And here's some new ones of hubby's reef tank, and a couple paintings I've done (for Ana to see). Enjoy!

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Some with just the actinics on. The fluorescence is much more amazing in person!
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Now for two of the paintings I did in University two years ago
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This one is not this dark in real life
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And here are my guppies
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And some Phal. orchids to finish it off! =)
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Both are NOIDS.

It'sa verra nice!

/me remembers he has to put up a new set of pictures.

Very nice, SA! I haven't been around much lately, but I am impressed!

Thanks! Mr.B, where on earth are you? And Ana, you haven't said anything yet, either! I posted the pics of my paintings just for you!

saho, did u just leave the the orchids with pot and all in there? or did u un pot them and plant the in there?

~terry

Sa ol' girl...on earth, I'm in Oklahoma, but you knew that. ;-)

No I was spending some time recovering from viewing your hubby's reef tank! wow!!! amazing! hahahaha

I'm kidding of course. You know I love your tank and everything that you do on the earth. Its really gorgeous. You could fit right in w/ the dutch and I'm not just saying that. Of course i love your orchids as well. Did you like the pics I posted in the orchid gallery? I'll post some more tomorrow.

keep it real! keep in touch!! :) !!!!

SA your tanks are beautiful!!!! How big is your terrium? What type of plant is in the first picture in the right hand corner? What did you use to form your stream? I would like to try that in mine.
Betty

Haha, Mr.B, funny you say I would fit in with the dutch. . . I AM dutch! =) And yes, I did see your pics in the orchid gallery. You're like me, you want one of everything, not just a whole wack of phals or something like that. =) Good job blooming them all!

Terry- I plant everything directly into my tank. No pots at all.

Betty- I assume you mean the bottom right corner. That is a fittonia argyroneura nana. It has green leaves with strong white veins. Very attractive plant, and also very common. You should have no trouble at all finding one for your terrarium, if you want one. There are also versions with pink or orange veins. My terrarium is 85 gallons, and I am setting it up as an eventual PDF tank, so everything you see in there is PDF friendly. My stream is carved out of that pink styrofoam used for insulation (you can buy it at Home Depot. Just get one piece, and cut it and glue pieces on top of eachother to get the height you want, then carve away when the glue is dry!). The pink stuff is best because it is totally smooth. No little round balls that flake off. Then it was covered with a thick layer of black aquarium silicone and aquarium gravel so that it would look natural. Next time I make something similar I will take pics as I make it, because everyone wants to know how I made the stream! =)

WOW!!!!!!
Sahoy!!!!! I don't know where to start!!!
Been gone for few days (on vacation to Bali) busy with my new kitten, etc., etc. had no time to check here!
Your terrarium is simply out of this world! Fantastic! Done to perfect scale... what else can I say, just perfect!
Your husband's aquarium is very nice, but, your terrarium beats it hands down :)
The paintings are excellent! Did you go to school to learn? I wish I had, but I learnt by watching my Dad paint.
Thank you for sharing such a beautiful view of your hobbies!
Ana :)

Thank you, Ana! I hope you enjoyed your vacation, and new kittens are the cutest! Enjoy him/her too! =) Yes, I did go to university to get a Fine Arts degree in painting (and of course took art from elementary to high school). Only finished two years of it though. Then I got pregnant. =) I don't mind though. I learned so much in a classroom environment, and it was really just some very expensive fun. Having a baby was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me. Far more rewarding than a degree, and more meaningful, too. I initially thought I would go back and finish one day, but I've decided against it. It will cost so much by then, with tution always on the rise, and I think I can be self-taught for the most part from now on. If you've never taken a class, I would highly recommend it. (I'm not saying you're a bad artist! Far from it! But everyone can improve). You can learn a LOT from others, especially how to critique your own work and make it better. I went from being an average artist to a better one, and it was because of things I don't think I would have figured out by myself. Just a whole bunch of tips and tricks, and mostly learning how to really see, and what makes a painting different from a photograph.

No one ever ID'd the orange flowers on my phal! It's a sprig of crocosmia that my husband got me (sweet thing) one day. It's also in the vase with my orchids on the table in the orchid pics.

Hi

Very nice!! Mine looks terrible after being without light for 22 days. Nothing completely died but they sure look sickly. Moved the orchids and epi ferns to the shadehouse where they got terribly wind whipped.
Hopefully i'll get the house put back togather again and I can start on my large one. I'm seriosly thinking of adding skylights so i won't be so dependant on FPL lol.
Have to have the roof replaced anyway.The sunn tubes seem very interesting. Can't find much info for this type of use.
May be able to find a lot of used equipment from all the crashed SW tanks.lol.
gary

Sahoy - the terrarium looks awesome! Well done! I'm so impressed and can't wait to try something like that. Wow... it looks fabulous!

And your paintings are lovely...you're very talented. :)

I just got pointed to this thread from the House plant forum, cool set up,very cool!

>My favourite pic of my Paph. in bloom
Is the plant behind it(wide strappy leaves) a phalaenopsis?

Sahoyaref, Once again you make jealous, I think your pictures and I have a love hate relationship.... I love to see them, but then I also hate to see them cause then I have to look at my Terr. I try to come up with something new to atleast try to make something look like yours...I have no clue if any of that came out right..it sounded good in my head (lol) well anyway...gorgeous as always, I look forward to more pics...
CAMBY

GreenLarry: yes, that is a Phalaenopsis, but I've had to take it out, because my tank is way too far away from a window to get that cool winter temp-drop that Phals need in order to flower. The Paph flower is rather large, yes.

Camby: you can stop feeling jealous, because my tank does NOT look like that now! The polka-dot plant (pink) died, as did the persian shield (purple foliage), and I took the fittonia out, because it also started declining rapidly due to algae on the leaves from the constantly splashing waterfall, and the fern got too large and I had to take it out too, so now I have huge empty spots, and only green and variegated leaves. The only colour now is from the pitchers on the nepenthes, and the overall impression is not very lush or beautiful anymore. Naturally, I will not post pics of it now. =) I'm going to HD this next weekend though, so hopefully I can find some nice new plants there to fill in the gaps.

I am sorry to hear about your loses... I hope my two polka dots will hold their color, or atleast stay alive. I hope you have alot of luck with finding some new plants to fill in the gaps.
CAMBY

I have a baby phal too, in a pot of homemade 'compost', its doing well so far!

Wow That is one of the coolest tanks ive seen. Could you tell us about it? Sustrate,humidity,temp,etc....

Well, I got another polka-dot plant. they're just so cute! This one has smaller leaves, and seems to be a little more succulent (thicker stems/leaves) than the first one I tried, so hopefully it will survive. I also got a roheo, so those two did help fill in the gaps a bit. Incidentally, I will be completely re-doing my water feature, as the waterfall fall apart when I tried to carefully lean it forward in order to adjust the flow (to get less splashing). I had originally put it together with black silicone, which stuck very well, but later had to patch it with some old white (clear) silicone, and that's where it fell apart. *sigh* Since it has given me so many problems, I'm just making a new one instead of re-building the old one. I'm actually looking forward to it! =) Hopefully the answer to keeping the polka-dot alive will be less splashing on it's leaves. . . oh yeah, I also got some new misting heads for the misting system, and they work MUCH better than the old ones. And my husband found them for me at Home Depot, of all places! I never even would have thought to look there. (The original ones came from a hydroponics store).

wheat: look at 'My Page' for info. on my tank.