LMAO!!! this is an excellent thread...

yea i'm kidding...you're kidding...we're all a bunch of kidders! and Calvin is a cool name for a kid. Is that from Calvin and Hobbes? My sis's kid is named Keaton...isn't that KRAZY!!!?? woohoo!!

*ahem* yes mothers are strange birds. Mine has three or four green thumbs and a plant room, a deck, high humidity most of the year, AND a love of plants and gardening...and yet I haven't been able to get her to fall for orchids. She would rather paint china I think. (((( Mom )))) (she's gone to Europe and I told her to bring me back some orchids!!)(she said "is Hungary and Czech republic known for orchids?")( I said "who cares!!?? find me some!!")

....sorry to be so parenthetical...

ummm....yea....terrariums rule!

Yes, Calvin is from Calvin and Hobbes. =) He even has a stuffed tiger named Hobbes. The funny thing is, everyone in our church thinks we named him after the great theologian, John Calvin. Though since the comic character is actually named after John Calvin (and Hobbes is from Thomas Hobbes), I guess in a way he is named after a theologian! He's so cute though. He really looks like the comic Calvin, complete with blond hair sticking up at the back (top) of his head. Everyone who sees him thinks he's just the cutest thing. When we go for walks in the mall, he waves and smiles at everyone and instantly charms them all. =) It's so funny. . . Hmmmmmmm. . . I was going to say something else, and now I haven't a clue what it was! Anyways. . . yes, my terrarium renovation. . . *ahem* Still no extra ca$h to actually do anything yet. It really bugs me that I can't just cram it full of plants and have it look good. Blast this negative space! Oh, I have to go hang up the laundry now. Diapers. Yes, we do cloth diapers. A little more work, but way more environmentally friendly. And Calvin is throwing a temper tantrum again. . . he's been doing them for days, ever since he got his latest shots. Poor kid. . .

I got a persian shield! Was walking into Superstore (a grocery store) and saw some that they were obviously trying to get rid of, selling them for 74 cents each, in 4 inch pots. They weren't all that healthy, but nothing a little TLC can't fix! I'm so pumped. . . I love this plant! It's on my balcony for the summer, but come winter, it's going in my terr!
And here's another cute pic of Calvin, taken at my parent's house, where we had his birthday party. Yes, he is a year old! Time flies. . .

{{gwi:1270295}}

wow that's a score! I'm totally in love w/ them as well. The one i have still looks really nice. I'm thinking a good tip for them may be to plant in semi shade cuz the new leaves on mine look spectacular! I may take a few pics of the backyard...I planted my new alocasia today and it looks coooooool....

That is one cute kid! Kinda reminds me of my 3-yr old nephew (also a toe-head). I'm sure he's constantly cracking you up eh? Getting him into plants early i see...good job!

hey since you have an abundance of persian shield and a LOT more space in your terrarium then I do...how bout doing an experiment now in seeing how they do? Like try to root a cutting or something? For me to do it I'd have to start a new tank or take something out to make room.

A toe-head? What does that mean, anyways? I've heard it before, but never really got it. I gather it has something to do with his haircut. He has since gotten a buzz-cut, because I was sick of trimming his hair every month (it grows SO fast), and he's such a sweaty kid, I figured it would cool him down in these hot summer months. But yes, he is constantly cracking us up. He's so funny! Nearly everything he does is cute. And of course both sets of grandparents are completely besotted. It's my parent's first grandkid, and they love him to death. It's my husband's parent's fourth, and they still love him to death! Both sets live in the city too, and he sees them every week at church. It's great for him (and us, free babysitting!).

Well, I don't really have an ABUNDANCE of persian shield, but I could probably take a cutting. As for planting them in semi-shade, I don't have a choice! Just an east-facing balcony garden for me. Of course it is crammed with plants, and I'll take some pics when I can, but yeah, nothing but shade plants for me! Oh well, I'm used to shade gardening and I love it. I actually dislike gardening in full sun. Not enough of my favourite plants like it. =)

Well I guess I don't know for sure...100%...what toe-head means...wait I'll ask my co-workers...woohoo!!! I've now learned something today!!! First of all...its "tow" and not "toe"...my bad.

Anyway...it refers to someone with white-blond hair resembling "tow" which I found out means short, coarse, flax or hemp fibers, ready for spinning.

I knew it meant a blond person...but now I know so much more!!! yay!! ....and so do you.

Yeah, I was pretty sure it was tow-head. But I didn't know the rest! Cool! ya learn something new every day. . .

Hi
I took a cutting from a Persian shield and wrapped it in shagnum moss and tucked it into a nook in the seepage area
of the waterfall in the terrarium. Surpise!! it not only rooted and is growing epi it has grown brace roots which go all the way down to the water. This method has also worked with a spider plant and two types of Alocasia. The only thing that failed is a N.Guinea imp..Worked with walleriana an niamniamensis Imps. but have got no flowers.
Gary

Aww, Sahoy - Calvin is so adorable! What a lovely looking family you are. :)

Thanks, Elizabeth! =) Yes, Calvin really does instantly charm anyone who sees him. Especially since he has learned to wave. He just smiles and waves at people everywhere we go, it's so cute!

I took a cutting from my persian shield yesterday and stuck it in the dirt in my terr, so we'll see how it does. I'm betting it will root easily, since it seems like the type of plant to do that, like coleus. And with the humidity so high, how can it not succeed? It looks awesome in my terr! Totally cool plant. And I put the main plant in a new pot on my balcony, and it looks really good. The pot is a cream colour, and somehow it sets off the purple leaves really well. So take note, all you persian shield growers! =) I've also found that purple plants look very good in gold or green-gold pots. (it's the purple-yellow complimentary colour thing).

