# Orchid viv build



## treylane (May 16, 2012)

I've spent the last couple months planning, reading build threads, and rereading build threads, especially inka4040's orchid inspiration, azurel's zoopoxy info, and arielelf's ridiculous sculpting.

I started out with an XL exo-terra viv, and a box of mopani wood.

The plan was to pond-foam the bottom, back, and sides of the tank, stick the wood into the foam somehow, and "VOILA!" ... So in goes some foam flooring, and a bunch of silicone squiggles on the back and sides for the pond foam to stick to.









... exceeeeept .... getting the wood pieces mounted to the back and sides reliably or predictably was really going to be challenging. I was stumped for awhile, but eventually scraped off all the silicone and added some eggcrate scaffolding.









Here's the rest of the mopani pieces tied into their final destinations with string, so they can still be adjusted a bit if necessary. The clamps at the top are holding the eggcrate in place until everything gets stuck to the sides of the tank with pond foam, that wood is HEAVY! The pink foam is there to mock up a "tree trunk" section that will be installed in that corner.


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## Adogowo (Feb 8, 2013)

Are you just planning mounting places? No false bottom? I like the wood placement so far, is each piece going to be attached to a foam trunk or is it going to be more rock/cliff face instead?


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

Adogowo said:


> Are you just planning mounting places? No false bottom? I like the wood placement so far, is each piece going to be attached to a foam trunk or is it going to be more rock/cliff face instead?


Yeah, that pic shows the end of the planning stage for the mounting places for the wood placement. Most of the viv will be a rock and ecoweb cliff face, with a few tall "trunk" columns in the right corner.

I was trying to keep the drainage situation simple - there's a slope from the back to the front of the tank, and a pool at the front where I can siphon off excess water if necessary... I kinda regret the lack of a false bottom, but I'm hoping this works well enough that I don't have to rip it all out.


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

I cut a long piece of ecoweb, shaped it into a quarter circle, and then tied it to the eggcrate with thread to keep it in place to form the "trunk" section. Then I tacked the wood pieces and eggcrate into place with a little pond foam, and trimmed the eggcrate panels down to give the shapes a little more "pop".



















Cutting ecoweb is a pain in the #%@$! The plan was for most of the back and side walls to be covered with ecoweb, but not just as giant flat slabs. I've been using these huge scissors to cut the ecoweb, and they work pretty well, but even still it's really time consuming to work with.










Once it's cut though, the ecoweb is greeeaaat to work with. It can be bent into interesting shapes and it holds those shapes pretty well. For really elaborate shapes, it plays nice with hot glue or needle+thread.

I didn't really have a plan for the layout of the rest of the tank. It took a lot of time to cut+shape ecoweb pieces, hold them up to various parts of the tank, sometimes trimming them down to fit a particular spot, and building up a layout that was going to provide lots of planting space and still look interesting.

Here's the viv partway through the layout of the back+sides, still experimenting. The pink foam is a space filler for where there will be bigger rock "structures" so the pond foam doesn't have to go on so thickly.


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

Eventually most of the layout came together, and the light showed up!

More ecoweb got tied onto the eggcrate to keep it in place while everything got pond-foamed together permanently. The pink bits from the previous pic also got covered in a layer or two of foam.









My first time using zoopoxy, and pretty nearly my first time sculpting anything at all, didn't turn out too badly really! The zoopoxy was tinted with the first black pigment type stuff I ran across, which was resin pigment from Tap plastics and it worked fine.









Completely foamed, webbed, and beginning to zoopoxy:


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## Adogowo (Feb 8, 2013)

I like the slopes near the top it should showcase some nice mosses! The zoopoxy looks realistic to me, nice work. Do you have plans for air circulation? I am running a modified LG tower fan in my 40 breeder on a timer. It works well and I didn't have to get a power adapter to run the fan.


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## Adogowo (Feb 8, 2013)

Are you going to try and keep the zoopoxy clear of moss and orchids or are you planning on some lithophytes?


