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It Has Begun, the winter cactus chamber...

*Barracuda_45*

Norhtern Michigan Dragway Mama
Well so far we have the top frame work almost completed and i was gona reframe the bottom as well buuuuuuuuuuuuuut theres a prob i only have so much room for where this HUGE long tank is gona set. and i need light clearance above the tank so as not to burn the cactuses durring winter. I think im gona paint the bottom plastic frame and the top white atleast it will match, under the tank will be 2 heat pads incase the pots feel cold to the touch i can slow lightly heat the bottom so the pots wont be to cold cant afford root rot durring winter. i have enough room on the top for 2 shop light bars but am only gona have 3 lights, 1 GE grow, 1 GE natural daylight and 1 GE blacklight. Durring the day hrs i will have the grow and daylight bulbs on and at night the blacklight will be on for few hrs. The thing about this tank is its over 4 1/2ft long its one of those odd tanks, it has pre drilled tiny holes across the front and back glass on the top and just above the bottom which we used this tnk for raising mice and rats when we had our pet shop, the holes will help with air flow and to keep it dry.. This is the tank so far. Have alot more to do will post pics as i get it done.. I still have to clean it out with CLR and then rinse real well and also get the other shop light on the top.

cactuschamber002.jpg

cactuschamber001.jpg

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and this is the counter where it will be sitting, its where the black fans are it will take up the whole counter and leave me with about a inch of space above the top of the lights..
cactuschamber004.jpg


More pics to come soon..

WORK IN PROGRESS!!!!:blush:
 
Looking good! Can't wait to see the finished product :)
 
Wow, it looks great! I'm in the process of getting my cactus moved in too. I'm not doing anything near that fancy though. They will be put on my grow rack under a couple shop lights. I'll probably have them sitting in black plastic trays to catch water.

I'm with Trapper, I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product :D.

Crystal
 
Update, to give you a even better idea of the size of this grow chamber the picnic table is 6ft long, here it is today painted looks alot better, hubby is gona cut the bars that hold the lights in place so that they fit alittle more better down in. I wont be doing any more work on this chamber till sunday, have 2 major races to attend since its the last ones of the season for friday & saturday and we will have company both days. So on monday it should be completely finished and stocked and inplace in the livingroom.. Im geeked cant wait till its done and filled with cactuses..
workinprogresscactuschamber002.jpg


Crystal, remember cactuses should not have much water durring the winter dormancy period. I just got done with my last fertalized watering for the cactuses for the season, they wont be waterd again now till the end of October if not the begining of November.. There all fat and plump now.. LOL!!:-D
 
Wow, looks really nice!

I know they don't need much water, but I need something to catch the water when I do water them. The run off wouldn't look so nice on the carpet! Lol. I was able to overwinter all my cactus successfully last winter on my other rack. It's completely packed with CPs now, so I had to expand and I'm in the process of trying to cram everything onto it ha. I'm only using two shelves.

Crystal
 
Update!! Completed....

Well heres the completed winter chamber for my cactuses. these pics was taken at 3 am yes its a long night for me.. LOL!! Anyways will get pics of how it looks durring the daylight hrs. Plus gota clean up the mess i made in the livingroom while finishing off this chamber, GP_Princess Jen is here for few days and she helped me get it all done tonight.
Few diffrent angle shots..
finishedcactuswinterchamber005.jpg

finishedcactuswinterchamber006.jpg

finishedcactuswinterchamber009.jpg

and moonlight time, even though my cam does this chamber no justice while the BL is on for late night hrs, pics dont show how the color really looks under the BL, it seems to only show a stinkin blueish color..:blush:
It is truely absolutely beautiful at night..
finishedcactuswinterchamber013.jpg

finishedcactuswinterchamber012.jpg

more pics to come for daylight hrs...

ENJOY!!!!!
Whom ever said ya cant grow cactuses in a tank bumped there head...:-D
 
WOW WOW WOW! I love it! You are so talented! That has to be some sort of art!
 
I helped Mom finish this because when she was moving a table to make room for this ginormous tank, she heard a loud "pop" in her wrist and now it is swollen and painful. Not too sure what is wrong with it. Because of this I had her place all the cactus' in the tank and then I went through with the rocks and filled things in. I think it turned out AWESOME!!!
 
Thanks Trapper, Jen went out and got me some new cactus kids and 1 new succulent yesterday there so cute.:-D I will have to snap some pics of the new spikey kids and get um posted.

Thanks Jen :hail: :hail: :hail: MUCH APRECIATED!!! Yup i snaped something in my wrist when i was pulling on the tank to move it, it hurts pretty bad and when i try to make a fist it has a bad pull on 3 of my fingers and causes real bad pain.
 
  • #10
Very cool!! Is it made of glass or plexi? and are you in business for making tanks for hermit crabs?? ;)

My cacti collection looks pathetic compared to yours. *has 1* lol I just repotted him, thankfully he didnt attack me like last year when I ended up with thorns from my knuckles to my wrist! bah! I can only imagine how many thorns youve taken with all of those cacti!

COngrats on the new ones though, cant wait for pics!! :D

Sounds like you should go get your wrist checked out...could be a tendon since you didnt drop anything on it. But you might want to get it xrayed just to make sure you didnt pull a tendon and avulse the bone.
 
  • #11
Yea her wrist is doing a little better today. She is able to move it more. As soon as it happened I made her stop what she was doing and ice it with a bag of peas which she promptly spilled all over the floor! At least we could tell where she had been!:-)) I wrapped it up for her after that.

We did have a little incident with the cacti last night however. When we were trying to move the lights so we could shut off all of them but the black light, the fixture fell in the tank and took out a stem of the Ferox! Thankfully it could be saved. The momma plant is doing great and the stem is air drying/scarring over for a few days and then we are going to plant it. Thank god Big Bertha didn't get hit!!!!! :-))
 
  • #12
Doing much better now, thats right i had a trail of frozen peas EVERYWHERE.. :blush:
Well all cacti are doing great in this new chamber and i still have more to add to it yet.. The Ferox is doing great and the stem is nice and scared over, will be planting it tomarrow.
 
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