Hey Sa...that's interesting about the pot color/colour and the persian shield. I had some big rocks in the front that I moved to the back yard and one of them is very light in color...like a limestone I guess. I put it behind the persian shield and just like you said...it really sets it off. I can't believe I never knew about this plant until this year...kinda makes you wonder what else might be out there eh?

I got fans in my terr! Some guy that's friends with my DH had an old light fixture for a fish tank that he gutted, and he gave me the two little cooling fans from it! DH hooked them up last night, and they're great! They keep it WAY cooler in there (was quite warm from the heat of the lights, about a 10 degree difference!) and they're also totally silent. And so small! Only about 2" x 2", so they're very unobtrusive. I hope the orchids like it. =) The only problem is that even though they are inside the tank, they are pulling some air in from 'outside', so it is dropping the humidity. Now I just need a false bottom and an automatic misting system. . . =)

My persian shield is flowering! The flowers are purple and tubular, and I like them! The cutting in my tank is also doing very well. The smaller leaves it had have actually grown, even though the thing probably doesn't have any roots yet. Gotta love high humidity!

And yeah, I do wonder what new plants will be discovered in the future! I'm sure that not every mountain or rainforest has been fully explored, so there are probably plants (even orchids!) that we have no idea about. Pretty cool! And each one is perfectly designed for it's environment. . . amazing!

Well, I checked the cutting just before I left to go camping, and sure enough, it had rooted! Now that was fast! That's just over a week, with no rooting hormone or special potting medium or anything. Just good ole high humidity and evenly moist soil. I've decided I love this plant. The colour is very good in my terr, better than the one that is outside (though it's new leaves are looking better than the old ones). More flowers on the one outside, too. Gorgeous! I was actually going to pinch the flower things off when I first saw them because they looked like coleus 'flowers', and the plant is so like a coleus that I treat them almost the same, but then saw a faded purple flower hanging from one of the little spike things. Sure glad I left them on! How's yours doing, Breezy?

I'm getting antsy to begin really renovating my terr. . . need to buy some more soil and vermiculite. . . and I decided to fill in the gaps with coleus cuttings for now. Nice colour, easy to pinch or cut back to keep small, and you can use the cuttings to make new plants! Gotta love it. . .

I've decided to do some more extensive reno. than I first thought, on finding out that my wonderful DH is going to get me a misting system for my birthday! So, in addition to putting in a false bottom, I'll be using some expanding foam to sculpt a back-ground. I'll still have my waterfall, but I want to make the rest more interesting. I'll also probably use c.h.c for the substrate, since I think that regular soil would stay too wet being misted more often. Obviously this will require more moolah, so it will take a while. But you can expect pics when it's done! Anyone have any great ideas for how I could make the landscape more interesting, especially bearing in mind the needs of PDFs, and aside from terracing?

Hey all, another update: Yesterday I potted up most of my terr. plants in preparation for putting the false bottom in. The soil was soaked! I'm surprised I hadn't lost any plants to root rot! I also learned a few things: don't put in 5" of dirt or other substrate! The plants don't need that much! 3" would have been just fine. Apparently when plants are not in pots they root more shallowly, especially paph. orchids! They must fill deeper pots because they can't grow sideways, so they grow down. Those paphs. sure had looooooong roots! And stupidly, I broke two (or three?) of them off of one of them, even though i was trying to be careful!

I've also decided against the foam background idea, because I think my terr. appears deeper than it is because of the photo background. Instead, I will add more driftwood. I will either buy it or experiement with making some out of PVC, as practice for my big terr. I will also need to add more vertical surfaces for a gecko to climb on (see post on Day Geckos), and a basking spot.

Man your posts really wear me out! such high energy!! where does it come from? Someone should attach a turbine...hehe

I'm all hot and sweaty from being in the yards. I got two bags of cedar mulch and a slingshot and some rodent poison. I've had quite enough w/ the squirrels. I called in sick today so I was able to witness their misdeeds. One chewed off and carried away a nice branch of my xmas cactus. Another crawled up and carried off a top of a different plant. they kept coming back after every time I scared them off. Finally when I saw one on each end of the patio railing within a few feet of my orchids...that was it. Now it is war...and they will lose.

My persian shield cuttings are doing well!! The one in my closed ten gallon tank seems to be doing the best whereas the one in a jug of water along w/ some other cuttings and a big diffenbachia is doing ok...i need to check it for roots and pot it up and add more cuttings. I still plan to stick a cutting in my big tank where I expect it will do just fine.

I've been watering plants and soaking orchids all day and I'm worn out! Your ideas sound awesome and I can't wait to see pics!! :)

Good luck with WW3 on squirrels! I read the squirrels post on the orchids forum with much interest and humour. Apparently they are much-hated. I still find them cute, but I don't have a real problem with them damaging my plants here (not at all, really), so I don't have a reason to hate them. Maybe you could rig up one of those motion-sensing sprinklers to spray them every time they enter your yard? Get a dog, preferably a hound? I don't know, just tossing out ideas. =) I wonder why they seem to enjoy destroying garden plants so much? It's not like they eat them all. . . weird!

BTW, you just think I have high energy because you're so old you can't remember what it's like to be as young as me and have even normal energy levels. =) *evil grin* Just kidding! =) =P

An evil grin to match your evil comment!!! That's what's wrong w/ the youth today...no respect for their elders.

I'm ONLY 35!!! 3.5 decades....just BARELY old enough to run for president. (I don't think I had your energy levels even when i WAS as young as you...those 'dark ages' were great times!)

oh yea....terrariums rule!!!