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

Round 1 with the zoopoxy went relatively well, so what to do next? 

Get too cocky, that's what!

The next section turned out looking like a bad knockoff of a 1985 Castle Grayskull playset.









I stepped back for a few days to reassess my epic sculpting skills and watch youtube videos of other people making fake rocks.

The next couple sections came out quite a bit better, I am rather pleased with them.



















After doing a section of rocks, I used any leftover zoopoxy from that batch to line the bottom of the pond section up front.


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

Practice makes perfect, the next batch of 'rocks' turned out the best yet imop. I inserted a few long staples into the epoxy before it cured so there are anchors to tie plants into the rock crevices if that ever seems like a good idea.









I eventually did go back and try fix up the he-man-playset section enough that it has a little more structure. I slacked on in-progress photos, getting this thing put together took a lot of time, and I had a deadline!

The ecoweb floor is installed, the rest of the pond foam has its epoxy coat, and we have PAINT on those rocks!


















And ... 99% ready to go, except for the spyra:









I'm pretty happy with how everything turned out!

The zoopoxy worked pretty well but took a LOT more time than I'd planned. It's very very sticky when first mixed, so once it gets slathered onto the foam it can only really be shaped with very wet tools for awhile, then it has to be left alone to set up further before adding the next level of detail. It took about 3 sculpting passes at different stages of curing for most of the rocks. I primarily used wooden pottery tools for sculpting since they hold water a little longer than metal/plastic tools. At first I was pretty stingy with the water, worried about getting the epoxy 'too wet' to set up properly, but it's actually very very forgiving about that. By the end I was mixing in quite a bit of water to thin it out and didn't have any curing problems. Adding the black tint to the mix was also prettymuch a waste of time that I was skipping by the end. The epoxy mixes up to a tan sort of color on its own (not very rocklike) but sponge on a few dark gray or black washes of very diluted acrylic paint and you'd never know. The surface of the rocks tended to be shiny once cured, so using a matte paint really helped to reduce the shine.


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

Andddd, newly planted!


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## epiphytes etc. (Nov 22, 2010)

Most excellent! Now how bout a species list?


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## inka4040 (Oct 14, 2010)

I think this is going to grow in beautifully. Phenomenal job!


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

Oh wow, nice job!



epiphytes etc. said:


> Most excellent! Now how bout a species list?


Yeah, you can't just show us all of that without saying what's in there!


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

hypostatic said:


> Yeah, you can't just show us all of that without saying what's in there!


I'll try to get most of a species list up this weekend - a few labels have been lost over time  It's been a little over a week - new growth on lots of plants, and a few others started panicking about too much light or water and got moved around.

I added some floating plants over the weekend, and it's possible that some moss from the lawn wound up in there... 

I just finished getting the misting system and fans running tonight.









This is the first time I've had automated misting, so I'm sure the timing will need to be adjusted over time.

A few of the things that are in bloom at the moment - 

Platystele umbellata:









Masdevallia amplexa:









Scaphosepalum rapax:


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

Species list:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UeAzJjKyY4vWAV7Znhl0yo9q4SAPwlcUOgZnAnrWNWA/edit#gid=0


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

One month in and things are growing!

Pleurothallis rubella is in bloom. This one is new to me. The flowers are small, but they're seriously colorful!









Scaphosepalum rapax is going utterly bonkers, covered in blooms and buds and new stalks









Porroglossum meridiondale isn't showing any signs of slowing down either









NOID plant is doing well, I'm guessing (??) it's pilea, any suggestions?


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## ibarran (Jan 5, 2015)

Awesome! What kind of LED fixture are you using?


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

That is excellent work! You put some really nice plants in there.


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## chillplants (Jul 14, 2008)

Great job on the rock work. Always nice to see orchids blooming.


