Tyler sounds like a great setup...now we want pics!

I have a similar setup with a tank and T5s. I went with misters after playing around with an ultrasonic fogger. I've found that either system has advantages and disadvantages. My tank is relatively large, and my fogger was not adequately equipped to ensure fog distribution throughout the tank. As a result, while humidity did go up, stuff never really got 'watered'. The stuff directly in the stream of the fog got drenched, and the stuff further away was bone dry. I'm sure that if I got a larger fogger, things would work better. Furthermore, if you buy a basic ultrasonic misting unit, all you will get is a little round metal thing which you put in a reservoir of water. The mist produced will just sit inside the reservoir, unless you have some sort of fan blowing it across the tank. I tried to rig up a system which blew the mist out of the reservoir but my fans ended up croaking due to the high moisture. If you do go with fog, I would suggest getting a real fogging unit made by the people who keep reptiles and amphibians. Those have built in fans and spew out a fog that looks pretty nice.

The misters actually water the plants, and humidity goes up to 90% after misting. I have several misting cycles, so the humidity cycles accordingly between 90 and 60%. This works out well, because leaves get a chance to dry out in between. The downside is that you get an accumulation of water at the base of the tank (although this dries decently...just takes a bit of tweaking with the cycles and duration), and a lot more water on the leaves (which supposedly means more rot although I haven't had that problem yet). I can leave for a few days and not have to worry about watering...for the most part. I say this because I've found that mounts hanging on the sides of the tank do not get adequate watering; with the misting system mounted at the top of the tank, sometimes the leaves of the orchid itself shields the mount/roots from the mist. I believe a fogger would solve this, if you had a powerful enough one running, since if you can imagine the fog would seep everywhere. Either that, or mount the misters in a way such that everything gets misted.

Hope that helps - What kind of tank did you end up buying?

0Calvin

Thanks Calvin.

The tank is acrylic with an aluminum frame and front opening doors. It's made by Zilla (I think that's the company's name), and it's sold as an "atrium" for high humidity lizards/amphibians. I'll have to assemble it when it arrives, but that's no big deal, and it was less expensive than the similarly sized glass tanks (and free shipping). The base doesn't look like it will be watertight though, so I'm hoping that some aquarium silicone will be sufficient to fix that.

The misters and foggers I'm looking at are actually meant for the reptile people. After looking at reviews for a few systems I narrowed it down to two...either the Zoo Med repti-fogger or their Habba Mist system. Both would be external to the tank, and looked like they could handle the job but I was unsure which would be preferrable. They both come in at the same price point.

The fogger is ultrasonic I believe, but it sits on the table outside the tank and it comes with a one litre reservoir. Fog is fed into the tank via a tube through the top. Reviewers with similarly sized tanks said that one litre was sufficent to keep their habitats at high humidity for 1 to 2 days. I'm not sure how sealed their environments were though, or what they meant by "high-humidity". It does sound like the type of system you were referring to though.

The tank is going to be primarily for my mounted angs, but I have some suffering baby phals (potted) that I'd like to put in the bottom too. The pots are small and the sphag they're in gets crispy dry in less than two days. It's diffcult to keep them at that consistently moist but not wet state.

Tyler

I use a MistKing system for daily watering and an ultrasonic humidifier from Walgreens. I'm not sure how much the Zoo Med stuff is but if it is more than about $40 you really should consider a regular humidifier. I believe Holmes is one brand. The key factor is to get the one that has a round opening at the top. They come with a small inserted directional nozzle thing that can be easily removed and replaced with a length of flexible tubing. The 'fog' can be directed anywhere. I have smaller lengths of tubing crammed into the end of a larger section that actually is crammed into the humidifier opening. It works great. In addition to the cost benefit, the capacity is more like 1.5 gallon. If it doesn't work you can take it anywhere local to get a replacement. I'm quite happy with it.
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Mr. B that's amazing. Just a question - how have you got the mist king system setup? I have a mistking system too, and I find the spray doesn't reach my plants mounted vertically (ie against the wall of the tank) to sufficiently water them. Do you have nozzles placed on the sides or pointing upwards?

