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some heating questions

Hey... I need some advice.

I have a 55 gallon aquarium, its tall.
I have about 1 inch of terralite at the bottom.
Then I have the screen like you use in a window and dirt on top of that.
I have two normal fish tank lids at the top with fish tank lights..
The lights are 5500K lights.
The temperature stays around 72-80 depending on the time of day.
Most of the time its 72 and I am wondering how to keep it a little hotter.
The humidity stays between 70-80 also.
I got a few plants in there and they are dieing.
I will post pictures of the thing when I can figure out how to keep the plants alive.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
 
I was reading your other thread. What plants are you keeping? Are they all Venus Flytraps?
 
I was reading your other thread. What plants are you keeping? Are they all Venus Flytraps?

No. I have these:

1. Venus Fly Trap
2. Forked Sundew (Drosera Binara)
3. Scarlet Belle Sarracenia (Pitcher Plant)
4. Spathulata Drosera

Right now its 69% humidity and 77.5 degrees.
I also have a 1 foot aquarium in the center of the tank. Its triangle and is about 12x12x12.

The other post was about a 10 gallon tank which I decided was too small. :p

Thanks for the reply.
 
hm, in that case, I don't think heat is your problem. the VFTs and sarracenia grow in a warm temperate climate, i.e. it's normal and necessary for them to have seasonal temperature fluctuations. if they're starting to look like they're dying, it's quite possible they're starting to go dormant for the winter.

the two Drosera you have grow well at room temperature for many of us. The biggest issue with them is probably making sure they get enough light. I'm sorry, I really don't know very much about artificial lighting, so I couldn't say whether your setup is sufficient.
 
hm, in that case, I don't think heat is your problem. the VFTs and sarracenia grow in a warm temperate climate, i.e. it's normal and necessary for them to have seasonal temperature fluctuations. if they're starting to look like they're dying, it's quite possible they're starting to go dormant for the winter.

the two Drosera you have grow well at room temperature for many of us. The biggest issue with them is probably making sure they get enough light. I'm sorry, I really don't know very much about artificial lighting, so I couldn't say whether your setup is sufficient.

When you say artifical lighting do you mean you dont use lights at all or my lights are different then yours? I am not sure if those lights are good enough or not. What kind of lighting should I get?

Thanks again.
 
I don't know if your light are good enough or not with the information you gave us. I too use a light that's about 5500K, but mine is a HID light while yours could be anything. You said you have two normal fish tank lights so to me, that means you've got like around 40 watts which is practically nothing. I wouldn't go with anything less than a 4 lamp, 4 foot shop light, and that won't be enough to grow Sarracenia but Nepenthes should do very well under it. Some people like compact fluorescents, but I hate them and can't recommend them to anyone since there are better options. If you have some cash to spend, I reccomend T5 HO fluorescent of PC lighting or (my personal preference) MH lighting. The lights should be close.

Your setup is inappropriate for the Dionaea and Sarracenia. They should be outside in full sun and they require a winter dormancy or else they will die. The Drosera would perform optimally outside in full sun during the warmer months, too. You can grow Dionaea inside but I don't recommend it since they perform better outside.

I also can't recommend the "classic" style terrarium unless you've got experience with them before, are willing to lose everything in the tank in case something goes wrong, and never without a false bottom.
 
I don't know if your light are good enough or not with the information you gave us. I too use a light that's about 5500K, but mine is a HID light while yours could be anything. You said you have two normal fish tank lights so to me, that means you've got like around 40 watts which is practically nothing. I wouldn't go with anything less than a 4 lamp, 4 foot shop light, and that won't be enough to grow Sarracenia but Nepenthes should do very well under it. Some people like compact fluorescents, but I hate them and can't recommend them to anyone since there are better options. If you have some cash to spend, I reccomend T5 HO fluorescent of PC lighting or (my personal preference) MH lighting. The lights should be close.

Your setup is inappropriate for the Dionaea and Sarracenia. They should be outside in full sun and they require a winter dormancy or else they will die. The Drosera would perform optimally outside in full sun during the warmer months, too. You can grow Dionaea inside but I don't recommend it since they perform better outside.

I also can't recommend the "classic" style terrarium unless you've got experience with them before, are willing to lose everything in the tank in case something goes wrong, and never without a false bottom.

The lights I have are Tropic Sun 5500K Daylight.
From what I can tell they are only 15 Watts :(

When you say classic terrarium what do you mean?
What kind of plants do you recommend go inside of this thing? I just want some decoration inside to put in my living room.

I really do enjoy learning as I go but I do not want the plants to die.

Where can I get these T5 lights?
I really dont have extra money right now for this, but I do need to get something that will work.

Please let me know.
Thanks for your reply.
 
The K temp isn't really that important as long as it isn't ridiculously high or low.

A classic terrarium is a tank with media in it and plants planted directly in the media. A greenhouse style is what most people use because it's cleaner and just easier. You can give each plant it's customized media (if you want) instead of trying to settle of a basic media that will please everything. You can grow different genera in a greenhouse style easily, and since everything is in it's own pot, when you want to remove a plant you don't disturb the others and if there's an infestation/infection, it will be isolated and easily dealt with. It's not nearly as pretty, but it's practicality makes up for it's lesser aesthetics's (although I don't consider it "ugly" )

If you don't have a lot of cash, don't get the T5's. Maybe think about PC's if you want to save your money for them. I don't have a lot of time to pull up the cheapest T5's on the web, but off the top of my head, here are the tek lights (which are very popular).
http://homeharvest.com/teklighthighoutputfluorescents.htm

The cheapest, most practical option is to go to home depot/lowes and get a 4 lamp shoplight. That should give you 4 x 40 watt lamps for a total of 160 watts.
 
The K temp isn't really that important as long as it isn't ridiculously high or low.

A classic terrarium is a tank with media in it and plants planted directly in the media. A greenhouse style is what most people use because it's cleaner and just easier. You can give each plant it's customized media (if you want) instead of trying to settle of a basic media that will please everything. You can grow different genera in a greenhouse style easily, and since everything is in it's own pot, when you want to remove a plant you don't disturb the others and if there's an infestation/infection, it will be isolated and easily dealt with. It's not nearly as pretty, but it's practicality makes up for it's lesser aesthetics's (although I don't consider it "ugly" )

If you don't have a lot of cash, don't get the T5's. Maybe think about PC's if you want to save your money for them. I don't have a lot of time to pull up the cheapest T5's on the web, but off the top of my head, here are the tek lights (which are very popular).
http://homeharvest.com/teklighthighoutputfluorescents.htm

The cheapest, most practical option is to go to home depot/lowes and get a 4 lamp shoplight. That should give you 4 x 40 watt lamps for a total of 160 watts.


Thanks for the quick reply.
I think I may go the cheap route or my wife is going to kill me for spending so much on this thing. What kind of bulbs would you recommend in this shop light?
 
  • #10
I went to lowes and i couldnt find a shop light that would work. Can anyone post a picture of what kind of light I may use? Thanks in advance.
 
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