about 32C.
I want to build a terrarium. I have everything planed, but I don't know how to keep the temps low in the summer (It will probable be hotter than outside because of the lamps).
Anyone has an idea?
 
try buying a little portable travel fan or something and stick it in your terrarium so the air flow goes along under the la,ps. This should greatly reduce high temperatures and will give some air circulation to your terrarium which can stop mould growth etc.

Micky
 
Just be careful if you have an airflow-sensitive plant in your terrarium, such as <i>Nepenthes bicalcarata</i>. Mine stopped pitchering during the time I was using a fan.
 
HI Gumpa, if your humidity is low you could rig a small swamp cooler a.k.a. an evaporative cooler. I am going to try using a small cold water humidifyer blowing a fine mist of water through a 2 liter bottle packed full of excelsor ( long thin flexable wood shavings to increase the surface area for evaporation and keep the mist from getting everything wet). This should help keep the temp. down and provide extra humidity but I do not know if it works well or not yet because the humidity here is still way too high to use evap. cooling so I will not be able to test it till later this summer. M2CW.
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Be careful of mold development on the wood shavings.
 
what if you stuck a bottle of ice in there somewhere???
 
Thanks all.
I don't think that a bottle of ice will help, since the problem comes mostly from the top (where the lamps are).
Has any one tried to put a fan inside the terrarium, under the lid, so it will blow on the lid, where the lamps are? won't it dry the plants inside?
what about a fan which will be placed where the lamps are (outside of the terrarium)?
 
I have my "brilliant" setup just like that in my terrarium. For my N.Rajah is is for. Only problem is my sever is down and I'll try to get it uploaded later tonight or tommorow morning.
 
OK my server is back up and I'l post my Rajah setup. And my brilliant
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fan setup. Enjoy!

9319623-2635-01600120-.jpg

This is the fan and the Rajah.

9319620-5190-01600120-.jpg

Better view of Rajah and fan.

9319618-7f05-01600120-.jpg

This is the N.Ventricosa "Red" on the other side of the Rajah terrarium growing like a weed!
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  • #10
I use few ways to try and cool my terrariums
First way is to keep a down layer of water and a water pump circulates the water plus fogger and small X-computers blowers.
Second way is ones again use a computer power supply blowers one on the bottom get air in and 2 on the top that take the warm air (from lamps) out and they work with a thermostat that keep the temp. At about 77 F (25 C) the plants look great and smiling. Of curse here too there is water layer (water trays) and fogger and humidity kept about 80%/
arie
 
  • #11
Gumpa, in the aquarium world, heat is also an issue from lights, and for some reason here, we have all been thinking about taking care of it from the inside... are we all nuts?

It just flashed into my head...

1st, get yourself some 5 inch cooling fans from the hardware store, if you cant findem there, you'll have to do some wiring, and get them from a computer supplier.

If your lights are under a hood, or encased in plastic, or what not, you'll need to cut vent holes, and place the fans over them. I won't go into electrical wiring here, so don't even ask, I am not a licensed or bonded electrician, so if I got someone electricuted, I would be open to one heck of a lawsuit... so find out how to do it from someone in the know...

Any how, get your fans wired up and turn them on. THe air moving over your flourescent bulbs will pull heat away, and evacuate it into the room. You can also set a fan up, even with some ducting if you want to get crazy, to PUSH air in.

regardless, this method pulls your nice cool air from your house into the lighting fixutre, dissipates heat, and pumps it out into the room, where it is again cooled by your air conditioner...
 
  • #12
How's everyone like my setup? It works great for me and my Rajah! So it must work! It is a 2 speed fan that I ripped out of an old broken humidifier.
 
  • #13
Air conditioning (window kind) would work for keeping it cool. Then have a couple water containers to keep the moisture in the air. Although having to purchase a window air conditioner is not cheap but may work (I used the word “may” because I have not tried it yet). If any of you think it is a bad idea please say something because this is my plan going into the summer months.

Trav
 
  • #14
I use an air conditioning - window kind at my green house and make a wounderful work together with humidifier . and for the cost I use some personal conections with the air condition shop and when they are called to change an old one for new I buy the old one after they fix it for me so it's much cheaper.
arie
 
  • #15
Most of the heat from a flourescent fixture comes from the ballast. Barry Meyers-Rice describes a technique where you take out the ballasts and mount them on top of the fixture, then have a small cooling fan blowing accross them. The description should still be on his website somewhere.

I would suggest one small modification to his instructions though - instead of disconnecting and reconnecting wires, you can cut a notch in the side of the fixture and pass the existing wires through it.

I used to use a setup like this, but eventually decided that heat wasn't really that much of an issue.
 
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