I have tried to use a regular humidifier (cool mist humidifier) + flexible tubing thing, and I didn't see any 'fog' come out, so I'm reluctant to try again. Do you actually generate fog and does it spill in and fill your tank sufficiently/increase humidity. Glad your back; I've been aching to pick your brain for info on your setup.

Tyler - did you get this? It looks amazing! You might want to get a glass plate to put over the tank, as the humidity can affect the T5 lights which were likely not designed to be placed over these conditions. Acrylic will warp so that won't work too well.

Mr.Breeze, that's a great setup. I wish I had the space for all that. I'm living in a one bedroom apartment, and my growing area is about 4' x 2'. I already have a warm mist humidifier (one gallon capacity) in there, and if I keep the doors closed it keeps the humidity up near 45-50%. Between the humidifier and the fan in there, if I add any more bulky equipment I won't have any room for orchids :) When I finally save up enough for a down payment on a house a spare bedroom for a growing room is at the top of my priority list. With the fogger/mister, I was hoping to find a compromise between a small disk fogger which would take up space in the tank with the reservoir, and a larger cool mist humidifier/fogger setup like you have there.

Calvin. That is the tank that I bought. I got it from a mail order pet supply store in Orillia. The Canada post notification came yesterday, so it should be arriving sometime today. Thanks for the tip about T5s. I had assumed that since I bought it from an aquarium company that it could withstand high levels of humidity, but I guess with a fish tank you don't have clouds of mist/fog getting into the ballast. Any idea where the best place to get the glass plates would be? I have a custom picture framer close by and no doubt they could cut me some glass, but I'm not sure what the price would be like compared to elsewhere.

Tyler

I bought my T5s from an aquarium supplier too (J&L in vancouver), and I would have assumed the same thing, except they told me specifically that they would not work over an open aquarium because they weren't built to withstand high humidity...then again, it might depend on the type of light you get. IE I have the new wave T5s which I think are specific for plants.

Glass plates gave me a huge headache for my tank too...since is a 4' x 2' tank, one piece of glass would have been too big. I didn't get quotes for custom cutting, but I'm sure it would have been too expensive. I ended up scavenging some old windows that someone was throwing out on craigslist - they work amazingly because they have plastic rims that fit snugly over the tank. I do have one piece left - I'll check the dimensions and let you know if you're interested! I'm pretty sure they're roughly 2' x 18' though.

I use an ultrasonic humidifier, not a cool mist. The particles would be too heavy in anything but an ultrasonic. With the ultrasonic, even passing through 3-4' of tubing, i get a nice fog out the end. It definitely fills a 30 gallon tank quickly and is, in fact, too much most likely. I don't have fans. If I did, it would be even better I'm sure. I may end up going with even smaller diameter tubing which would allow even more directionality and would pump less fog into the tanks. Or maybe a mixture of sizes.

My nozzles basically point down. The way I have them timed, they're not enough for actual watering. I still soak my mounts even with the regular misting. It is mainly to keep them from drying out too much between soakings. If I wasn't growing indoors however, and didn't mind wasting a lot more water, I could time them to be on longer and give the plants a really thorough soaking. If I did that now, I'd end up with a flood in the house. I also don't want to plug the nozzles with fertilizer so in reality, they're not used for true watering.

The atrium arrived yesterday and I put it together. There's another screened part that I didn't anticipate, but that shouldn't be a problem to cover up, as it's on the lower front part of the tank and it won't even need to be transparent. I'll definately need to get some silicone to seal up the bottom though.

Thanks for the offer of the window piece Calvin, but I called my mother last night and it sounds like she has a few leftover pieces from some picture framing that should work for me.

Can't wait to get my plants in there :)