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

A few months in, and an update:


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## Y0urbestfriend (Jan 31, 2014)

Thanks for the update!  and,Wow, it has grown in really nicely. Cant wait for the next update xD


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## chillplants (Jul 14, 2008)

I was just looking over your orchid list. Are they all in this one tank? I like how you used colors to keep track of how they are doing. Could be helpful over time to know if something needs to be moved around.


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## ChrisAZ (Sep 6, 2012)

Very inspiring! Can I ask what kind of lighting and fertilizers your using?


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

I have a current satellite plus pro fixture over the tank, and I'm really happy with it so far.

As for ferts, I've been using miracle-gro violet fertilizer (this stuff) since there's still plenty left in the bottle from previous terraria.

Begonia thelmae says hello:









Trisetella sp:









Lepanthes saltatrix:









Stelis mystax:


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

I knew I was pushing my luck, and sure enough I lost a handful of cool growers once the weather got warm. Overall though things are filling in! Peperomias and mosses are creeping all over the place, and there are flower spikes everywhere.


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## bicyclephysics (Apr 26, 2013)

I'm glad I'm not the only one that keeps a spreadsheet of all my plants


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## cam1941 (Jan 16, 2014)

Very nice! Grew in beautifully... Subscribed


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## VPardoel (Apr 2, 2010)

amazing! great job


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## ChrisAZ (Sep 6, 2012)

How close is your Trisetella to the light, do you run it at full power and how long is your photo period? I went ahead and got the same light and just added a Trisetella in a similar set up.


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

The lights are on mostly-full-blast, maybe 85-95%? I started with the light at 100% and then adjusted the color to something that looks appealing to my eyes, which meant turning some colors down a couple clicks. The lights are on from 2pm to 10pm. 

Both of my trisetellas are up near the top of the tank and appear to be doing well, but... these are my first trisetellas soOOo I'm no expert.


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## ChrisAZ (Sep 6, 2012)

Lights? Do you have more than one?


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## Orchids for the People (Sep 4, 2015)

This is a really great display. Thanks for sharing it.


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

A few before/after shots, just for fun:

Bulbophyllum moliniforme, Feb 28 and today:

















Rubellia rubella, Mar 25 and today:

















Scaphosepalum rapax, Mar 25 and today:


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

ChrisAZ said:


> Lights? Do you have more than one?


Er, no, just the one Satellite Plus Pro over the top.


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## ChrisAZ (Sep 6, 2012)

Thank you for answering all my questions, hope you don't mind some more!
1)What kind of fans are you using and do they run 24/7 at full power?
2)What sort of misting schedule have you been using?
3)Your lighting schedule of 2 to 10 is interesting. Do the plants get any light from the windows in the room before the LEDs turn on?
4)And lastly, is there any ventilation in the top?
Thanks for sharing your experiences so far it's been very useful.


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

ChrisAZ said:


> Thank you for answering all my questions, hope you don't mind some more!
> 1)What kind of fans are you using and do they run 24/7 at full power?
> 2)What sort of misting schedule have you been using?
> 3)Your lighting schedule of 2 to 10 is interesting. Do the plants get any light from the windows in the room before the LEDs turn on?
> ...


1) I have two 40mm fans in the upper corners of the tank pointing at the front glass. They are on speed controllers and I have them turned down to less than half speed since small fans are LOUD! 









2) The misters come on for 10s each at 8am and 5pm to keep the humidity up, I manually water the plants with a spray bottle every other or every 3rd day depending on the weather and my schedule.

3) The lighting schedule is set up to have the lights on when I'm home and can spend time on the viv. There's plenty of ambient light in that room during the day, and for a short while in the early morning (an hour, maybe less) direct sunlight coming through a window sweeps across part of the tank:









4) When I built the "trunk" in the back right corner of the tank, I made it a bit too tall, so it pushes up the plexi lid and leaves a gap at the back of the tank. I meant to fix it, but it helps to be able to keep drier species at the top of the tank, so I'm leaving it for now.











