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Post by H2O on Nov 22, 2010 21:10:58 GMT -5
Haha it was 16 out today and is still 13 here at 9:00pm lol
The aquarium controller is a good idea, when i was in Victoria I made good friends at a reef place and they have te controller I want to use for my plants. You can hook it up to your iPhone and control anything from it lol. But it was rather expensive and after buy that 1/4hp aquarium chiller I couldn't justify it haha.
Can't wait to see how it works out for you.
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Post by vraev on Nov 23, 2010 21:42:37 GMT -5
Alright, so finally after 48h with less than 2h of sleep...I get a chance to reply. lol! @ Rob, Believe me, I have tried the fans. And yes, I have had exactly what you mentioned to replicate the conditions that were in the greenhouse. But no...all I ended up with was wilted plants. In such a small place...the air circulation needs to be very balanced. I used to have a fan at the bottom, a fan at the top to move air in a circle + out at the top...but all that does is circulate warm air from the lights back down to the plants. The single small fan at top wasn't sufficient to exhaust the air inside. For the past month or so, I have removed all fans and slowly moss is growing back, but now it is becoming crusted with black mould and green slime algae. Clearly now its too wet. Turned off the misting system yesterday. Added a fan and put back the humidifier in service. Lets see how it goes. My tank is also becoming infested with fungus gnats. Clearly its too wet in there. Need to get air moving. Regarding lighting I am just using a standard 4' 4 tube 54watt T5 fixture with some unreasonably expensive bulbs. Figured I'll give the name brands a shot. Next time, I am going to get rid of this and try something different. I know... HID or MH would be good, but the heat is intense...and since I am already suffering with heat, I need to optimize things a bit. Check this out guys...I might consider this next year: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpD6KO0aggklooks interesting. Anyways...this is not about my setup, keep us posted on how your setup works out ChinLee. I am sure with your experience, you should have no issues. cheers, Varun
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Post by chinlee on Nov 23, 2010 23:57:49 GMT -5
I'm looking for some recommendations or suggestions for those of you who do vent cold air from outdoor. I figure most of you are out east where the humidity is lower during the winters and you might have a solution for this. I'm currently getting an arctic front in BC and the humidity is really low. When cold air is being pumped into my greenhouse, the humidity is dropping into the 30's. My rajah is looking fine but about 4 leaves on my villosa have turned black at the base. I've had to put them into another covered container inside the greenhouse to keep the humidity high while dropping the temperature. This is fine for now but I can't see how i can do this when the greenhouse gets more full. Do any of you draw in cool but dry air from the outside? IF so, how do you manage the humidity?
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Post by vraev on Nov 24, 2010 1:30:30 GMT -5
Chinlee...it seems to be dependent upon the top dressing of the plant. Generally, the measurement of humidity within that greenhouse is an inaccurate measurement of the humidity around small plants. For them, as long as they are small enough, the media which probably has a bit of sphagnum and any bit of live sphagnum will give a nice humid microenvironment. Although yes...once the plants gets bigger it becomes more complicated. But I must say in my case, this is the first time I am venting air into my tanks as well..so far...I don't know if that is responsible for some of my issues, but If I was to give a suggestion, you can try using a small ultrasonic mister to raise humidity.
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Post by robthered on Nov 24, 2010 9:28:25 GMT -5
@ Vraev I think you'll be good with the humidifier and fan combo. The mister seems like it's making everything too wet like you're saying. You should get a control unit for your setup. I'm using a zoomed hygrotherm comtroller. Google it, it's pretty affordable and does a great job. Regulates the humidity and temperatures in your tank. That way everything stays constant in the tank. Let me know how it goes . I also use 4x4' T5 54w tubes and the plants love it. They're like 10 inches above the plants. If you wanna go the MH and HPS way then you can get a venting system which will keep the heat away from the plants. I've never seen LEDs like the one in the video, they're always purple and red. I've seen the purple and red setup go for like $150, so it's cheaper than HPS or MH. I've never seen a clear white light LED sold anywhere. Do you know what brand that is in the video? @ Chinlee I put a fan next to my window and blow it towards the tank. I dont open the window, I just let the fan suck the cold air off the window and towards the tank. That way it's cooled from the outside and does not effect the humidity inside the tank. Maybe have a two layered covering on your setup. So that you can blow all the cold air between the two layers and not affect the humidity of the plants.
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Post by vraev on Nov 25, 2010 5:05:37 GMT -5
no idea of the brand. Check it out though...the website that hosts that videos is orchidweb.com. THey do sell those LED lights. I might consider giving one of them a try sometime in the future once I get back from my vacation.
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Post by robthered on Nov 25, 2010 19:47:57 GMT -5
Cool vraev, I'll check the link. Have an awesome vacation! You going somewhere special?
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Post by vraev on Nov 25, 2010 20:27:32 GMT -5
Well....I wouldn't call it special..but I would call it relaxing. We did this last december too and 8 of my friends and I went to cuba. Man!! It was so much fun. This time its only 5 in total and a slightly different crew, but well, I am looking forward for the beach. I just hope that I can get someone to take care of my plants for me. I still live in a different city than my parents and frankly, I can't blame them if they cannot realize which plants require water more than others.
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