My Dracula Den

[Yukondave]

A while back I bought 6 Dracula orchids in a group buy through our local orchid society:
Dracula janetiae
Dracula mopsus
Dracula rezekiana
Dracula soennemarkii
Dracula vampira
Dracula vespertilio

I have been searching for some time for a suitable terrarium and after chasing 5 different people on Kijiji I finally got someone to respond to my enquiry and bought a nice 24" tall 18x18 Exo Terra.

I have it set up in my cold room, an actual room under my front porch with 2 outside vents. I have a lot more to do to get things up and running the way I want and I hope to update this thread as I progress.

 

[housepet]

Nice! It looks bright and airy.

 

[Yukondave]

I'm working on it........slowly.

 

[EP31]

Nice! Keep us updated on how it goes. I've got one dracula and I'm still working on making it happy so I can't wait to see how it goes for you!

 

[Oddworld1000]

Very nice terrarium. How are you going to lift the pots up to allow the flower spikes to grow out the bottom? Looking forward to seeing it when finished.

 

[Yukondave]

Very nice terrarium. How are you going to lift the pots up to allow the flower spikes to grow out the bottom? Looking forward to seeing it when finished.

I'm working on a moss wall built with a PVC pipe frame, I'll then hang the pots from the wall. A misting system will follow when I get time.

 

[Yukondave]

I've got the fan and light automated now and talking to my Domoticz server. I still need to organize the wiring.


Here's the PVC pipe frame, it may be a little hard to visualize what I'm doing here but there will be mesh front and back filled with LFS.

 

[WillyCKH]

That's a nice fan!

 

[Yukondave]

That's a nice fan!

I'm not sure if you are being facetious or not but I really like the Noctua fans, very quiet and they move a lot of air.

 

[WillyCKH]

Facetious? Of course not.
Noctua fans are awesome, they are the premium go-to fans for 3D printers (and PCs)!

 

[Lloyd Gordon]

And they sound like Nosferatu.

 

[Yukondave]

Nothing like peer pressure to motivate ones self.

Here's my moss wall finished, sort of. I wrapped bird mesh around the frame and stuffed it with LFS. I will insert pieces of live moss in once I am happy with my plant layout.


Here's my initial layout, I hung the pots with pieces of copper wire hooked on the mesh.

 

[Pleurophile33]

Love this setup and can’t wait to see the Dracs in bloom! Def keep us posted.

I just got the 36”x36”x18” Exo Terra myself off Craigslist down here in WI and can’t wait to fill it with Pleurothallids. I’ll dig around more on the forum but do you have another terrarium dedicated to other Pleurothallids?

 

[Pleurophile33]

Now you’ve gotten me intrigued with these Noctua fans!

 

[Yukondave]

Love this setup and can’t wait to see the Dracs in bloom! Def keep us posted.

I just got the 36”x36”x18” Exo Terra myself off Craigslist down here in WI and can’t wait to fill it with Pleurothallids. I’ll dig around more on the forum but do you have another terrarium dedicated to other Pleurothallids?

No this is my only dedicated terrarium, I have another with assorted Orchids and utricularia with a other odds and ends of plants.

 

[Pleurophile33]

No this is my only dedicated terrarium, I have another with assorted Orchids and utricularia with a other odds and ends of plants.

Cool. Have you posted pics of your other terrarium lately? I’ll have to check it out. I really enjoy seeing orchids flourishing in terraria and Pleuros in particular.

 

[Yukondave]

Here's a newer photo, lots of vegetative growth but nothing blooming yet except the Masd. that is reblooming after taking a month off.

 

[Pleurophile33]

Nice set up. So do you ever have problems with algae breeding in your wet clay pellets at the bottom? I’m trying to decide how to organize the bottom of mine and what material to use. Also, does LFS stand for long strand sphagnum? Is that the non-living stuff?

 

[Yukondave]

Nice set up. So do you ever have problems with algae breeding in your wet clay pellets at the bottom? I’m trying to decide how to organize the bottom of mine and what material to use. Also, does LFS stand for long strand sphagnum? Is that the non-living stuff?

Sorry, I completely missed this post. I haven't had any problems with algae so far and all my terrariums have clay pellets on the bottom. I do have this growth in my wetter tank but it doesn't seem to be causing any problems yet.


Yes LFS is long fibre sphagnum and it is not living although you can get spontaneous growth from it.

 

[Yukondave]

It looks like I may be getting a flower spike on my Dracula rezekiana.