8~/p>

Yeah, I know you're not really THAT old. =) My husband is 6 years older than me, and I always tease him about being so old, and that I'm him beautiful young wife. LOL Of course he agrees because he knows what's good for him! =)

BTW, I really don't have high energy levels. Pretty average, i would think. Taking care of only one kid is really not hard, and leaves me with a significant amount of free time. Okay, not really FREE time, but I can surf the 'net while he plays with his toys all over the living room floor (the computer is in the same room). Pretty happy kid, doesn't require constant interaction or close supervision. It also doesn't involve much intellectual stimulation, which is why I love having these things to think about and plan. My plants help keep me sane. =) Don't get me wrong, I love being a mom, but I do miss all the learning I did in school. I would take classes like Greek Mythology just so that I could amass more knowledge about those types of things. Not to mention that it sure helps in interpreting all those allusions in novels and poems and whatnot in English class. I need to learn something new soon. . . perhaps another language? I've been meaning to teach myself Italian one of these years. Have the software and everything. All in preparation for my trip to Europe with my hubby after the kids are out of the house. . . =) (Lord willing) But that is YEARS from now. In the meantime I have my terrariums. =) And my cat. Though i actually think that Calvin likes him more than I do. They play games of chase together, and both of them have a blast. It's so cute! Anyways. . . just more midnight ramblings. . .

Well whether or not you have energy your posts always do and are always fun to read. Keep it up!

And you better get cracking on that terrarium sooner rather then later cuz if Calvin is anything like my nephew, Keaton...who is now 3... you will, in the future, have much less energy and much less free time. :)

tell kiyoshi his ficus cuttings are rooting. ;-)

you know...i think i like your posts cuz they are similar to mine...we both use exclamation points and emoticons...excessively!!!! 8~)

p.s. spanish, italian, and french have a LOT of similarities and if you learn one you could probably learn all three at the same time. you have lots to do.

I don't use punctuation and emoticons excessively!!! What are you talking about?!???! =P =)

LOL, anyways, I will tell Kiyoshi about the ficus cuttings, but you really don't have to go to so much trouble! I told you before that I can get ficus pumila here, and I don't think you have the variegated kind, which is the only kind I like. You could always do your own 'contest' between wandering jew and ficus. =)

And yes, I know that as soon as Calvin can walk, and then run, i will have much less time and energy. =) And by the time he's three I hope he has a little brother or sister, so then I'll have even less time and energy!

And I already know french fairly well, and have noticed how similar spanish is. I'm not finding italian so similar though. I believe it is closer to greek. And of course english has many word roots in greek, so I'm sure that most western languages are connected, and I will probably learn more once I start actually trying hard enough. =)

As for my terr, I'M WORKING ON IT!!!! =) Lack of money, not time, is the main inhibitor for me, but since eggcrate and PVC are quite cheap, I should be getting some soon. And then there is the misting system for my b.day. Yay! I'm so excited! =) Anyways, I need to go now, because Calvin just went down for his nap, and that is my once chance do either do the dishes or have a shower, and today is a dishes day. And there are lots of them. . . =) *sigh* Bye-bye then!

Well, I finally made some serious progress on the reno today! DH got the eggcrate and PVC for me yesterday, and today I spent all morning cleaning out the tank. I had already potted up the plants, and they are all sitting in my kitchen sink right now. It took me 3 hours to take all the gravel out and mop up the water and clean all the dirt and sand out!! Then I tackled removing the stupid little water resovoir. Got most of the silicone off with a razor blade, but still couldn't get the glass off. Thankfully, my Sweetie got home just about then, and finished it for me. =) Rinsed the tank again, and then stuck the PVC sections in! Then I attached the screen to the eggcrate with electrical tie-wraps (just so that it's easier to remove: one piece), and put that in! I'm really excited now! Spent the rest of the afternoon doing that (in between feeding my child and playing with him periodically when he needed attention), and now my waterfall is in, with the pump underneath. Haven't put any water in, because I want to be sure the silicone holding the PVC pieces is cured, and I don't have enough RO water on hand to test my waterfall anyways. Also, I'm rebuilding the waterfall (making it a bit taller), so that silicone needs to dry first as well. The depressing part is that I won't be able to do anything after I've got the waterfall done. Can't afford new substrate (I want to use bark chips) yet. Or can't it. . . my Grandma visited me today and gave me some birthday money, so maybe if I don't buy that Bird of Paradise, I can get bark chips. . . Hmmmmmmmmm! Yes, I think I will forgo the BoP. My one large window is crammed with plants already anyways, especially since I had to bring them all in off the balcony yesterday, because it SNOWED last night! Yes, you read that correctly. Welcome to Canada. =) Fall is suddenly upon us! The leaves haven't even turned yet, and it snowed. . . some tree branches got broken, I heard, because of course the leaves held the snow and got too heavy. It all melted by this evening, but still. . . winter is coming! =P Good thing I have my 'indoor garden' to keep me happy. =) I hope to have everything nicely set up by the reptile and amphibian expo in April next year, so that I can go look at some critters and possibly get one! That would be so cool. . . not that I relish handling crickets. . . maybe I can get good at grabbing them with chopsticks so I don't have to touch them. =) Mealy worms are way out, and fruit flies are a definite possibility if I can figure out how to culture them sustainably, since you can't buy them at pet stores here for some unknown reason. The capital city of Alberta, and we don't even have a decent specialist reptile/amphib. pet store! Nevermind decent, we don't have a single one! I have discovered that leopard geckos are by far the lizard of choice here though, and they don't eat fruit flies, so that could explain it.

