My shot at a nano tube

Nice. I'm interested to see how well the halogen lights work for you. Please keep us updated.

 

Nice job! I build one of these too a couple of years ago. I have since sold it, but I am curious too how the halogens will work out. I put in a 23W CFL (6000K, 1020 lm) in mine with an additional 12V spot for mood lighting at night. Worked pretty good I thought. I don't know how long it is until the Longwood Gardens show, but in my experience the moss grows painfully slow... Mine did not look nice and green for about 3 months. But, the better the lighting the faster it grows. ...and beware of fungus gnats, they can really do a number on the moss bed...

 

Looks neat. I'd like to try one of these sometime. Please post more pics as it develops.

 

I'm curious. How did you keep the temperature down with the light hanging down in the enclosure? I noticed the thermometer looks to be about 26C/78F.

 

SEPOS/Longwood is just two weeks away, so it seems doubtful it'll be ready by then, but that shouldn't stop you from stocking up in advance.

If anyone will be there on Friday, March 26, I'll be working the info booth that afternoon, so stop by and say Hi.

 

I think 2 weeks is maybe a bit ambitious. I sent Mike the mix and I used the same thing on a couple of enclosures I have and both had very good growth after a month. 2 months and it looks really good. I'm not sure why you would not want to plant it without the moss growing in though.

 

Actually, I did not have to. I wanted temps between 26-28 C for warm growers so it was perfect for me. I did not have any heat sources other than the light, with ambient room temp of around 21 C the temp inside the viv stayed good. Those CFL's do not run very hot. I also made a hole in the top right behind where the fan was mounted to pull in air from the outside since RH maxed out at 100% otherwise, perhaps this helped to cool things down too? Having the light inside might not have been the optimal solution, but I promised to keep the gear contained inside the unit since I kept it in the livingroom (had to look tidy).

 

That's interesting. I would expect 1 CFL to heat it much warmer than that. I have them on the outside and they get hotter than that. Looked great though!

 

Lookin' good! Have fun filling that sucka up with little minis!