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Post by chinlee on Nov 21, 2010 23:42:05 GMT -5
One of my hobbies includes reefkeeping which Ive enjoyed a lot in the past 7-8 years. During this time, I purchased an aquarium controller from Digital Aquatics. Im not affiliated with this company but it has great products that can be used to replicate environments. Ive been using it to replicate a tropical reef and I am now using it to replicate a tropical mountain for highland nepenthes. The website for this company is digitalaquatics.com and they have a few products which may interest some of you. The product I have is the Reefkeeper Elite but for controlling a greenhouse, the Herpkeeper will work just as well. Its a fairly new company, recently coming out with the Herpkeeper and its products are only getting better. This is my humble little greenhouse for now. Its a four teir greenhouse Ive put in my basement under the stairs. As you can see, I have a humidifier on the ground, a power compact light fixture hanging from the top (it used to be on one of my aquariums). Ive put in a vent going into the top. Easier to see in this picture This is a attached to an inline fan that draws cold air from outside and into this greenhouse. Ive put a dimmer switch onto the inline fan allowing it to draw air in slowly. To avoid all this cold air being pushed into my house, Ive attached an exhaust fan attached to another inline fan to draw air from inside the greenhouse and outside (as you can see in the lower right corner of this picture. I have programed my the Reefkeeper to do the following: - turn the light on at 10am and off at 12:00am for 14 hours of daylight. The light alone will warm up the greenhouse to 70 degrees. - at 2am (the temperature will have drop to room temperature of 68) the inline fans will turn on and off maintaining the temperature of 53 degrees; if its warmer than 53 outside, it will just stay on continuously - at 8am, the fans will turn off causing the temperature to rise back to room temperature around 68 - at 10am, lights on again and cycle repeats itself. The humidifier has its own humidistat so it turns on and off at around 90%. I may add an ultrasonic humidifier to this later. I am planning to add a couple more features: 1) adding a ceramic heater to turn on at 1pm and off at 9pm to bring the temperature during the day to mid 70s. I would like it a little warmer in there for eight hours per day. 2) a mister of some sort set on a timer and solenoid. Thats my little greenhouse for now and its only two inhabitants are rajah and villosa. Hoping to get my hands on a few others soon for Xmas.
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Post by frederick on Nov 21, 2010 23:49:50 GMT -5
woah, this is awesome....now you just have to get more plants to decorate that brilliant setup! how much wattage does this system need to run?
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Post by vraev on Nov 22, 2010 0:55:39 GMT -5
Thats awsome ChinLee. I have used a setup like that in the past (-controller -automation) with very very very good success. I am sure you can do great with it. Good luck with your new endeavor.
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Post by chinlee on Nov 22, 2010 1:55:47 GMT -5
highest wattage is the light which is 55 watts. The fans are low i'm guessing around 30 watts because I've tuned them down with a dimmer. The humidifier i'm guessing is around 50 watts. I'm going to add a heater which should bring it up a few notches when it turns on.
Vraev - what setup do you use now? what made you change your setup?
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Post by vraev on Nov 22, 2010 2:35:08 GMT -5
This is what I used to use before. And, I can't help but remember the fond memories when my plants were the best ever since I started in this hobby. I kid around and call it my old "ghetto" setup. But hey...shows how much life doesn't care about "expensive stuff" and rather depends on substance and passion. It was a culmination of over 2y of work on the setup. Everything worked perfect. I managed to set up a wonderful microclimate with circulating humid air and exhaust at the top. Heck...even in winter when my apartment was 60F or lower, my lowlanders didn't show any cold-damage and did great. Thats how beautiful it was. Even after using tap water, the most damage I had was mineral buildup on leaves, but the moss loved it and grew into pillows. Since around august of last year, my parents bought me a gift I wanted for a long time, a couple of tanks that cost 1100$ to order and get shipped by UPS. On top of that, I implemented automation by using a mist king system, but my plants only declined but never prospored. Shows ya how sometimes the cheapest methods may be the best way to get success. Let me know if you need any pictures or any suggestions of how to help you with your greenhouse. I was successfully able to grow: N. villosa N. hamata N. argentii N. jacquelineae N. jamban N. rajah N. aristolochioides N. lowii N. mira N. burbidgeae N. macrophylla in that setup. And let me remind you that they THRIVED. Not survived but thrived. Its been almost an year and nearly 2000$ into my new setup, but many of those plants are struggling and not able to prosper as they did before. Heck...I get moss to grow sometimes, but it gets covered with algae and slowly dies. I am currently pretty burnt out and stuck at what to do to fix it.
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Post by robthered on Nov 22, 2010 9:50:32 GMT -5
Hey Chinlee,
You're setup is pretty sweet man. Should have no problems growing your neps in there.
I'm using a HygroTherm made by zoo med. It's a climate controller for reptile terrariums. Works quite well. Has a photo cell and programmable nighttime temperature drop feature. Controls my fans and humidifier too. I love it. only 80 bucks too at pets and ponds.
Vraev, do you have any fans or vents inside your terrarium? I currently have 4 CPU Fans running 24/7 inside my 4 foot terrarium. The plants seem to like it. Maybe put a fan in your tank to increase air circulation and then you might not get any algae. Since you have a misting system maybe the plants are not used to being wet so much, seems on your older setup you didnt have any misters. I dont use any misters and I dont mist my plants either. They seem to get enough humidity from the air in the tank already. Maybe your plants are still acclimatizing to their new environment.
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Post by lloyd on Nov 22, 2010 12:31:06 GMT -5
These are amazing set-ups.
