[Ross]

A new story entry has been added:

Setting up A Custom Orchidarium

This Article documents the thought process involved in designing and setting up a large custom Orchidarium. After following a lot of threads on this and other related boards, I decided to construct my own custom tank (or, as it turned out, having it constructed for me.)

Objectives for the new Orchidarium

• Need a tank large enough to house an expanding collection of, mainly, miniature species orchids. These will be low-light, high humidity/moisture species.
• Most of the plants will be mounted and hanging, as in stick or cork mounts.
• Need an environment that allows low maintenance for the plants. This means I want to be able to ignore plants for at least a week at a time. Occasional fertilizing is understood, but daily is not going to make it.
• Must have an environment where excess moisture drains away by itself, misting is taken care of regularly, light is not a problem, there will be places for lower wetness plants and higher wetness plants, and air movement is controlled over 24 hour period.
• I desire to use 48” T5 fixtures as the only source of light. Lights will be timer-controlled.
• Locating tank in basement where ambient temps are approx. 62 degrees F at night and 67 degrees F day during winter months will moderate temperature. Temperatures during summer months will be approx 65-70 degrees F at night and 75-80’s during the day. Cool to Intermediate growers are the best choices. A few spp on the edge of being warm-growers are also a possibility.
• Tank should be easy to care for by non-orchid grower for periods of up to a month or more. My caretaker, while I am away, is not an orchid specialist.
• Esthetics is NOT the primary issue – casual visitors will not see this tank. The tank is for hobby purposes and function is more important than esthetics. Quality of construction is important in order to eliminate future problems such as warping, separating of seams, etc.