Orchidarium Journal/setup photos included

[aquanut415]

so here is my latest creation..

here are recently taken photos of my newly setup tank. its a 33gallon Oceanic Cube with false bottom and back. ill try and describe whats going on to the best of my ability in the photos if you ask questions, but its late and i need to go get to bed so it wont happen tonight!

feel free to ask questions or.... whatever you'd like

also please exscuse the poor photos, im just learning about dslr and photo editing and have oodles to learn.

[Shadow]

Very interesting! What are those black things in the corners on the first photo? Is the back wall made of cork? What did you use to glue the pieces together?

[daemondamian]

Very promising setup Andrew, I can't wait to see what it will look like in a few months when everything grows in

What water features do you have in it? Are you pumping any water say for a waterfall, or using a misting system perhaps?

What are the plants you chose to mount in there?

[aquanut415]

Originally Posted by Shadow

Very interesting! What are those black things in the corners on the first photo? Is the back wall made of cork? What did you use to glue the pieces together?

photo #1. the black piles of what looks like dog doo are actually piles of waterfall foam. in the photo the tank is on its back, and im trying to experiment with the foam to figure out how much to apply in order to make some mounts to mount the false bottom and false back.

lesson learned? waterfall foam sucks. use "great stuff" expanding foam. in order to glue the pieces of cork together and mount them to the false back, i used great stuff expanding foam. its soft and workable at first which means you can move pieces around, and make some last minute adjustments, and after 30min its hard to the touch.

[cb977]

Job well done!

What 'chids do you have planned for it?

You asked for questions...you got 'em!

[aquanut415]

Originally Posted by daemondamian

Very promising setup Andrew, I can't wait to see what it will look like in a few months when everything grows in

What water features do you have in it? Are you pumping any water say for a waterfall, or using a misting system perhaps?

What are the plants you chose to mount in there?

thanks for the kind words!

as for water features there is one installed, and one planned, but on hold till i make payment. i have a pump in there behind the false back which is hooked up to a few drip irrigation tubes to make a little "waterfall". the water simply drips off a large piece of ADA blackwood, and then falls about 8" to another piece of the same wood, which then feeds the water into the pool of water visible in the front of the tank in the setup photos. im also planning on adding a mistking system in the very near futre to do automated watering, and keep my glass cleaner.

also, there is a small waterpump behind the false back to keep the water circulating, and a small heater. all accessible because of the false back for maintenance.

as for what kinds of orchids?? i know this is an orchidboard, so as opposed to trying to remember the names and misspelling them, ill wait till i get home and just read them off the tags.

thanks again for the looks, and ill do my best to keep this current with updates.

[Djarum Black]

Very neato setup! I like the photos! I'd like to try this some day but imma afraid!
I hope everything turns out well!

[aquanut415]

much easier than it looks, and cost is hardly preventative. the most expensive piece anyway you look at it is the misting system.

as for maintenance and setup, after setting up about half a dozen of these in the last 10 years, i have picked up a few nifty tricks to really minimize things going very wrong.

ill try and get some photos of the "working end" (back) so people can see what makes a false back tank easier in the long run to maintain.

[gmdiaz]

Wow, such an interesting orchidium! And beautiful too!!

I have about a million questions. . you might want to grab a cup of coffee:

The "poo" pile. . .lol. . .represents the distance from the back wall to the false front wall? What is that, maybe three inches?

What is going on in the third picture?

The forth picture looks like something I could handle. You're just using the foam and cork to create nooks and crannies for the little orchids to tuck into. Before the foam is completely dry, you squish in small bits of spaghnam moss?

How do you attach the orchids to the background. Wire through the foam & twistie in the back?

What happens when the background gets wet? Does the spaghnam come off?

What do you do with all the water sitting in the bottom of the tank? Circulate it with a fish tank pump? Do you use a filter?

Is this type of orchidium safe for frogs?

[aquanut415]

thanks for the responses folks, here is the species list;

A. Dendrobium aberrans
B. Sophronitis wittigiana
C. Maxillaria uncata
D. Ascocentrum pusillum
E. Masdevallia wendlandiana
F. Tuberolabium kotoense
G. Maxillaria arbuscula
H. Bulbophyllum alagense 'large form'
I. Unknown paphiopedalum that hitchhiked into one of my tanks a while ago....

this list is a bit mixmatched, but what ive found is that its hard to know what will grow best at first, or even at all sometimes. not all the plants ive gotten labeled as low light, warm, and moist work in the area that fits that description in my mind. its easiest to let the plants growth determine what grows where and replace plants that aren't working with new ones.