Reducing heat from lamp
 

Hey all!
I recently moved home from college and my terrarium (has 8 minis in it now, mostly Lepanthes) is now in my basement, mostly because it has the most consistant temperature of any part of the house. I am alotted one bookcase for my plants and my aquariums, so my 'chids got moved to the big shelf on the bottom. I have the same light on them as I did at school, a full-spectrum lamp, but the change in location from top shelf and directly across from a very enthusiastic A/C vent to bottom shelf basement with intermittent fans has resulted in a daytime temperature increase of four degrees. (from constant 68 to 68 at night and 72 day)

You wouldn't think that this would change things.
For most of my plants (I had four at school, four are brand new), it hasn't. In fact, my L. manabina seems to like it slightly better. My L. ovalis, however, hasn't been fully opening blooms or having as many blooms since I got home. (It is still growing and putting out flowers, just less intensely than before) I'm wondering if there is a way to decrease the heat they are getting from the lamp without decreasing the amount of light they are getting.

There is also the possibility, of course, that other factors, such as the change in air motion, is the cause of this change, and I will be tinkering with that, too.

A picture of your setup would be helpful. I'm not sure if I picture it correctly in my mind :-)

Could it be that directly under the lamps the temperature is higher than in the rest of the room (For the ones not in an aquarium). In that case it could help to run a fan towords to plant.

Nicole

I'll try to get a photo soon. I think the problem is partly that the terrarium is now enclosed by the shelves of the bookcase, so the heat doesn't escape. I'll see if I can get a better fan down there.

A good fan to stimulate air movement will help reduce temperatures under most small indoor lighting setups. Of course, after you get 6 or more T5 banks of 8 bulbs each in one room.......only an air conditioner (or two) can get the temperatures down enough. Enjoy!

So it's a month later and what has happened? Did you get the temp down? I'm sure it was the new location and the enclosed space that wasn't letting the heat disipate the same way as the old set up did.

I got a new fan and the temp is down a bit. All of my Lepanthes have new growth, three have multiple flowers (the others have new stems but flowers are, I believe, out of season). Humidity is sometimes a problem, but everything seems to be doing well (My Haraella has what might be a developing bloom... its an unidentifiable bulge at the end of what I originally thought was a new root.
The ovalis blooms still don't always open all the way, but it consistantly puts out new blooms and has new shoots on it, so I'm not all that worried about it.
Thank you all for the advice!!! I'm busy this week but next week (one of my best friends is getting married this weekend) I should have some photos of my celieste blooming.