ANYWAYS, enough rambling. In the meantime I will concentrate on creating a fabulous landscape and then inviting my parents over with their digi. =) And, of course, saving some room for the fabulous plants I will be buying this Christmas in Georgia. =) It's coming up soon now! I'm so excited!!!! =)

It's looking good! Taking a forced break right now, (Calvin woke up from his nap crying and needed to be comforted, and then he fell asleep on my shoulder. Obviously didn't sleep long enough! Still sleeping on me now. . .) so I thought I may as well post here! Bought a 2 cubic foot bag of shredded cedar mulch and some more RO water yesterday. The false bottom is now full enough that I can run my waterfall, and it looks great! Going off to the side a bit, so I'm working on fixing that. I soaked the mulch (incredibly cheap stuff by the way, I highly recommend it to everyone, even for potting 'normal' houseplants) in RO water and removed the largest chunks, and then I set about creating the landscape! Mostly done now, it just needs some tweaking, and I hope that all those tiny bark bits I rinsed down the bathtub drain don't clog it. . . =) I made the back corners quite high and used all of the mulch, so it's quite deep in places, though I did use some overturned plastic flowerpots to help raise it up without using so much substrate. The water in the false bottom is now that classic tea colour , which doesn't really bother me at all, but now I understand why a misting system must be separate, and have perfectly clean water! My next step will be to figure out how to place my driftwood. I think I might need more, but for now I'll have to work with what I've got. I was originally thinking that I would make the entire tank look like a miniature garden or piece of forest, but decided that I would have to buy too many new plants for that, so I'll just keep things to scale and replace the waterfall (which is supposed to look like a mountainside) at some later date, to bring it more in scale with the plants. I do still want to make a mini landscape, so I'll use the waterfall for that in a different terrarium or dish garden in the future. Then my little Japanese man can have a pool to fish in! =) Anyways, I'm sure this isn't all that interesting to y'all, because no one is replying to all my posts on this thread, so I'm really just writing this all down for my own benefit. =) It's fun though! Will hopefully finish (mostly) this afternoon and evening, if Calvin co-operates. He's a bit crabby and clingy today, so we'll see. . .

What is this your personal online diary??? hehe

I've meant to repsond but I can't get a word in edgewise! haha!! i'm KIDDING!!!

ummm....cedar mulch? Is it landscape mulch? I've bought three kinds of mulch this year for the yard, cedar, cypress, and bark. I only got a little bit of cedar and only recently but next year I think I'll see if I can get a truckload of it. The other two...I had soooo many mushrooms come up!! I don't know if they were in the mulch or in the ground and the mulch enabled them to come up. I'd be interested to hear if you get any mushrooms in your tank.

I can see some real advantages to cedar due to its insect repellent properties. i wonder if there is ever an issue w/ the false bottoms with the mesh blocking up as the media above breaks down. And what about sludge in the bottom? Eventually it must build up...I can't quite imagine dismantling the whole thing to deal with it.

oh by the way...our friend Komi sent me a big box of gessies! Not that i needed any more plants...

keep us posted! I'll be in San Francisco for two weeks and I really can't imagine all the fun posts I'll be missing!

:^)

You'll just have to find an internet café in 'Frisco, won't you? =)

I'M DONE!!! =) And yes, I do mean the landscape cedar mulch. I would LOVE it if it grew mushrooms! And yes, I did think about the anti-bug/fungal/bacterial/etc. properties. Also, it smells nice. =) I never thought about clogging up the false bottom though. . . my waterfall is not running as well today, which menas the pump has gotten clogged up a bit with various cedar debris. Now I have to get into it and clean it. . . yay. =P I'm worried about giving my plants MORE transplant shock, so I think I'll wait a few days until it gets really bad. I wonder if I can rig up some kind of pre-filter to surround the pump so that the flow isn't obstructed. Kind of sucks to discover this after everything's in! Guess I should have waited at least a day before planting it, so see what happened with the waterfall. Endless problems with that thing! It really does look great though! I changed the plants around a bit, so that it's not the exact same terrarium, and it just all looks way better. It looks like a little hidden valley now. The most difficult plant to place was the T. cyanea, because it's got such a huge spread, but I found the perfect spot for it in the end. It is one of the plants I will have to move in order to access the pump. Good thing it won't get transplant shock, being just kind of stuck in some driftwood! I'm more worried about the fern and persian shield cuttings. Why would sludge build up over time though? I mean, how is it going to get down there? I did put screen over the eggcrate. Ah well, whatever happens, it's nice to have my waterfall running! it does raise the humidity nicely, though mostly it just looks great. =) AND, I still have three good-sized gaps, and one small one, for some new plants! =) Not to mention the space on the driftwood at the back for mini-orchids and the like. Don't think I have room for any more tillies though, unless they are a lot smaller than cyaneas! I know I want to get a crypt. or two, and some kind of ground-cover vine, like F. pumila or quercifolia. The wandering jew is just too big. I'm growing it as a normal houseplant now, and it's working well. I want more purple/pink foliage plants, like the persian shield. I'll use coleus for now, but I'll need to find something better for long-term use. Possibly episcas? Enjoy your gessies from Komi! And you always need more plants, silly! =) Anyways, I am only half-paying attention to what I'm writing, so it is probably all very disconnected and rambly. Enjoy your trip!

