Hi all!
Its been awhile since Ive been back here, moving house, work and a few other projects so I thought I would post an update on the tank.
We moved into a new place 2 months ago and I am happy to say the tank looks SO much better in the new house. The Jungle Dawn LEDs which went missing with the courier have FINALLY shown up after 3 1/2 months missing, arrrgghh!! Which has meant I have been able to fit the hood and finish the aesthetics finally. I am really happy with the final product and it adds so much to our loungeroom without dominating it.
Ive added a few more broms and I am about to have my first orchid flower open which I am really excited about, Im pretty sure it is Bulbo pardalotum but the next few days will confirm this.
Ive also dumped the homemade fogger and replaced it with a Zoo Med Repti Fogger which is MUCH better and fills the tank with fog which looks great. I will try and post some more pics and video soon :)

[IMG]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7914/...3a258c58_c.jpgUntitled by David Burgess, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7920/...c961da89_c.jpgUntitled by David Burgess, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7845/...fdfc025a_c.jpgUntitled by David Burgess, on Flickr[/IMG]

It looks breathtaking. You have a wonderful eye for aesthetics. I probably should not look too close, as my 240g reef tank needs to be replaced soon, and I can already see plenty of orchids in this tank lol.

Do it!!
you wont regret it I promise.
No water changes, test kits, food runs, brine shrimp batches, mystery deaths (ok, there are still a few of those)
All the mistakes happen really slowly as compared to fish keeping so you have time to try a few different things to fix it, once you have it dialled in, you can just let it do its thing!

I miss my fish a bit but love my Jungle just a little bit more :biggrin:

I will just end up with two 240g tanks, lol. My current tank is coming up on 10 years, and it it mostly sps. I do not want to get rid of my piece of the ocean.. the way it is going, my corals will all be on IUCN red list soon :(( some are already, i have been doing it for 20 years

Wow, beautiful!
in that case I recommend getting rid of a few things like couches and dining tables and getting a few more tanks! hahaha!
Seriously though, a piece of the ocean and a piece of dense forest on either side of the room would make for an amazing display.

UPDATE: so the bulbo is not pardalotum but purpuraceum (this is what was on the tag) which I think is supose to be purpurascens.

Wow. Just.....wow.

Outstanding!

Thanks for the kind comments.

Unfortunately i think i have a lighting deficiency as my Macodes Petola is growing very tall and leggy and most of the others are not showing the growrh I would have expected.
A rough calculation says i have about 3840 lumen currently beimg produced and based on a conversion from footcandles (thanks to Andys orchids website) to an EV value (as i only have a photographic light meter) then to a lumen value as i know the lumen value each 13w Jungle Dawn globe produces.
Complicated and confusing, right??

So, to reach a Footcandle level suriable to grow most of my orchids i think ive worked out that i need a lumen power of 6400 so i am short 2560 lumen.

Does 52 watt of LED lighting sound a little low for a 36inch x 24 inch footprint tank with a height of 18inchs??

3 more 13w globes will get me too the 6400 lumen number and hopefully the 1000-3000 footcandle power needed for my beloved orchids but i am making calculation based on Internet research only as this is the first large tank i have built.

Lighting is difficult, period!

Any advice on other peoples light levels, terrariums, outside, hothouses, especially for Bulbos would be so appreciated!

I burn 600w led fixture over that footprint. Cattleyas are ecstatic. They love it. Probably too much for your plants, though.