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Piper
Piper At TheGates Of Dawn
Registered: 08/31/03
Posts: 47
Loc: Wisco
Last seen: 18 years, 9 months
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Terrarium Help
#1868559 - 08/31/03 02:31 PM (20 years, 6 months ago) |
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Okay, i'm just starting out cultivating mushrooms, and i have a 10 gallon aquarium to work with for the grow chamber. Any suggestions on how i should set that up? i was steering twards perlite and water type humidification with an air tight lid.
-------------------- "... Another way for gnomes to say......."
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 26,697
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Re: Terrarium Help [Re: Piper]
#1868666 - 08/31/03 03:16 PM (20 years, 6 months ago) |
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Sound cool to me. How are you going to get the temperature right? IMO that's even more important than rH.
Personally, I'm looking into designing and building a heating pad with some sort of regulation circuit based on an NTC or so hooked up to it and a fan to spread the warmth through the terrarium, but I don't have any tangible results as yet. Shouldn't be too hard though. Another solution would be an aquarium heater that you set up in an outer container filled with water, where your actual terrarium sort of floats in. Proven technology, so pretty fail-safe.
Good luck, and let us know what you decide to do and what the results are!
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cricket
Lord Cricket
Registered: 08/29/03
Posts: 963
Loc: in my house, in front of ...
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Re: pet stores for heating pads [Re: koraks]
#1868710 - 08/31/03 03:36 PM (20 years, 6 months ago) |
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Some pet stores sell small heating pads. They are marketed for hermit crabs. They are designed for under a ten gallon aquairium and they claim to keep the cage at 80. You can get long ribons of heat strips at any high end reptile store. This is a cut to fit ribon that can be as long or short as you want it.
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Sam_Kohui
if you onlyknew...
Registered: 08/23/03
Posts: 140
Last seen: 16 years, 5 months
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Re: pet stores for heating pads [Re: cricket]
#1868761 - 08/31/03 03:55 PM (20 years, 6 months ago) |
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-------------------- The PF Tek...it's a piece of cake (the BRF kind )
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cricket
Lord Cricket
Registered: 08/29/03
Posts: 963
Loc: in my house, in front of ...
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Re: pet stores for heating pads [Re: Sam_Kohui]
#1868972 - 08/31/03 05:31 PM (20 years, 6 months ago) |
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Vision makes chambers with sloped fronts.(used most for venomous snakes) Two holes and some ruber gloves you have a sterile work chamber. They also have precut plexyglass cutouts and aquatic grade silicon adhesive to make a shield in an aquairium. I'm telling you, THEY HAVE IT ALL.
-------------------- I tried to leave my signature but it didn't work... By the way... Does anybody know how to get sharpie markers off of a computer screen?
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cheesenoonions
??????????????
Registered: 04/01/01
Posts: 584
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Re: Terrarium Help [Re: Piper]
#1868978 - 08/31/03 05:35 PM (20 years, 6 months ago) |
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air exchange is also very important IMO. Are you going to fan or what?
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Piper
Piper At TheGates Of Dawn
Registered: 08/31/03
Posts: 47
Loc: Wisco
Last seen: 18 years, 9 months
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well, for heat, i'm not sure yet, and no, not like that dual chambered one. I read just put perlite in the bottom about 1" and fill it 3/4" with water, and then just get an air tight lid, and fan it daily, i could really use some good suggestions and plans that are proven to work
please
-------------------- "... Another way for gnomes to say......."
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MilkVein
unsure
Registered: 08/27/03
Posts: 2,695
Loc: total bullshit->
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Re: Terrarium Help [Re: Piper]
#1869623 - 08/31/03 09:59 PM (20 years, 6 months ago) |
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"my old man" got a clear rubbermade tub, with some window sealing foam around the lid for a nice seal, a fish tank thermometer on the outside, and a hydrometer from the pet store on the inside, he put the perlite in the bottom "2in" of it, and a "1/2in" of water.....the temp is at a steady 78% but "my old man" is having trouble getting rH above 80%...."no fruiting going on, first time grower"...he's just make'n sure things are in order before the babies birthday....