Hey thanks! Here are some more thoughts based on your incoherent ramblings... ;-)

The issues you're having w/ your waterfall are precisely why I like the idea of a more pond-esque system where a hose goes from the lowest pool of the water feature, out the back, to a bucket containing a submersible pump. The pump would then send the water back to the high point/origin of the waterfall. Seems to me that it makes the possibilities of problems IN the tank very limited and makes maintenance, adjustments, cleaning, etc. much easier. I haven't done this so its speculation. You can certainly rig up something at the inflow of your pump to lessen it sucking in debris...a pre-filter and in fact I'm sure your hubby has enough left over msc. parts from his tanks that you could easily scrape together something.

Sludge...leaving aside little bits of things falling through the mesh and possibly dead springtails falling into the water...just the various dissolved solids and suspended bacteria and other organisms dying and sinking to the bottom will eventually form a layer of sludge. It may be that the oils leaching out of the cedar will help keep the water ummm....less fertile for awhile...but certainly eventually you'll get some sludge buildup. But anyway you'll probably want to "renovate" your terrarium again before that becomes a problem and you could then shop-vac it out.

And lastly...tillys...the cyanea is one of the biggest. Aside from a few specimen sized plants of other types that I've seen...every other kind is MUCH smaller then cyanea. Most of them are also true epiphytes so i think you probably have room for 20 or 30-odd tillandsias mounted on rocks, wood, walls and back. In fact cryptanthus is a lot more invasive size-wise then any tillandsia. You can't beat the color but those stiff leaves in their round rosette can be kind of pushy. However if you crowd them they'll grow taller w/ smaller rosettes like a pagoda. A couple of well placed crypts. and some tillies on the walls would really set off your tank. Cant wait to see more pics!

LOL, Mr. B, you read my mind! I was also thinking that I would probably want to renovate my terr again before sludge build-up became a problem. =)

Unfortunately, I won't be able to house my pump outside of this tank, because it is not safe for drilling, and I don't want to see the tubing going up the wall. It could work if I hid the tubing by making an expanding foam background, which I have decided will for sure be a part of my next reno. of this tank (in a couple years). I did plug my pump in again today (had unplugged it a couple days ago because it sounded like it had problems), and it does seem better. Still obstructed a bit, but I don't want to go digging in there yet. I'll wait until it really stops itself up good.

Good to hear about the tilly size! I'll be getting a few more then. . . and some crypts, no matter how pushy they are! They are so gorgeous. . . like jewels!

sahoyaref:
I've been reading all your posts, and yours too, Mr Breeze, but I don't have much to add. I'm also working in my yard, this week, it's been sunny and nice, however it just started raining again :(
I've been also doing some paintings, so spending less time at the computer :)
My terrarium is doing fine, my lights came in and looks like most plants like it better. For some of the plants, I think, is too much, but I'll wait a bit longer and see, if they continue to get a somewhat lighter green than they are suppose to be, then I'll remove them and put them in a plant dish, in my patio.
sahoyaref: next time you post a pic of your terrarium post also one of your husbands aquarium, would love to see it.
Ana :)

*sigh* It starts. . . the endless fascination with my husband's reef tank and the end of interest in my terrarium. . . =(

Just kidding! I'll try to post a pic. It's very hard to take good ones with my parent's digi because it doesn't know what to focus on and you can't manual focus, so often the corals are very blurry. I think we have a couple good ones though, but I don't know about any of the whole tank. We'll try to take some! I was wondering when someone would ask. . . =)

LOL!!!!!
I had aquariums all my life, gave them up when we started to travel a lot, since the house sitter didn't know anything about fish, she took good care of my poodles and the house, but not the fish...however, I've been trying to ask you for a pic for a long time, but since you mentioned in few posts that every time somebody comes to your place they are all interested in your husband aquarium rather than your terrarium, so I couldn't bring myself to ask you for one.... but I figured that maybe you'll be ok with it :)
Ana

Wow..go away for a bit to get married and come back to find sahoy's re-arranged her entire terrarium! Cool!!! :) It sounds like you've done lots of neat stuff with it sahoy, I can't wait to see a picture of it!

Oooooooo! I love weddings! Congrats, Elizabeth and hubby! I wish you the rest of your lives happily together! =) Wait to have kids if you can, because you do need that initial time of being just a couple to get used to things. =) I got pregnant (accidentally) three months after being married, and it wasn't so fun. I don't regret it now of course, as I just love my son Calvin, but if we could have done it differently, we would have! =)

Anyways, terrariums. . . =) I got most of the parts for my misting system the other day! Yes, it's a late Bday present, but better late than never! All I need now is a pump, which I think I'll be getting any day now. I'm so excited!

Ana: don't worry, I haven't forgotten the saltwater pics! Just haven't been to the forums in the past few days!

Okay, here are some pics! I hope photobucket is working. . . and please excuse the poor quality. My parent's digi has trouble focusing on anything in my husband's tank, for some reason, so everything turns out a little blurry. We will try to get some real film photos on CD soon, so that we can put them on the computer. And these are only close-ups, no full-tank views. Anyways. . . ta da! =)

{{gwi:1270297}}

These are called 'star polyps' (above). They have grown quite quickly into this large coral that is now at least 30 times larger than the original frag that my DH bought.

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This is a giant clam that is not yet so large. =) If you look at it from different angles, it ranges from blue to purple to teal. Quite beautiful! You absolutely must have a metal halide to grow these. We'll get one or two more (different colours/patterns) in the future.

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And here is another interesting coral. It's some kind of hydnofora, related to the popular acroporas. Acro's are the typical corals people think of when they think of corals. You know, the stony, branching ones that you can buy the dead skeletons of in some stores. To the left is a snail. This particular one has some hair algae growing on it's shell, which is quite funny, and it's the only hair algae anywhere in the tank! Must be something about the shell! We'll try to get some better pics in the near future!

