The new and improved terrarium

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Well, this weekend was the Ottawa Orchid Society show, and as I was volunteering there I was able to get in the night before it opened to the public. Needless to say, I headed straight for the vendors' area. One weekend, two dracula's (my first two) and a Masd. velifera (Caveat emptor, this one smells like rotting fish! Luckily, you really need to get your nose in it and take a couple sniffs before it really hits you.) later and I've thoroughly run out of room in my old terrarium. I'd been considering building a new one for a while, so this was the perfect excuse.

The measurements are approx. 4'x2'x1 1/2' (width x height x depth). I wanted to make sure that I'd have plenty of space for plants... The whole thing was made of scrap material I had lying around the house and parts from the old terrarium, so the entire terrarium was constructed for $0. It's not meant to be elegant; functionality was my main concern here. Humidity is maintained at about 87% by a layer of water at the bottom of the terrarium and a 4" computer fan on the floor blowing air down towards the water. Temps seem to be about 65F nights (or at least evenings, I haven't gotten up in the middle of the night to check on it) and 74F days. I'll know for sure this weekend when I'll be able to check it regularily throughout the day to see what kind of conditions are going on in there.

Construction was pretty simple, I just tacked and glued together a frame from OSB scraps and lined it with vapor barrier plastic. My false bottom is a shelf from a shelving unit in my garage, and my mounted plants are being held up by a couple of pieces of wire mesh tacked to the walls. The whole setup is under a shelf (which I'm growing a few more 'chids on), so my next job is to suspend my light source (two 38W cool-white fluorescent tubes) from that.

But now, the moment I'm sure you've all been waiting for, the pictures!



Any questions, comments, etc. welcome. Enjoy!