New Setup! And questions about an online order

[East_to_west]

Hello everyone! I'm still pretty new here and new to growing CP's so I have a few questions about this setup I just threw together yesterday. I posted a similar thread on "flytrapcare" and figured I'd just copy most of it to here because you can never get enough advice. I've kept many a reptile and aquarium (salt and freshwater) as well as vivariums and a fairly advanced hydroponic system so I'm not a total noob when it comes to this kinda stuff but every variation of this hobby has fairly specific requirements and I'm a lot lower on funds nowadays. Keeping my budget in mind I set out yesterday to home depot and a few other places in order to build a setup where my plants could thrive instead of just survive. Sorry for the fisheye, as soon as I can take better photos I will, but heres the start for now. All I have atm is a gopro:

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Its a large (ish) tupperware bin with an egg crate false bottom for the plants to sit on. So far Ive installed a small pump and attached some tubing to the end just to keep water circulating but am trying to think of a more efficient method or a self watering method eventually. I also have an air pump from an old aquarium that I'm probably going to put to use too as an air stone like apparatus. My project for today is going to be installing one or maybe two computer fans to get some good airflow. Although before I do that I wanted to make sure it wont leach too much humidity. For lights I bolted one T8 fixture with an "ultra sun" bulb that puts out 6500K and a 12,000K white exoxotic panorama pro module LED light leftover from my aquarium side by side.

[/img]both are about 3-6 inches above the plants. Although the Bigger Nepenthes and Sarracenia are just in there until more plants arrive. This was mainly intended for sundews and small neps/cuttings. How do you guys think my lighting will fare? Will the LED be overkill or not enough?? Any other criticism of this design would be appreciated since it wasn't very planned out. Thanks for reading my essay, lol.

 

[East_to_west]

Here are some more photos:
Heres the water lettuce thats loving the extra light. And you can see the browning traps from the N.alata that was on its way to demise with only one full trap at the local garden store. I live in santa barbara but the nights still get chilly..

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And the water lettuce is exploding with growth! Also I got a new nepenthes ampullaria x harlequin and a drosera spatulata. Im pretty worried about the nepenthes though. It only has one leaf thats not browning and its a lot more pale than it should be. The growing tip also seems to be browning a bit. The fisheye makes it look bigger than it is. I apologize for the picture quality. All I have atm is a gopro which is awful up close:

[/IMG]The D. Spatulata has no dew and has some browning going on with the outer leaves, although I would expect nothing less after being in a box for so long. I ordered them online and they were in a box for 6 days before they got to my place. Are these things to be concerned about?
*edit* Oops, I should know better than to go dropping website names in the first place.. Sorry.

 

[Keith]

Looks like a good starting set up to me. I'm sure you've figured out by now that vendor names and links are not allowed on this site which is why they are blocked out. All of my plants have come from mail orders and trade this year and all required about a month two to color up and snap out of the shipping funk. The new growth is the real indicator. I don't know much, being a noob myself, but try putting the Drosera pot and all in a clear plastic bag for a few weeks. That should reduce the need for watering and the sealed high humidity environment should get some dew back on it. After it acclimates and you gradually remove the bag, the dew should stick around with reduced humidity.

 

[East_to_west]

Thanks, yeah I've had the dew and the new nep covered since they came in, I took the covers off for the photo. Do you think the nepenthes looks unhealthy? Or just young?

 

[Keith]

I would not say unhealthy looking. They just look like they may have had a hard life prior to you getting them. The new leaf on the last pic looks healthy and vigorous so... Better give it some time. Again I say: I am a noob too, but some of the nep guys/gals probably have more info on it.