WOW!!!!!!
That's a great set up! Beautiful!
The 'star polyps' is fantastic!
Well.....ok..... I like your terrarium better :)
Ana :)

Thanks! =) He has several other corals as well. It is really very nice, so I can see why people always love watching it. The corals move in the motion of the water, and the fish swim around. The first thing people ask about my terrarium (if they even notice it) is: are there any animals in there? And when i say 'No', they are immediately disinterested! So maybe once I have my PDFs people will like my terr. more. =) Not that that is the whole reason that I have a terrarium. It is for my own enjoyment!

Thanks sahoy! We decided on a Thursday to get married and had the ceremony the following Tuesday. Five days to plan a wedding makes it low stress and lots of fun! *L* I highly recommend it, I've never laughed so much in my life. :) The icky part was the two weeks afterwards when we had to sort through all of our stuff and I had to move all my crap from my apartment to his place. We did sort of "have children" right away as I'm now a step-mom to two kids who still live at home. They're well past toddler age however, so we've still got lots of time together to just enjoy being married. :)

Tell your husband his aquarium is gorgeous (I especially like the "not so giant yet" clam) and if my husband ever switches from fresh water aquariums to salt water ones we know who to pester with questions. ;)

But I must admit, I'm more partial to the terrarium. I've always loved plants. With or without the froggies, my attention would be more focused on the terrarium. :)

Yes, I remember wanting to elope! We had two years to plan our wedding, and sometimes I just wanted to scream and run away! And now looking back, I wonder why I even cared that we had a colour scheme and that things matched. No one ever notices, and I wasn't even aware of much while it was happening! =)
And yes, older children are always nice. =) Any kid that doesn't give you morning sickness and sleeps through the night from day one is wonderful! =)

Thank you for your compliments on my terrarium. I would be more interested in some else's terrarium as well, but I don't know anyone here who has one! I love my husband's tank too of course, but I am also more partial to plants. =)

I get back from my honeymoon, and what do I find? A conversation on honeymoons! Well our wedding went great, and I've got some pictures up. We had a theme of 'a bit like lord of the rings', and I was astounded by how many crafty and thrifty friends I have, and what a great job they could do with so little!

My terrarium was, to my great surprise, looking wonderful after my being away for 4 weeks. Who would have thought that some 100 million year old plant species could look after themselves without someone to carefully mist them every day, and carefully remove dead material?

Sadly my greenhouse didn't fair so well - the watering system got a hiccough and our housemate had to turn it off so that her clothes could dry on the line. Lost about half my cuttings, and 3/4 my seedlings.

I've finally realised that I should grow some dendrobiums in my desk-lamp terrarium (particularly as I have a bunch of dendros that need to go somewhere:).

njh

Awwwwwww. . . what a cute couple! =) I love Lynne's dress, and your 'greenleaf' cape is pretty cool, too. I wanted to do a theme for my wedding too, an Oriental theme, but both sides of the family are way too 'normal' for that. So someday I'll throw another big party, and that one will definitely be oriental! Back to you though, how was the honeymoon? Where did you go? And what is that bush with the blue berries in the background of one of your wedding pics? I want one! Probably will never have one though, since you're in Oz and I'm way up here. Sucks about your greenhouse! And yes, dends are great for terr's! Mine is doing very well, and I won 4 others on eBay, so I'll be putting one or two of them in there when they arrive as well. Especially the Dend. kingianum, though I've heard they prefer it cool, so that wouldn't work so great. Anyone know if that's true?

On a side note, I still haven't gotten around to assembling my misting system. Mostly because I need still more RO water, and also because I can't figure out how to attach the little tubes to the top perimeter of my tank! I don't want big suction cups showing. I want it to be as discreet as possible. My light canopy hangs over the tank about an inch, so I have about an inch to work with before things become visible. I think I can probably rig up something with electrical tie wraps for the front and back of the tank, but not the sides, because I have a sliding glass top, and the glass won't be able to slide if there is stuff in the way! There also is no room, because of the plastic track for the sliding glass. So has anyone seen little clips that could be siliconed to glass and hold a tiny (1/4") piece of tubing?

Honeymoon was great! We went over to South Western Australia (damn it's a big place - we drove 9000km and only got as far as Geraldton). I will have a website about it soonish.

The 'Blue Berries' are actually flowers of a smokebush (Conosperma sp.) which comes from WA. We saw plenty of them in the wild, but they are very hard to propagate.

I grow kingianum outside. It's very tough - it comes from the south east coast of Australia. I don't think it would mind hot and humid though.

Regarding clips, in .au you can get clips for putting christmas lights on the wall, with doublesided tape on the back. I would look for something like that, and attach it with silicone.

Hmmmmm. . . clips for Christmas lights, eh? I should be able to find something like that, especially since Christmas is drawing near!

So those are blue FLOWERS?! Awesome! Now I really want that smokebush. . . We do have a shrub here called Purple Smokebush, but I don't know if it's the same botanical name. Will have to look into that. . . Thanks!

Well, the misting system is installed, but it doesn't work very well. =( I'm pretty sure that the only problem is that I need a stronger pump. The water comes out, but it's only a trickle that just goes straight down the glass. Not exactly beneficial to the plants! =) The pump also seems to have trouble starting, and sometimes it doesn't come on at all, so it may be a problem with that individual pump. Good thing it's new and I still have the warranty and everything!

