Begonia and Orchid Tank

[BonnieLorraine]

I started on this awhile ago, but after a series of mistakes and downright disasters, it's finally finished. This is what happens when you completely run out of room in your house for plant tanks, and are forced to find other unused spaces (we're currently building a 10'x24' greenhouse in the yard, frame and floor are done, pics of that will be up next). Up top we have Spikes cage, our yr old rhino iguana, who will be moved to an outdoor pen probably in the next two years but is currently residing in a 4'x2'x2' tank. If you're wondering why his veggies are thrown all over the floor, he was digging to the bottom for the carrots, the flooring is bird seed for less of a risk of impaction. Below is a 42"x 2'x20" glass tank with two 40mm interior fans, and 2 6500k t5 lights. The Begonias have gone absolutely nuts since I moved them in there less than a week ago, all of them have new growth, and even the orchids already have new shoots coming up. I knew the fans would make some difference, but I had no idea it would be this much. I'll post new pics again in a month or so, to show the difference. Some of the taller stuff in the back will be going out to the greenhouse, leaving even more room for new Begonias muahahaha

[coxdre123]

Lookin good Bonnie! Im really getting into begonias lately myself. Just picked up a bunch yesterday from a local nursery. When your ready to sell some let me know.

[myersboy6]

wish i had room to grow a bunch of plants like that. they look amazing! What is the name of the tall brodleaf plant in the back left in the 7th picture you posted by the way I like it a lot

[BonnieLorraine]

Thanks! I should be ready to in the next month or so Andre, have a few growing up as we speak. We're hoping to have some sort of open house here when the greenhouse is finished and full, not quite enough room in the apartment for a party, but I'd still like to let people come over and wander through all the plants. I think the plant you're looking at is the Philodendron verrucosum myersboy6, it's the one squashed against the roof along with a Syngonium.

[myersboy6]

Yep that's the one! Thanks! I just rebuilt one of my tanks and was thinking about trying out some orchids myself. Any type of orchids you would recommend that would be good beginner orchids?

[earthfrog]

Gorgeous!
The versicolor, quadrialata, limprichtii and chlorostictas like to be off to the side of the UV lighting, which brings out their vivid colors. Decora might be included in that, not sure though.
Where did you get that group? From Darren?

[BonnieLorraine]

I like my Pleurothallis and Restrepia orchids, they seem pretty happy in there, and my Scaphyglottis has gone nuts, had about 5 blooms on it last week, but of course they're the size of a grain of rice lol. There are some good threads on here about orchids if you do a search, we have a couple of people that devote most of their collections to them and are far more experienced at growing them in terrariums than I am. And yep, I got them from Darren, I believe that's where you got yours as well right Susan? He seems to be the only one producing most of those. I also got some gesneriads from him, but those are in the other tanks. Putting things off to the side in my tanks is kind of tricky, the fluorescent light in there is 48". I have shady spots in my other tanks, but my begonias were getting fairly leggy there, so it's now officially the fern spot.

[skylsdale]

Bonnie, can you give a little more info on how your fans were built?

[BonnieLorraine]

I followed this DIY: Air Circulation , except I used a 2"-3" pipe reducer, both Lowes and Home Depot told me 2"-2.5" didn't exist, and 3/4" funny pipe fittings, because the 1/2" fittings didn't fit into the 1/2" screw on end cap (the 1/2" refers to what size drip system tubing it fits over, the threads are actually made for a 3/4" pipe), I've also seen people use the 1/2" funny pipe fittings, and just get a 1/2" white pvc screw on end cap and paint it black. The other change I made was to use a brass pipe coupler as a nut on the top, since plumbing threads don't match up with normal bolt threads, and the normal nuts, even the fine threaded ones, can only screw on one rotation before getting stuck, which is why I think they used the stack of washers. I still had to use multiple washers to fill the gap left by the unthreaded part of the nipple, but I was able to screw the coupler down pretty far as well. The fan is just a 40mm x 20mm from Fry's. I left the left side one without screen since there are no animals in there anyway, and the breeze is much stronger on that side. On the one with the screen, you can barely feel it (but still enough to do some good if you have animals), so I'll probably remove the screen from that one as well at a later time.

[phender]

Looks like I have been bidding against you for begonias on Ebay recently.

[BonnieLorraine]

Nope, I actually didn't bid on them on ebay, they were getting too expensive there :P

[earthfrog]

Originally Posted by BonnieLorraine

I like my Pleurothallis and Restrepia orchids, they seem pretty happy in there, and my Scaphyglottis has gone nuts, had about 5 blooms on it last week, but of course they're the size of a grain of rice lol. There are some good threads on here about orchids if you do a search, we have a couple of people that devote most of their collections to them and are far more experienced at growing them in terrariums than I am. And yep, I got them from Darren, I believe that's where you got yours as well right Susan? He seems to be the only one producing most of those. I also got some gesneriads from him, but those are in the other tanks. Putting things off to the side in my tanks is kind of tricky, the fluorescent light in there is 48". I have shady spots in my other tanks, but my begonias were getting fairly leggy there, so it's now officially the fern spot.

Yeah, I got mine from Darren, too.
I tried keeping the chlorosticta under bright light and they turned a yellow-green. If they are dimmer they get that bright blue-green iridescence like the pics Darren has on his site.

Originally Posted by phender

Looks like I have been bidding against you for begonias on Ebay recently.

You probably have bid against me before! If you folks don't have versicolor or barsalouxiae yet, I have to unload them since I am moving. I'm going to tear down my larger vert b/c it's too unwieldy to move.
I can also do some cuttings of scindapsus pictus (guess I spelled that right).

[dendrothusiast]

wow bonnie all those plants in there are lush and great looking!

[BonnieLorraine]

Thanks Arman! You'll have to come over when we have the open house and see all the new stuff we've been working on

[BonnieLorraine]

Updated pics: