My new Rack Setup - update 5-28

[pigface]

Here are some pictures of my new rack that I am starting to put together . It’s a Sams
club 48” wide chrome rack . I only needed three of the five shelfs that came with it , and
I didn’t use the wheels . I have one dual 55 watt AHS CF lights hung under each shelf . so
far I have 3 20 Highs done. The other20 H I’m using a temp tank for some Pumilios
they will go into two of these tanks when they are finished being planted and settled in .
then I’ll do that tank up too . I have a bunch of plants and broms ordered that hopefully get here soon .



Since four tanks will not fit on each shelf ( its a few inches short because of the framing on the tanks and the shalf uprights ) , I think I'll put two on each shelf , that will leave just enough space for two 20 H's and one 18x18x24 on each . In the future maybe a couple exo terras who knows ?



The lights , I bolted the reflectors and lights to a piece of wood and hung them up witha
couple screw eyes . and bolted the ballasts to the back





a quick and easy shade , I drilled a couple holes , threaded a small piece of chainthrough and crimped the ends together for a hinge .



The top vents , I just drilled a few holes in the top glass and siliconed some stainless screen
over the holes .





The bottom is plexi glass , and vents are made the same way but weldbonded instead of
silicone .



Heres a couple pictures of the back grounds . Handi-foam ,cocoa fiber ,cork and tree fern
fiber , nothing exciting just simple easy backgrounds . I wasn't going to use coco huts but the one Pum in the temp tank uses it alot , he just stands on top of it and surveys the tank waiting for food . so I thought I would give it a try in a couple others .







Here's a pic with the glass in place on one , I don’t know if I’m going with glass or plexi
? I'm going to try the plexiglass while they are growing in without the frogs in them and
see if they warp bad or not then decide . glass - plexi .



For those wondering whats in the little plastic containers Heres a couple pictures of the
new inhabitants , Cristobals from Marcus and Valentina at SNDF . The others didn’t want their pictures taken so I didn’t want to bother
them . I’ll post them when I get em .













I really hope this guy is a male to match my female !!





Antone here’s the N. "Guinea" you asked about and Reins pride . They are some Awesome broms man . The pums have just started to explore the N.Guinea latley hopefully they "put it to use " soon .

Check out how fast the green-purple plant ( it was marked purple jew when I bought it )
on the left has grown in the below two pictures . Almost a half foot in three weeks . The one in the lower right didn't make it though .







heres a couple new jewel orchids I got
Anoectochilus roxburghii



Anoectochilus formosanus



Macodes lowii



This guy clamed this tank allready !



More when I get them planted . Thanks for looking .

[Frank H]

Your doing quite a nice job on that rack!

[Frogtofall]

Everything looks great.

[nburns]

Great job. It is always nice to see what others are doing. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

[schegini14]

where did you get those nice jewel orchids.

[Jordan B]

Awesome! What is the brom in the lower lefthand side of this pic, it's fantastic!





Jordan

[sbreland]

That looks like one of Antone's Rien's pride. I am also curious about all those sweet jewel orchids. If you don't want to post it, could you PM me about it?

[pigface]

Which jewl orchids ? There are about 8 or 9 different ones in there . The ones in the planters I just got on ebay , just do a search . The others in the tanks are from different venders give me a pm some are not registered venders . Yes the orange colored brom is the Reins pride from Antone . It does kinda pop out at you .

[pigface]

I started planting the vivs on my rack , and finished the ventilation system to keep the
glass clear ( and it works great so far ) I made a small plexi glass box for each tank that fit over my vent
holes and holesawed a hole in the middle of each and glued a fan in them and soldered all three
fans in parallel to a 12 volt transformer . Then siliconed them to the top of the tanks . I haven’t yet but I will probably plug it into the
repeat cycle timer connected to my other tanks so the fans don't have to run all the time .







I got some nice broms from Antone as always
















It looks like one of my E-bay orchids is going to bloom soon ??? This one is a Masdevallia floribunda and for the longest time it didn't look like it was going to do any thing , it looked healthy though , then the last couple weeks it grew a new leaf then this spike shot out . When I bought it I thaught it was a seedling and had a long way to grow before flowering .



I also got new temp containers for my frogs (on sale at petco $8.00 ) . The deli containers were a pain when feeding and misting and getting them open freaked the frogs out . These new containers have a little hinged lids . They also have alot of vents that fruitflys could escape from so I covered all them with some clear duct tape and taped in a small piece of stainless screen for some ventilation . The frogs seem happier in these than the deli containers . they are "out " more now .



I have an idea for the plexi glass doors to stiffen them up so they Don't warp , I'll let you know how it works out after they get some heat and humidity for a while .

I also have a few more plants coming for covering the background, so I'll post some pictures when I get them finished

[pigface]

It's time for a little update , I have two more 20H's up and started planted . I got a few plants and moss in them so far , I have a care package coming from Antone with more broms to help fill them out . I also added some more broms and rearanged some of the plants in the first three upper vivs .

I also put two of my cristolals in one of the first three vivs trying to sex them out ( The upper right viv ) . Maybe I'll get some more calling if they are in a better environment .

A couple little Woo Hoo's . While feeding my Intermedius this morning one of them was calling yee ha ! So I have at least one male in there and as it happens it's the only one I can tell apart from all the others , the two upper spots on his back are connected and look like a butterfly . The call is kinda quiet you can't hear it unless you have the door open . And while I was cleaning out all the temp containers for my other pums I heard one of them calling too. Now all I have to do is figure out which one it was one of six that usually stay hidden .

Here's some new pictures for you









Heres a few pictures of a couple of my cristobals



Looks like someone was eating good in quarentine ( I've yet to see any of them actually eat yet )









I found this blooming the other day also , Maxillaria uncata