I used some kind of sticky things that electricians use to attach stuff to smooth surfaces. You can slide tie-wraps through them to tie stuff onto them, so it works really well! And they're nice and small and unobtrusive. The only thing you can see from the front of my tank is the little misting heads sticking down, and they are tiny. The sticky things are white (everything else is black), so they do show when you sit down and are looking up a bit at an angle into the terr, but since i want to build a back from expanding foam next time I renovate my terr, I will be able to hide them then.

i also collected some more moss from the forest, to see if fall is also a good time to collect moss. It's the only thing left that's green now, so it was easy to find large patches (I do my best to only collect small pieces from large patches of moss so that my impact is minimally apparent) at a glance. Got a few different types, and three of them are very pretty, so I really hope that they grow and do well in my terr. My terr is really taking shape! I still need some more wood for the back to mount plants on, and a few more plants, but other than that, I love it! I did have my parents over and took some pics, but I am still waiting to get them emailed to me, so y'all will just have to wait a little longer! =)

Da-da-da-daaaaaaaaaaa! Presenting: my 'new' Terrarium! (It's still not quite finished, and there are more plants in there now in some of the gaps, and I've moved a couple things. But anyways. . .)

An over-all view of the tank
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Close-up of the right side
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Close-up of the left side
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You can see that I put a mini phal. orchid (still in it's pot) in there just for some extra flowers for the photos, but I wish I hadn't, because it looks all washed-out white, whereas in real life it's white with pink blush and a yellow lip. Very pretty! Also, that brom-looking thing with all the brown leaf tips is a pineapple top that I am attempting to root in there. I will take it out and pot it up when it has some roots. And, of course, I have put some of my rock and sea-shell collections in there! =) It is most enjoyable to see them on a daily basis. Since these pics were taken, the following changes have been made: I bought an aluminium plant and a pink polka-dot plant (the only one I have ever seen and liked!) and placed them in the top left-hand corner, I bought a gesneriad of some kind (I think it's a sinningia or very small strep, or even an episca, I really don't know because it's not flowering right now) and placed it at the front just to the right of the stream, I bought some java moss and placed it on the wood and ground near the stream (because it stays wet there all the time, and my misting system isn't operational yet for the rest of the terr. to stay moist enough for java moss), and I put a piece of wood over the stream to form a bridge (also covered in moss) so that the future inhabitants will be able to get to that side, too. The water is shallow enough for PDFs, but the stream does flow fairly rapidly, and I want them to have options. =) I also moved the persian shield to where the potted orchid is in the pics, and I have just decided today to take the dend-phal orchid out, because it is too tall and I don't like it in there anymore. Too bad it's so well attached to the piece of wood it's on. . . I will have to mist it every day outside of the tank! =P Oh yes, and the nep has lost most of it's pitchers due to transplant shock, so it doesn't look as good as it does in the pics anymore. =( Good thing it's working on new ones! So, what do y'all think? I will post more pics again when everything is finished. And, in closing, here are some new pics of my DH's saltwater reef tank for those who enjoy them:

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In this last one you can see both of the fish inhabitants. The one on the left is a Mandarin, and the one on the right, just sticking his head out, is a six-line wrasse. He is looking straight at you, so it may be a little hard to see him. He likes to follow the Mandarine around. =) They are both very cute.

To see larger versions of all these pics, go to my photobucket albums. I've linked them below.

Here is a link that might be useful: sahoyaref's photobucket

Wow...I could spend hours in your living room gazing through glass! ...and then i'd look at your terrarium...
hahaha!!! I'M KIDDING!!! tell us more about hubby's reeftank eh? hahahaha....kidding again! :)

all joking aside, your tank looks AMAZING! I love it. Is the paph w/ the nice mottled leaves a new plant? That's a great spot for the Nep. You did a great job!! So what exactly did you do? I know you were having issues w/ the water feature. Did you have a false bottom before? Do you now? When are you going to get a crypt to sit right next to the stream in the middle?

you know...based on your response to a post in another forum...you've been growing orchids longer then me! And you're barely old enough to drive!!! you made me feel like a newbie again...hehe take more pics eh?

peace

Thanks, Mr. B! I was wondering when you would dare to show your face here again! =) Joking aside, there are two paphs with mottled leaves in there, and neither one is new. The one in flower in the pics is the oldest, and there is also one behind it, on the higher level. That one is Paph. Dellaina, and it has not flowered yet. bada has the same one, and his hasn't flowered yet, either. You may remember us lamenting together on the orchids forum a few months ago. =) It has six leaves now, one has died in the past (lower one), and it is just now starting a new one. Very slow-growing, and I'm starting to wonder what the problem is, because it is blooming size (I would think). And it's getting enough light, because the other one is blooming just fine! That's it's third blooming, second time in the tank, and the flower is lasting a very long time this time, which makes me happy. =)

To answer your other Q's, no, I didn't have a false bottom before, and I do now, which is why the waterfall works. I also put in a stronger pump for the waterfall (next size up), so that it is a stronger flow, which I wanted, and I also built it a little higher. I replaced the potting soil substrate with cedar bark mulch, which I think is working very well (though some of the selaginella had difficulty adjusting), and I built it up in the corners for a more interesting landscape. I'm going to get a crypt this Christmas when I'm down in Georgia, because they are ridiculously expensive here. Try $13. . . I think Black Jungle has them for $5, and I'll be ordering a couple other things from them too, because they don't ship to Canada. I won't be putting it by the stream though, I'll put it on the driftwood on the right side, by the T. cyanea, in between the fern and the fittonia. I took the persian shield away, remember? So now it's just all green on that side, and it needs some red or pink or purple. =) Still need to buy some driftwood for the back wall of the tank, and then I'll be able to order some mini orchids from Andy's (which I also hope to do this Christmas), and mount them back there. so it's really taking shape! I hope to get some PDFs next summer, but we'll see. I may be pregnant again by then and feeling too crappy to take care of some new pets, especially since it involves culturing the food myself. =P And yeah, I'm very pleased with the placement of the nep. I just kind of stuck it there, and then I realized, Hey, that looks really good! I love the way the pitchers can hang nicely, and of course it stays nice and moist and humid right next to the waterfall.

