FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I put together a terrarium fairly recently to try my hand at growing Heliamphora. I haven't had a chance to post about it, but it's been together and functioning now for about a week. So far, it seems to be awesome!

I had the glass cut by the local glass shop about a half mile from my house. The dimensions are 50" long X 24" wide X 20" tall. I put the 1/4" pieces of glass together with the help of my wonderful wife Leah. We used clear silicone and rope to hold the sides up. It worked like a charm!

Finding the trim to use as an edge on the top was a bit hard, but I finally found something that would work. I also used 2.5" segments of PVC pipe (hand sawed) and a piece of egg crate from the lighting department in Home Depot to make an elevated platform. Then I filled the bottom with water.

Lighting is 4 high output T5 bulbs, but I'm going to add another 2 bulb T8 fixture to it.




You can see some Nepenthes rafflesiana in "intensive care" in there as well. I'm hoping that the elevated humidity helps them perk up, but they may already be too far gone.

In any case, the terrarium seems to be awesome! The daytime high temperature is usually below 25°C (77°F) and the humidity stays in the low 70% range during the day and up to 90% or so at night. I think I have a winner!

Hopefully the additional bulbs don't increase the temperature too much.

That's a very nice set up man

Great-looking terrarium setup, Matt. That Heliamphora minor x heterodoxa is SO cute.

I never knew Steve was red... Hmmm. anyways Where did you get that Heli Matt? I'm gonna take up the challenge of growing one.

Very nice terrarium, are you cooling it during the night?

allenc666 wrote:Where did you get that Heli Matt? I'm gonna take up the challenge of growing one.

I bid on it on eBay, but reserve wasn't met, so I contacted the seller directly and we worked out a mutual agreement. It was my Christmas present to myself!

moof wrote:Very nice terrarium, are you cooling it during the night?

Thanks! No, I'm not cooling it at night. The night times here are always very cool, even in the summer the night time lows are usually around 10°C. Right now, the terrarium is dropping to around 12°C or 13°C at night after peaking at 25°C during the day.

Temps sound perfect, nice work on the tank, looks professional!

renesis wrote:Temps sound perfect, nice work on the tank, looks professional!

Thanks renesis!

You get mad props on the homemade tank, from the pictures you I would swear that you purchased that...

95slvrZ28 wrote:You get mad props on the homemade tank, from the pictures you I would swear that you purchased that...

Hah, thanks!

Just out of curiosity, are those plants growing in live moss?

The live sphagnum moss is just a top dressing. Their roots are in my favorite peat mix (50% peat, 30% silica sand, 20% perlite by volume).

I see. Well, they look good (to an untrained eye at least ), I think I'll stick to plants that can grow without a terrarium for a while. My last terrarium experiment hasn't seemed to turn out very well...

I think that's a good plan. This is my first terrarium ever and I only got it to grow Heliamphora in. I might use it as a stepping stone for deflasked plants too, but in general, nearly all CPs do better outside of a terrarium.

Matt,
I am glade you like that heli .

I looks like it will be very happy for you .

Nice set up by the way .

Daren