My vivariums!

In Sweden we do not have tropical conditions and we have (in most cases) cold winters. Therefore we culture most of our plants indoor. In order to provide some of the tropical plants with the correct environment we build vivariums with different conditions for the differnt species. These vivariums allows us to have a higher humidity, change temperature and to provide good light even if the plants are in a dark room.

It's rather easy to find bused terrariums for sale in the Internet. What may be tricky is if you'd prefere some speciell size of the terrarium. For instance, I'm rather fond of the with some hight to it, coz that makes it possible for me to culture light demanding and light sensitive plants in the same terrarium/vivarium. I simply put the once that like light at the top. If you, on the otherhand, would like to culture mostly species that do love light, perhaps a terrarium with less hight to it would be great?

Next thing to consider is which type of light you need, since the things the previous owner to the old terrarium has used may not be the best equipment for your plants. Most of the time orchids require a lot more light than reptiles do and one flourecent lamp may not be enought, probably you'll need something like five? You'll also need to think about ventilation and fans, because if the air stands still in an environment with high humidity you'll rather soon start to get mould etc. Also, most orchids will not like non-moving air, so do get a fan or two. ;-) In order to keep a higher humidity than you have in the rest of the room you may need a watersystem or some way of keeping the air moist. Depending on which species you're culturing they will most likely require different levels of humidity, som even close to 100%.

My first vivarium (the one Saca is exploring in the picture above) is made of glass and is 90 x 75 x 45 cm. It has ventilation in the roof and some closer to the bottom on one side of the vivarium. For my first vivarium I made a waterfall-background based on some real stones. The result was far better than I had expected and it weighs practecly nothing compared to the real stones. The waterfall provides me with higher humidity, 60-80% depending on season, time of the day and temperature. I bought new light from Dusk this spring and it provides me with a light which my Aerangis seems to think is ok. Most of them do not require much light to feel content. ;-)

My second vivarium was bought nearly 365 days after my first one. You notice pretty fast that one vivarium is not enough, so therefore this one is larger than the first, 150 x 100 x 60 cm to be precise. It has ventilation in the top and at the side and large doors which I can open if I need to.

At the moment there are not many plants in the vivarium, but there will be I promise you that. I have EpiWeb on the wall in the back and a small waterfall in the left corner. I still have some problems in keeping a good humidity in the vivarium, I'll have to see to that problem...