Also, even though there are no frogs I seeded this tank with iso's and pink springs pretty early on... I haven't seen any sign of iso's in awhile, but it's TEEEEMING with springs.


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## ChrisAZ (Sep 6, 2012)

What sort of arm is that fan mounted on?


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## HistoCrazy (Jul 14, 2015)

very impressive looking.


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

They're stuck onto 1/4" locline with epoxy and then painted, but if I ever tinker with fans again I'll do something more like this, with bigger (and hopefully quieter) fans:

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/pa...-printer-internal-air-circulation-system.html


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## Hobbes1911 (Mar 22, 2013)

This is a great looking tank, well done!

What is the average temp and humidity (if you have the numbers) that the tank is sitting at?


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

I don't have this tank instrumented, the tank is at the same temp as the house, plus several extra degrees when the light fixture is on. So a big chunk of the answer is TOO DAMN HOT! We've had a heatwave this week, temps into the 90's and no AC in the house.


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

Well, the weather cooled off a bit and that means FLOWER TIME!

Lepanthopsis astrophora likes high light and a lot of ferts









Scaph rapax is a big ball of flower spikes

















Restrepia elegantula x dodsonii









Pleurothallis alleni









Barbosella cogniauxiana









Stelis mystax









Thanks to a very generous friend dropping off a box of cuttings, the viv is FULL now.


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## morphman (May 20, 2011)

Beautiful !

What are you talking about I see lots of room for more amazing miniatures. 

Regards


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## rigel10 (Jun 1, 2012)

No doubt, one of the most beautiful vivs never seen!


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## ChrisAZ (Sep 6, 2012)

Looking great! I've been looking forward to these updates. This is the kind of recorded success I like to see! 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Phyllobates (Dec 12, 2008)

This is looking amazing. Nice work!


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## epiphytes etc. (Nov 22, 2010)

Absolutely wonderful. Thank you for updating here. I saw your post on fb somewhere, but couldn't find it again.


BTW, if you ever decide to divide that mystax ....


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## SleepyMeryl (Oct 20, 2015)

I'm looking into adding orchids into my vivarium building too. Having trouble finding max grow heights though. I thought they all grew really tall, do they not? Do you have to prune them back?

Also, is there no heat in there? Just the ambient temperature of the house or what?


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

epiphytes etc. said:


> Absolutely wonderful. Thank you for updating here. I saw your post on fb somewhere, but couldn't find it again.
> 
> 
> BTW, if you ever decide to divide that mystax ....


Heh, with the way it keeps spitting out keikis, that's not going to be a problem.

I have to admit ... I don't know how to divide orchids. For some of the trailing/vining species it seems straightforward enough, but S. rapax is clumping and starting to choke itself out. Do you have any suggestions?


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

SleepyMeryl said:


> I'm looking into adding orchids into my vivarium building too. Having trouble finding max grow heights though. I thought they all grew really tall, do they not? Do you have to prune them back?
> 
> Also, is there no heat in there? Just the ambient temperature of the house or what?


There are lots of small and very small orchids available, from a few speck-sized (I'm looking at you, pleuro dressleri!) to several 1" and ~2" plants, to a very WIDE array of 4-6" plants.

I actually had, and often enough, still have, a LOT of trouble figuring out what a plant looks like before purchasing online. When I was keeping smaller vivs I was looking for plants in the 1" - 2" range. Most of the time vendors and hobbyists will categorize orchids as miniatures with foliage generally under 6", and occasionally folks will use the classification "microminiature" with foliage generally under 4". Not so useful when looking for plants at 2"

Beyond that very vague height categorization, information starts to get pretty sparse. There are LOTS of photos online of a plant's flowers, and relatively few of its foliage, or of the whole plant next to something that's useful as a size reference. Sometimes I'll need a plant with a specific foliage size or shape, or a particular growth pattern, and it's almost impossible to search based on those attributes. I think it's information that would be good to make more available within the community.


