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My current terrarium setup

Ok
It's a 55 gal aquarium containing heli's ceph's and a couple neps and dews. Lighted with a T-5 HO
Current daytime temps are up to 78 nightime is down to 70 maybe a degree or so less.
RH daytime 70% night 85%

I want to figure out how to drop the temp in the terrarium without cooling the whole house down even further as I have many other plants that won't like it.

Does anyone have a suggestion as to how to cool just the terrarium?
I could get an AC unit that's not a problem but I wante to know if someone had a setup that turn the AC on and off when desired temps are achieved.

I'm up for suggestions as if I can figure this out there's a few highland neps I can't possibly live without.
 
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Pictures would be appreciated :)

Many people have used the ZooMed Hygrotherm with success.
 
Here you go !!
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AF3E3753-6781-4F4D-B4FB-E77DF97E2F97-3898-000002F9D5876FDD.jpg
 
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So you are going to have to find a way to drop your nighttime temperatures to at least 60 degrees for true highland Nepenthes. There are many ways to go about doing this.

Here is a great ongoing thread on how to cool terrariums/vivariums. I am looking into peltier cooling myself.

This thread is also fantastic in describing more cost-effective methods of cooling vivariums.

Good luck :)

(One more thing I forgot to mention is that your conditions are fine for a variety of intermediate species and hybrids. They can be just as beautiful and rewarding as highlanders.)
 
I was thinking on taking the ceph's out hardening them off to lower ambient humidity as I keep reading that they do better with more air movement and don't like mostly sealed terrarium setups.
The night time temperature drop would be better for the heli's as I have a few more coming and that would make room for some highland nepenthes. However if its going to be really expensive and create a huge electric bill I will likely just leave things as they are. I already have a small fortune into this
However The peltier idea looks and sounds great. The only problem is figuring out what size I need for my terrarium and where to get it. Also a way to regulate temps.
 
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Some ideas:
1. Get an old cooler. Put water and ice in the cooler. Run a circulation pump and tubing from it to your terrarium. Raise your plastic grid closer to the lights (Good advice in any case.) Keep a reservoir of water in the bottom under the grid. Run the tubing through that reservoir. Or you can circle the tubes around or under your pots.There are obvious downsides, like replacing ice every night. On the upside it's a cheap start.
2. Same idea but use a dorm refrigerator or small wine fridge instead of messing with ice. You may be able to fine tune the fridge's internal control so that you only need to run the fridge and pump with a timer. Or you may need an external thermostat like the one recommended above.
3. Buy a small wine fridge, remove the door, attach it to your terrarium. One downside here is that you will likely have to add humidity.
4. I have a several racks of highland terrariums, a small room, a hot climate, and a lazy disposition, so for me the window ac is the best way to go. But with one terrarium and concerns about cash, I can't see that being your best choice. Even if you buy a new powerhead and tubing for 20$ from amazon, you should be able to get a cheap cooler at a thrift store for 5$. This can solve your problem temporarily, and the 20$ parts are still useful if you upgrade to a dorm fridge.
 
Swords has a window a/c setup that he's been using for a while (although it appears he yanked the pics out of the thread - holler at him to put them back!). Here's something closer to the wine fridge setup that Mike was talking about. If you have dry air, there's the possibility of using a permutation of Av's setup. There are probably more here on TF & over on CPUK if you look around ....

Good luck with your adventure ....
 
Some ideas:
1. Get an old cooler. Put water and ice in the cooler. Run a circulation pump and tubing from it to your terrarium. Raise your plastic grid closer to the lights (Good advice in any case.) Keep a reservoir of water in the bottom under the grid. Run the tubing through that reservoir. Or you can circle the tubes around or under your pots.There are obvious downsides, like replacing ice every night. On the upside it's a cheap start.

Seems like there would be problems with cold transfer through hoses in the water unless the water was pumped in and out of the water reservoir itself. Meaning the cold water was mixed straight in with the water in the bottom of the tank.
That would pose another issue though. Ice in a cooler would disapate almost instantly. Probably with little cooling effect at all and short lived.
I have been thinking about this for awhile. The only reasonable solution seems to be an A/C unit.
Problem is I don't have a room to dedicate to it.
 
Anyone have an opinion on using copper water pipe arranged on the bottom submerged. Wound close together or soldered elbows maybe an 1'- 1 1/2' apart going back and forth the shorted distance of the terrarium.

The temperature transfer would be much better and without it I don't feel confident it has a shot of working plastic will likely provide to much insulation between the pumped water and the ambient temp water. The drop in temperature would be small I think and take half the night to be achieved.
 
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