Like African Violets? Forget about all the other stuff.
Set it up right and plant a few African Violets and have the right kind of lighting and humidity and it will be your most favorite one to look at !!!!

I can solve that problem. Give it to me. :) Then you won;t have to worry about it anymore. LOL, seriously, I like the african violet idea. I'm not much of a plant person, so I can't help much. I have several tanks, but they are for frogs. That is not to say they don't look good, because I think they do. Somehow I found plants that work for me, but I don't know much about any of them. Go with a water feature, too. there are nice water plants out there. I have a couple different kinds in mine, and a waterfall.

Hello back2eight,
got any images???

Well, not any new ones because my camera is broke, but I can show you the picture of when it was first set up. This picture is literally right after I finished getting the plants in there. It looks so different now. Plants have grown in, more have been added, and some have been taken out. But here is an idea anyway. Hopefully I will get my camera back soon. I had to mail it to a place to fix it.

Nothing against african violets, but Im sure with a little trial and error you will find the type of set up that works for you, I like the green jungle look myself, with just a flash of color here and there, water falls are always nice and can be done a couple different ways, most of which are described in detail in past post, you can look them up at the bottom of the page, if you dont find what your looking for feel free to ask all the questions you want, just please, pay attention =) I hope no one gets offended but some tend to ask the same questions over and over =( we can only type so much! LOL! Heres a few pics I just took of my set up.

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"if you dont find what your looking for feel free to ask all the questions you want, just please, pay attention =)"
Oh don't worry, iliketerrariums -- I'm not new to the forums [I'm actually the one who started the terrarium forum] -- I just haven't had any time to pop in for some time.

I also know what ya mean about "I hope no one gets offended but some tend to ask the same questions over and over =( we can only type so much!" Again been there done that -- wondering why some people don't read/search some posts first. :-D [Though I freely admit that there has been the odd occasion when I haven't had the time to do a thorough, I've posted and been more than happy if someone can connect me to the best appropriate post LOL]

Btw, is the terr you posted one of the ones you made from scratch? Looks good. What's the white "basket" in the ceiling. [That is the only part that would be nice to hide if that were at all possible.]

Nice terr back2eight -- that looks like quite a large tank! While 55 gal is definitely a bit larger than my 30 tall, it isn't THAT much bigger dimension-wise [much to my suprise] and, as I said, is actually shorter. So I'm going to have to be judicious with my use of the available space. Water features tend to consume space quickly so I know I will wish to keep it relatively small.

I expect an assortment of plants will eventually call it home. Primarily I'd like to focus on my mini orchids.

First off I would like to give you a great big "THANK YOU!" for starting this forum! =) I have learned a great deal from logging on and reading the answers to what now seem like silly questions, I know that the only stupid question is the question not asked, but they just "seem" silly now that I know what I know! LOL! Thanks for the comments on my set up,yes I did build it from scratch, its actually 2 30G tanks that I picked up at the flea market and glued together, built the hood too, the basket was built due to the fact that the heat from the lights was heating the tank to about 100 degrees! so I seperated the hood from the tank useing a piece of plexi, installed 2 fans in the hood, one on each side, one blowing room air in, the other blowing it out,then I drilled two one inch holes in the plexi so that I would have fresh air in the tank, the temp turned out to be a lot lower but I had almost no circulation in the tank, so, out of desperation, I rigged up the cage, its just a fan surrounded by eggcrate and mesh so the little critters dont get caught in the blades, I hope to come up with somethin a little better in the future.

try putting the fan on the outside!!
the terrariums are cool. i like terrariums but
there is only so much time!!!!
I would like to put one together using Anoles. I had an Anole in my greenhouse years ago but it got out and got ate by a hawk!!!!! or I think it was one of those small sparrow hawks!
Anyhow I do use containers in my greenhouse to house tropical selaginellas as I cannot maintain an even humidity and so it runs from 60 to 80% daily as I pop in and squirt it all down-I call it a tropical storm bursting in!!!
the gallon jars and covered jars are great for the club mosses.

cheers

On the outside? If I place it on the outside it will be doing nothing but circulating air through the canopy, I already have a fan blowing air in and another out of the canopy, if I place it on the other side of the plexi Ill be getting hot air from the canopy into the tank, I placed it inside and on the plexi to circulate the air inside the tank, it draws a bit of warm air from the canopy through the two one inch holes I drilled in the plexi, this is "fresh air" that is being drawn through the canopy so the air is circulated and refreshed constantly (although slowly) and it stays at a perfect 89F at the top of the tank and almost 85% humidity at all times during the day, at night it drops to about 74F but the humidity goes up to 100%, this might seem a bit much for some, but my plants and anoles (and now my green tree frogs) seem to LOVE it! The frogs have been reacting very positively to the simulated sundown and "moonlight" LED's! When the "day" floros go out the frogs creep out of their hiding places and start the hunt, then when the "blue" floros go out the "moonlight" leds come on they croak most of the night, then the process reverses in the morning, the fans come on and they creep back to their hiding spots and are back to sleep, so for now the fan works great, it looks a little out of place, but it does the job, if I find a way to hide it in the future I will. =)

guess I misunderstood.
What I was thinking was a venting set up where the fan points out of the terrarium in an upper corner. It can be attached on the outside of the terrarium and sucks the hot air out and into the room. ???
Hopefully I will be tackling this kind of problem later this year as I have an old 60 gal hex aquarium that is just sitting around and reading and seeing what you all are doing is giving me ideas on what I could do. So ??

I tried that a while ago with my second set up (a 60G hex!)and found that the fan blows the hot air out fine, but the humidity goes out with it! =( So then I had a problem keeping the air humid! I use fans that are a bit bigger than most use with their set ups due to my tank being a lot taller than most, so I have a larger volume of air to move, I found that the way its set up now moves large volumes of air inside the tank while keeping the humidity at a more than decent level =) as you go you will see that it takes a bit of tuning before you get everything the way your critter needs/wants it to be, thats why I tell people to set up their tanks completely, get EVERYTHING right, run it for a week or more, make sure everything is right, then get your critter, you and your animal will go through a lot less hassle if done this way =) Good Luck with your future set up! =)

Thanks for the advice! One thing I was thinking was setting up something like an evaporative cooler on one side with either the coil type or the flat type filters used in ponds and running tubing across the top of the filter and drip water through the tubing so that it flows down into the filter with a collection basin that I could pump out into a recycling or route into a waterfall in the terrarium and then pump out into recycling! Does this make any sense. I still have my ideas all in my head and will have to work out the specs and try and find out if I can get the appropriate materials that can do this.
Also since natural systems are always changing I would want to change the strength of air circulation and add some fluctation to amount of lighting (like less in early am/max at midday/less in pm to moonlite at night??? Maybe it is all too far fetched??? Just getting the ideas worked out and then the specs seem like an endless challenge!!