-------------------- I've been first and last Look at how the time goes past. But I'm all alone at last. Rolling home to you.
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Piper
Piper At TheGates Of Dawn
Registered: 08/31/03
Posts: 47
Loc: Wisco
Last seen: 18 years, 9 months
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Re: Terrarium Help [Re: MilkVein]
#1870048 - 09/01/03 12:57 AM (20 years, 6 months ago) |
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well.... with a fish tank, and a air tight lid, the humidity is suppose to be at like 98% all the time... i'm pretty sure.... but for heating, do i just put one of those strips down under the perlite? then just put perlite and water over the top? or should i get a heater put that in fish tank, and then put containers with the cakes on top of the heated water?
please help...
-------------------- "... Another way for gnomes to say......."
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cheesenoonions
??????????????
Registered: 04/01/01
Posts: 584
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Re: Terrarium Help [Re: MilkVein]
#1874491 - 09/02/03 02:51 PM (20 years, 6 months ago) |
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Milkvein, your "old man's' humidity probably isn't the problem. It is probably your hygrometer. Pet store hygrometers are not very reliable. Check to see that there are no strong wind currents in the room. Say if you have a fan blowing straight at your terrarium. Next check your terrarium's lid. Make sure it fits well. It doesn't need to be air tight. Just snug. If all this is good then you can check you hygrometer. Check to see if the packaging it cam e with gives you an operational range. It may only read up to 80% even though it marks to 100%. You can check it using table salt. Do a search in the shroomery for hygrometer calibration and similar subjects.
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Snobrdr311
outdoorenthusiast
Registered: 09/03/01
Posts: 1,468
Loc: Midwest
Last seen: 10 years, 5 months
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Like i've been saying all along, scrap the perlite idea and the aquarium and just go buy a cheap Rubbermaid container, some cheap garden hose, a drill bit and a $25 Vicks Cool Mist humidifier and you have the best terrerium you can get. Fully automated, no fanning and optium air exchange.
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cheesenoonions
??????????????
Registered: 04/01/01
Posts: 584
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Re: Terrarium Help [Re: Piper]
#1874587 - 09/02/03 03:14 PM (20 years, 6 months ago) |
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And for you: By strip do you mean one of those pads for heating an aquarium. I wouldn't put that under your perlite. Perlite is real messy. I wouldn't use it at all, but it is a good way to start. The fish bubbler AND the perlite is overkill in my opinion. Yes you will get 98% all the time, but only cuz most hygrometers can't read any higher. First: Are you using PF cakes or casing some trays. Since you are new I'm thinking you're doing the cakes. Perlite works well for cakes. but there are some issues to deal with. It is messy and you have to decide if you are going to put the cakes on the perlite or put them on foil .......ect. ect. Second: If I were you, I would use 2" perlite with around 1" or more water level. Then, instead of using the bubbler thing I would just use the air pump with an open ended going into the terrarium for air circulation. If you're worried about contaminated air being blown into your terrarium, you could just use one of those filter attachements that are sold near aquariums that filter the air and prevent water from going into the pump. You could put it on a timer so it won't blow all your humidity out of the aquarium. Third: Back to the heating issue. You could use one of those aquarium heating pads and see if it works under your aquarium. I don't know what the layer of perlite and water will do to your heat, but I wouldn't submerge it in the perlite water mix unless it is designed to get wet. There have to be millions of products that heat aquariums for tropical fish. Go to your pet store and just browse around. I love doing that cuz I always get really cool ideas from all the crazy stuff they sell.
I hope this helps. LEt me know if you have any more questions.
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cheesenoonions
??????????????
Registered: 04/01/01
Posts: 584
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I agree, but I'm figuring he doesn't want to spend and he has all this stuff already, but perlite does suck. The Vicks Kaz is truely the way to go.
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