BTW, I AM old enough to drive! You can get your licence when you're 16 here, so I could have been driving for YEARS by now. No interest in it though. My learner's expires next spring, and I don't even think I'll renew it until I actually start learning to drive. I find it far too involved. I prefer to just sit and look out the window. =)

More pics will be forthcoming! I'm having my parents over this Friday, so I'll take a couple more then, showing what it looks like now (with the new plants and the bridge and all).

Oh Sahoy - your terrarium is gorgeous!! Well done!! I'm so impressed. :)

So, you replaced all of the substrate with the cedar bark mulch? You have no "soil" in there at all? I love how you built it up in the corners and the rocks and seashells really add to the look. I was looking for your mini av - did you take it out or am I just not looking in the right spot?

And does the stream lead to a pool of some sorts? I seem to remember your terrarium before had the waterfall (that wasn't working) and a small pond. Has the pond now become the stream?

That's right, Elizabeth, no soil at all! Other than the bits that were thoroughly full of plant roots, of course. Don't want to stress the plants too much by tearing at their roots to get rid of every last bit of dirt! =) Yes, I did take the mini AV out. It's all potted up on the shelf with my other AVs, and it STILL hasn't bloomed again! Silly thing. . . I will give it more time though.

No, the stream doesn't lead to a pool. There is a small pool at the base of the waterfall, which turns into the stream, and then the stream just flows across my terr and down into the false bottom again. I did have a separate pool before, yes, but I took that out because it was just stagnant water that grew algae. Not very attractive! Not neccessary, either. I originally put it in there because I was going to start with a fire-belly toad, and they need more water, but I won't be doing that anymore, so now the pond is just sitting on another shelf, waiting to be put into a different terrarium in the future. =)

I also took some more pics last night, so hopefully my bro. will email them to me today, and i can post them! =)

I only have two paphs. and only one of them (mottled leaf vinicolor type) blooms. I remember a post long ago on the orchid forum where an expert mentioned that certain types need lime added to the media. I think it is the mottled leaf types in general but only certain parentage. You could probably find more info. on that pretty easily.

And congratulations ahead of time on your potential eventual second baby!!! It goes without saying that, boy or girl, it has to be named Hobbes (or Breezy..hehe)

Oh yes, I almost forgot! I HIGHLY recommend that you check out Oak Hill for whatever plants you're wanting from Andy's. Aside from being a lot cheaper I think you get bigger plants. And if you're just going to mount them anyway, OH sends in pots and Andy's often sends on sticks that you might not be able to easily incorporate into your tank or remove from the stick to mount on cork or whatever. And I also believe, though its just speculation, that Andy grows in such ideal conditions that it makes it harder to transition his plants to different (less ideal) conditions. You might also want to check out H&R orchids (in Hawaii), Hoosiers and Countryside orchids (expensive but great selection), and Exotic Orchids of Maui. Oh and Santa Barbara Orchid Estates....ok i'll stop now!!! :)

Sahoy:
Was gone for few days and what do I find???? WOW!!!!!!
I have to hand it to you! You out did yourself, and many of us too! LOL!
Just gorgeous! Incredible!
Your husband's tank is great, but I'm partial to your terrarium :)
Well done! Congratulations!
Ana :)

Thanks Ana!

Yeah, right, Mr. B! I'm going to name my next kid after some guy on the Internet! My husband would really go for that. . . =) I'm not a hippy, you know, naming my kids 'Breezy' or 'Rainbow' or 'Sky' or some such thing. And Calvin has a 'pet' tiger named Hobbes, so we can't name the next kid that! =) Besides, it's not really suitable for a girl. I like Russel, Joshua (Josh), and Moses for boys names. Girls. . . I don't know. Something pretty and exotic, like Jasmine. Hey, what's more beautiful and exotic than orchids! I could name her 'Vanda' or 'Phalaenopsis' or 'Phragmipedium' or something! =) Riiiiiiiiiiiiight. . . =)

I have briefly checked EOoM and OH, but it seems to me that OH is kind of expensive, more so than Andy's for the ones I want. And I don't think EOom ships to Canada. It is a definite plus if OH's plants are bigger and in pots though. Mounted plants would be more difficult to incorporate in a terrarium. . . especially if it was a treefern pole mount with roots all through it. Impossible to un-mount! I will have to look into this more, I see. . . including the other ones you mentioned. I can only place one orchid order while I"m down south for Christmas though, because we just can't afford two big splurges! All of the plants I buy while I'm there are my Christmas presents from my wonderful DH, and I'm getting the biggest carry-on I can find for the flight back home! =) It will be so hard to stick to a select list! I will want to buy every plant that I see that we don't have up here! =) Especially CP's and gessies. . . must. . . resist. . . . =) As for paphs needing lime, I think I read that somewhere too, and I was wondering about that for my terr, because of the acidic medium (way back when I first set it up), and that's why I left one in it's pot, to see if that helped. It doesn't seem to matter much though, at least not for Maudiae hybrids. I wouldn't want to use lime in my terr though. It might be bad for froggies. I will ask the dealer about the Paph. Delliana next spring at the Orchid show if it hasn't bloomed by then, and maybe I will just have to take it out of my terr. and pot it up. I really do love paphs more and more though. I must get more. . . too bad they're so expensive! I'm always going for the cheaper ones, just to build up my orchid collection more! =)