Vraev: I'm wondering about air circulation & humidity too. I know with other CP's there's a great difference in air circulation/refreshing needs and tolerance. My D. aliciae, dwarf & tubrerous dews are thriving with tons of dew @38% relative humidity and a relatively open air circulation. Other dews, utrics and cephs are doing much better in ~100% humidity in fairly tightly sealed little plastic cups.
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Post by vraev on Nov 22, 2010 15:22:51 GMT -5
Ohh! There were like 2 fans inside before. I removed them now because the plants started drying up like crazy. I do still have one fan on the floor of the tank though facing the plants. I didn't know if It is good if I have it facing the foliage.
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Post by robthered on Nov 22, 2010 16:20:57 GMT -5
The fans in my terrarium blow directly on the plants. They dont seem to mind it. I have one on either side of the tank and two in the middle. In your older setup maybe the plants got more air circulation, and now that they are in a tank there isnt much fresh air getting in. Or maybe it is the opposite. Is the top of your tanks all screen or completely sealed? Are you using different lighting than you used to? Maybe there isnt enough light penetrating through your tanks? BTW your tanks are very nice . what make are they? How tall are they? I'm looking to get the largest exo terra (24 inch high) they sell but it's like 500 bucks new. Are your tanks taller? Is that a fridge you have next to the tanks? If you're cooling your tanks with it, maybe they're not getting cold enough. Try insulating the tanks. I'm currently working on a cooling setup using an old water cooler. I havent got it up and running yet as I still have a lot of work to do. I'm going to insulate the tank with that pink foam (side, back and bottom). Then run a hose from the top of the water cooler into the tank. The water cooler goes down to about 5c so i figure if I stick an ice block into the cooling cylinder it should have not problem cooling my tank down in the summer.
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Post by vraev on Nov 22, 2010 17:08:50 GMT -5
Hi Rob,
I have been looking at my old setup and realized that even though the fan was blowing direct air, it was blowing direct humid air which worked fantastic with those highland neps. Sadly, as colder/moist air is heavier and as it settles at the bottom, there seems to be a lot of stale air and since my plants were used to high air movement, perhaps thats the reason why they aren't doing too well. i am also considering perhaps I should disconnect the misting system and try placing some smaller lights on the inside to get lights closer to the plants.
The tanks are 3' tall. They were specially ordered by my brother and made by a contractor in the United States. We had them delivered till Buffalo, NY and picked it up at the UPS loading dock. Each tank was roughly 450$ and shipping was also around 300$ if I recall correctly, so it cost around 1200$ US in total.
Oh believe me..the tanks get cold. I vent in cold air from the window behind and currently the tanks get to 58F or so every night. During summer though, it was a disaster. The tanks get to 95F during day and perhaps down to 68 or 70F at night. I did use the airconditioner (not refrigerator), but the plants didn't seem to like it at all. it was a big shock going from 90F to 50F air blowing on them.
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Post by robthered on Nov 22, 2010 17:26:26 GMT -5
Hey Vraev, I had the same problem this summer with the heat as well, that's why I'm working on this water cooler system thing I have over the winter in preparation for the heat. Maybe stick a series of fans in your tank to blow the air from the bottom up and possibly out of the tank, however that might lower your humidity. Or possibly have one fan at the bottom blow up on the left side, and then one on the top blowing down on the right. That way the air flows all around the tank. The four fans in my tank are all located near the top of it. but my tank is not nearly as deep as yours. What kind of lights are us using at the moment? If I were you, I'd get a HID or MH bulb setup above those tanks. They're a lot more intense than T5's or other fluorescents and should be more than enough for your plants. You can find them cheap on Kijiji. I have 4 T5s over my tank and my plants are loving it, but like I said, it's not nearly as tall/deep as yours. I'll try and brainstorm some more ideas for you, I like figuring out this kinda stuff .
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Post by dvg on Nov 22, 2010 18:44:20 GMT -5
Great looking set ups guys!
It looks like the automation for controlling environments in these hobbies is becoming much more affordable now.
dvg
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Post by robthered on Nov 22, 2010 19:12:14 GMT -5
Great looking set ups guys! It looks like the automation for controlling environments in these hobbies is becoming much more affordable now. dvg Definitely makes the hobby easier lol. Hey DVG, do you use an automated system too? what do you use for cooling? I need to think up something new now that I think I broke my water cooler putting it back together after cleaning it. When I plug it in nothing happens . Good thing I didnt pay a cent for it . Guess I'll be trolling kijiji for a minifridge or freezer now .
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Post by dvg on Nov 22, 2010 19:24:29 GMT -5
Hi Rob, No i don't use an automated system as of yet, but they are looking awfully tempting. I'm still using manual controls...ie myself. haha For nocturnal temperature drops, I move my plants into a cool stairwell for the night. With the temps here sitting at -25C right now, cooling shouldn't be too much of a concern for the next few months. dvg
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Post by robthered on Nov 22, 2010 20:36:41 GMT -5
Hi Rob, No i don't use an automated system as of yet, but they are looking awfully tempting. I'm still using manual controls...ie myself. haha For nocturnal temperature drops, I move my plants into a cool stairwell for the night. With the temps here sitting at -25C right now, cooling shouldn't be too much of a concern for the next few months. dvg Wow man, I didnt realize it was that cold in Alberta already lol. It's still above zero here in Montreal; at least for the rest of the week. I'd definitely recommend using an automated system, it's way easier and less worry. Also the prices get lower and lower, and the technology gets better and better all the time .
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