I have a few highland Nepenthes

[sarracenialover]

I was wondering if anyone has a highland terrarium and would be willing to give me tips on building it or post a pic of it.

[wadave]

I'm currently building both a highland and a lowland terrarium and after quite a bit of research, and talking to the more experienced growers on this forum I've come up with the following.

It's a good idea to buy larger tanks than you first think of as you can be almost guaranteed that your collection will out grow a smaller tank. The plants grow and so will the number of plants as you ad to the collection.

I've personally gone for a 4 foot long, 2 foot wide by 16" high tank. I've had to get the tank custom made to get the extra width and lower height, and the price was almost the same as the standard size.

I've chosen T5 HO lights for their high lumen output without the worry of the high temps generated by halides. The price is quite a bit higher than standard fluros but I'm confident the extra expense will be rewarded by healthy and vigorous plants.

If you take a look at some of the previous posts there are many photos of tank setups that show pots sitting on mesh to prop them out of the water at the bottom of the tank. Or you can use foam or small pots if your tank is taller, just so the plants roots are not sitting in water.

Generally it is a good idea to have a small computer fan or something similar to create air movement. This helps prevent stagnant conditions which encourages fungus and mould. Prevention is waaaay better than cure.

A fan can also help dissipate heat build up from lights, this is important for highlanders.

A humidistat and thermometer are also helpful to show you if the conditions inside the tank are correct or not.

A timer for the lights.

I'm still debating on the best way to keep everything cool at night during our Australian summers where night time temps climb into the 30's (deg C).

Currently I'm simply going to place a juice bottle of frozen water into the tank at night before I go to bed but this is manual and open to forgetfullness/ nights when I may not come home/ holidays away.

There are chillers available, these are expensive and require a reservoir and a separate pump but atleast they can be automated via timers and thermostats.

You may also want to look at a stand to bring the whole thing to eye level, I'm simply going to build one myself.

My tank is still being made so sadly I can't show you any pics just yet.

I will go back through the old posts to see if I can find the appropriate link I was talking about above.

Dave.

[wadave]

Try looking at this one:

icps.proboards105.com/index.cgi?board=indoor&action=display&thread=1186177906

Dave.

[sarracenialover]

Thanks guys! I got a 18" x 18" x 18" terrarium with a fogger for cooling. So I think I'm ready to go!!!

[wadave]

I think it wise to point out the fogger won't actually cool anything, they just increase the humidity.

Cooling requires the exchange of temperature from warm to cool, whereas a fogger just creates water vapour or atomised the water into tiny droplets depending on what kind of humidifyer you are using.

Dave.

[sarracenialover]

Yes, but when I put my thermometer in there the temperature dropped. Plus, humidity increase is what a highland Nepenthes are suppose to expect because temperature drops could cause the humidity to get so high it creates fog. My fogger creates a cool mist and I use it at 9:00 pm then 6:30 pm for a short time to create a nice humidity/temperature/visual effect.