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## ChrisAZ (Sep 6, 2012)

Agreed. And thank you for doing just that in this thread!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## SleepyMeryl (Oct 20, 2015)

This board should come together and make a Google Doc about it. We already have your spreadsheet and your pictures as a foundation, why not?

The other day I was looking for a simple table that explains orchid basics and IT DOESN'T EXIST! All I want is picture>name>country of origin>size>growing conditions and it's nowhere to be found. Honestly, you are the best resource on the internet right now, and I will absolutely use plants from your list. THANK YOU!


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## cam1941 (Jan 16, 2014)

I went through this exactly and its very frustrating... The best remedy is finding a place (like I did) that has a showroom. Either a show or a place like J & L orchids like I used.

It went so much smoother after that because I could literally choose the perfect specimen. Sometimes an orchid species would be right but only if I used the right specimen that I could see with my own eyes as opposed to someone else blindly sending me one in a box.

Sadly this always isn't possible, which is why I was sure to give the people who made it possible for me many props.




treylane said:


> There are lots of small and very small orchids available, from a few speck-sized (I'm looking at you, pleuro dressleri!) to several 1" and ~2" plants, to a very WIDE array of 4-6" plants.
> 
> I actually had, and often enough, still have, a LOT of trouble figuring out what a plant looks like before purchasing online. When I was keeping smaller vivs I was looking for plants in the 1" - 2" range. Most of the time vendors and hobbyists will categorize orchids as miniatures with foliage generally under 6", and occasionally folks will use the classification "microminiature" with foliage generally under 4". Not so useful when looking for plants at 2"
> 
> Beyond that very vague height categorization, information starts to get pretty sparse. There are LOTS of photos online of a plant's flowers, and relatively few of its foliage, or of the whole plant next to something that's useful as a size reference. Sometimes I'll need a plant with a specific foliage size or shape, or a particular growth pattern, and it's almost impossible to search based on those attributes. I think it's information that would be good to make more available within the community.


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## epiphytes etc. (Nov 22, 2010)

treylane said:


> Heh, with the way it keeps spitting out keikis, that's not going to be a problem.
> 
> I have to admit ... I don't know how to divide orchids. For some of the trailing/vining species it seems straightforward enough, but S. rapax is clumping and starting to choke itself out. Do you have any suggestions?


With clumping plants, like Scaphosepalum, it's best to just, literally, divide the plant. Just gently tease it apart. The rhizome can be cut, or even pinched, making sure each division has at least 3 leaves, 5 is better. Sometimes smaller 1-2 leaf divisions work out just fine, but better safe than sorry.


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

It's time for a 1-year update!

The plants continue to do well for the most part, lots of growth, lots of flowers.










Lepanthes saltatrix:









Scaphosepalum clavellatum:









Pleurothallis amphigya:









Porroglossum longiserpens:


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## roundfrog (Jan 27, 2016)

It looks AWESOME!!! Everything has filled in so nicely.


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## JenniBee (Jun 22, 2015)

I'm in love with your vivarium!


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## jonjoyce346 (Oct 15, 2014)

Phenomenal! Excellent job. I'm just getting started with orchids and looking forward to trying some of these species...



treylane said:


> Species list:
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UeAzJjKyY4vWAV7Znhl0yo9q4SAPwlcUOgZnAnrWNWA/edit#gid=0


This is great! This kind of info gives me the confidence to try new species. I wish it was easier to find stuff like this... Tons of inspiring pics in this thread as well.

Jon


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## oldlady25715 (Nov 17, 2007)

Really nice. Is the paint on the rocks holding up well?


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## treylane (May 16, 2012)

Yes, the paint is holding up perfecly, no signs of cracking or peeling so far!

Also, that's pleurothallis longiserpens, not porroglossum


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## Manzanitadude (Jan 7, 2016)

I really like how you've separated the various areas with the rock sculpting and the ledges are very well done, with a good plant selection.


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## Batagur (Sep 16, 2015)

amazing diversity, quite an inspirational build!


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