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Lowland terrarium

I'm looking for input on setting up a lowland terrarium in a 29 gallon aquarium. I currently have a propagation mat, for heat, below the tank with 2" of water in the bottom of the tank with eggcrate above the water for the plants to sit on.

My problem is copiuos amounts of condensation which is causing the growth point on my cuttings to rot! I have two peices of glass on top of the tank so I can vary the opennig size for vetilation. The tank is in my basement. Short of adding a humidifier which will take up too much room, is there a better way to humidify the tank. I relize that the ambient temp. of my basement is contributing to my problem.

Yesturday I tilted the glass cover so the condensation will run down to the tank's side instead of dripping on the plants. I will check today to see if this is working.

Any ideas?
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I probably should have put this in the Greenhouses, Terrariums and Bog Garderns forum. If the moderator agrees, please feel free to move it.

Thanks
 
Doesn't sound much like he needs a humidifier. I'm guessing your problem is caused by cool basement air entering the top of the tank causing condensation at that point. Try completely closing off the vent and see if this improves the situation. You may want to add a small circulation fan on the inside of the tank to prevent excess mold/fungis if you do this.

Also keeping the tank a steady temperature and using the lights to keep the top of the tank warm will help prevent condensation on the lid.

joe
 
Joseph,

The fan sounds like a good idea, I will try and find one small enough. I have the tank in my basement grow room under a 1000 watt metal halide so I don't get any heating of the glass on top of the tank. Tilting the glass has helped. Most of the water is running to the side of the tank before dripping. Until I build a large grow chamber i guess I will have to live with my setup.
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wow, 1k watt over a small tank, lots of wasted light there. buy a smaller bulb for your system and put it closer to the tank.

Hit radio shack or any computer hardware store for the fan. Buy a 12V model in any size you want and then get a cheap universal power adapter from walmart for 10 bucks to run it.

good luck
joe
 
Joseph,

The light is for my Grow Room which houses my CP collection as well as many plants overwintering in my basement. It's a jungle in there!

I evetually plan on building a large highland and lowland growing area complete with temp and RH control but its not cheap!!!! I don't have much headroom or I would convert the entire room into a temp/rh controlled room. Enclosing the light would be a @#!%* it hangs right about eye level. Ventilation would also be an issue, I don't want to burn the house down!
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I did build the rooms you mention and it is a pain to construct and get working, but now I can ignore them for a couple of days with risk of horrible plant death.

Ventiliation isn't too much of a problem if you plan for it, personally I just left a foot of space above the greenhouse for natural air circulation. This works well enough to prevent a fire but still warms the ceiling up enough to allow you to warm your toes on the kitchen floor on cold mornings.

joe
 
Joseph,

How did you know my room was below my kitchen?
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Must be a popular location.

I have been thinking of putting a thermostat with a fan to ventilate the area by the light, if I enclose it.

Right now, all my plants fit in aquariums except for one. They are growing fast so I will have to bite the bullet and put in temp/rh controled rooms within a year.

What is your set-up? What are you using for temp control? Do you cool at night for your lowlanders?

Thanks for all of your comments.
 
  • #10
I assume you mean do I cool my highlanders at night.

I used 1 inch PVC pipe to construct a 7x10 frame about 6 feet tall except in the center where I lowered it to 5 feet to leave space between the plexi glass and the light.  The room is then divided in half by a sheet of 6 mil poly (same as the walls).  In the first room are the lowlanders, kept warm by a small space heater which usually only runs at night.  In the second room I keep the highlands.  There is an A/C at ground level that blows up into the room.  By keeping an ultrasonic humidifier in the middle of this room humidity is not a problem.
Doors are made by holding the poly plastic in place with long magnetic strips available from walmart.  Everything is held in place with duct tape.

Works great and the plants are happy, except for a gracilis that vined up next to the light and caught a sunburn, so I moved it into my dart frog tank where it can grow all it wants.

joe
 
  • #11
Thanks for the input Joseph.

Your setup is similar to what I've been thinking of doing. It's good to know someone has done it and it works.
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