Thanks for all of the responses everyone.
Ross, thanks for the tips. Since this was my first venture into orchids, I figured I would just try a few and see how they do and go from there. I decided against jewels because I'm more interested in the flowers than the foliage. The viv is completely sealed up, so the humidity is constantly near 100%, though I do have an air recirculation system which pumps air from one side to the other side. The phal keeps putting out new roots, the tips of which get eaten off when they are longer than about an inch, which seems to be stressing it out quite a bit. It was doing well for a while, but then the leaves started turning red (from the tip first) and eventually dyeing. I though it was due to low light, no fertilizer or root problems, but maybe the humidity is the source of it's misery. The temps run into the lower 80s towards the top of the viv which may also be a problem. I have since increased the light and started fertilizing, so I guess we'll see.
Fluffylily, I mist whenever it starts to look dry (about 2-3 times a week for 30 seconds), but since I've added the new (hotter) lights, that is more frequent, and I think I'll turn on the timer for 1 minute every morning. Of course, when Marty gets his custom timers in next week I will be able to do shorter more frequent mistings.
Sue and Dorothy, thanks for the compliments. Darts eat fruit flies and also little critters which live in the soil, collectively known as microfauna, such as springtails, isopods and amphipods. I have a nice population of soil microfauna in my viv, which is why I don't want to gas the whole thing just to get rid of the snails and slugs. And I know how the snails and slugs got in there... They came with the moss. I treated every plant I put in there with 24 houors of 90% CO2, except for the moss. The moss I just picked off the ground outside and picked out the bugs I could see and stuck in my viv. In retrospect, that was moronic. I was hoping for some little bugs for the frogs to eat, but I got little bugs that eat orchids
Now I don't want to gas the whole thing with CO2 because I have lots of good critters in there besides snails and slugs. This product I am using, Sluggo, is supposed to be specific for snail and slugs, so I think I will just keep adding fresh stuff every week for a couple months.
cb977, the barefoot mailman hasn't bloomed yet. It's not currently doing anything. It didn't do anything for the first 2 months in the viv, then quickly grew all of the roots you see, then a leaf, but hasn't done anything in about a month. We'll see I guess. I wish you luck convincing your hubby. It's definitely a blast setting up a viv.
Rob, THANKS FOR ALL THE ORCHIDS! I'm having a blast figuring them out. One question, do you have any info on the Teipel's goldbar? You website is the only reference I can find, and I would like a close-up shot of the blooms. Does the pic I posted of the spike look like its going to flower, or will it abort?
-mark
55 gallon Dart Frog Terrarium
to the OB ..
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