New 90 gal tropical terrarium with chiller
 

Hi folks,

attached an image of my new 90 gal terrarium.
- Specs are 63 x 24 x 14 inches.
- Temp 60-85F, humidity 60-100%
- Lighting Sunlight tek 60" 4x80W T5HO Giesemann Powerchrome midday 6000K.
- Mistking with 6 nozzles hidden behind top trim.
- on left, waterfall, with chiller cooled reservoir. The chiller (JBJ 1/15HP Arctica) is out of sight.
- 3x 25W heating pads under tank.
- landscaping with expanded clay, ghost wood branches, orchid bark.
Still a bit sparse in plants, so plan a trip to Andy's in a little while.

Some of the plants you can see are Bulbophyllum roxburghii, Bulbophyllum lasiocheilum, Eria amica, Lockhartia lunifera, Angraecum distichum, Epidendrum peperomia, Sophronites cernua, Sophronitelia violacea, Epidendrum Ellen, Neofinetia falcata, Onchidium variegatum, Pleurothallis grobyi, Pleurothallis tribuloides, Dendrobium rigidum, Ceratocentron fesselii, Harealla odorata, Dendrobium prenticei.

Still working on hiding pots, and will add Digital Aquatics Herpkeeper plus once it's out to reduce timer clutter and automate temperature and humidity via feedback probe and timers. The secondary tank with dist. water to run auto top-off for fountain reservoir via float valve and also the mister, still has to come in from the shop.

I am thinking about providing heat via aquarium immersion heater in reservoir of water fall, and have fan blow over warm water. Has anyone tried that? Would also increase humidity, I'd think.

wow, man, that's a super awesome set-up. If you don't mind me asking, where did you get such a small chiller?

Thanks! :) The chiller is about the size of a very small desktop computer, or largish toaster oven. See JBJ Arctica Titanium Chiller for a picture plus description.

Thanks as well :)
Good question, I should have clarified that. In summer it gets too hot in my house, so have to keep the orchids comfortable at ~85F max. This year it has been unseasonably cool here in SoCal, so I hardly used the chiller. But I know in normal years, I will need it on a more regular basis.

At night time in winter it gets below 60F, so then I need to keep the plants comfy and warm.

To be sure, it is an either/or set-up, I have never had a day or even a month where I needed to cool during the day AND heat at night.

Re cooling power, I had a couple of days with the room temperature at 95F, so could test the cooling power of the chiller. It takes the 1–2 gal of water down to about 50F in about an hour, but that is not necessary. To pull the temperature down from 95+ to 80-85, setting water temperature at 60F is sufficient, and the compressor will only run for about 50% of the time.

As we haven't had really hot days here since, I have not had the opportunity to check out the various parameters thoroughly. I happen to have chosen the wrong year! Oh well. But the first test run suggests that the chiller can handle it fairly easily. Notice at the top left there is a fan blowing air onto the marble piece (with sections of Foraminiferans!). Temperature differential between close to water feature and other end is about 2-4F.

This is pretty much exactly what I am thinking about making! Can you tell me do you only water with the mistking system or do you have to manually water as well??

Hi Kaity,

I mist 8 times a day for 20 seconds on electric timer, where it takes about 10 seconds for the misting to start, so actual misting is only 10 seconds each. Misting times are 8 AM - 8 PM every 2 hours, and at midnight.
I water/fertilize with a hand-pump spray bottle once a week. Some plants seem to need a bit more and so I douse them about once a day with distilled water. Thus far, the water input and the evaporation pretty much are in balance. There is no drain in my set-up.

Thanks so much for the info. I just built a huge custom glass tank and was dreading trying to drill a drain hole and not break it. I will give it a go without and be be safe!

Trop, you're just using an open top?

I was also sweating the idea of drilling a hole. Is not difficult at all, as long as the glass is NOT tempered, of course. Just went to the local home depot and got a drill bit for glass. They run about $15-25 depending on size. Drilling one hole by the manufacturer costs $25.

Re figuring out whether glass is tempered or not, there is a cool trick with a laptop computer screen and a polarizing filter. Don't have a link handy, but you should be able to find it googeling.