New Orchidarium for my miniatures

[bosco]

Plant List:

Pleuro Niveoglobia
Pleuro Rubella
Pleuro Calviculata
Pleuro Picta
Pleuro Costaricensis
Pleuro Species
Pleuro Brevipes
Lepanthopsis Astro
Plat Stenostacyhia
Scapho Ovularea
And a couple of lepanthes

The substrate is a hollow 16" clay tube, hand casted with a glazed bottom, specially ordered from Jesse (swampsticks). He was very helpful with design. The tube is filled with RO water and is partially sealed with canning wax so it holds water well. The tube is enclosed with a thin (1m) polycarbonate sheet and sealed on top with a clear circular glass plate. Light is provided with a 30w circular fluorescent bulb. Fresh air is taken in by a small (1") fan via small drilled hole towards the top of the tube. The polycarb tube in elevated off its base by 1/4 inch and this acts as an exhaust port. Total construction costs ~$150. Several types of moss have started to colonize the clay tube surface, its exciting to see this happen.

The top of the clay tube gets dry too quickly and the bottom is constantly wet, I'm still trying to find how I can equilibrate this but it may be that the tube is too tall adding too much hydrostatic pressure to the bottom of the tube. The cool thing about this setup is minimal maintenance, just fill up the tube once every 1-2 weeks and a light spray of fertilizer once every two weeks. Not every plant has taken well to the tube, its a learning process.

[PacMan]

I have always loved these.. i think im going to give it a try one day. Looking really awesome man. Keep it up. Plus they are really simple. But ive havent seen any clay tubes like that around. How old is the set up in the pictures?

[gmdiaz]

Looks great!

Jesse is making me a couple of these tubes too. . .should be ready here pretty soon!

Will post pics when I get them!

[Tindomul]

How do you keep the temperatures down? It looks like you don't use any special lights, do you use ambient light?

[bosco]

The orchidarium was three months old in the posted pics, its now 6 months old and the algae has spread over 80% of the tube. Ambient temps in my condo differ by 15-20 degrees, was up to 80F during the summer, now around 70F, at night temps go down to 55-60F. I use a 30W circline Fluorescent bulb, I tried several different ideas, from halogen to CPF and found this to be the least obtrusive.