crsliz, I think there are as many ways people store their Cannas as there are Cannas. I grow most of mine in pots and I bring the pots and all in to the basement after the frost takes the leaves down. I give the soil a good washing with the hose. The Temp in the basement is between 50 -60 degrees. There is very little light. I water my pots about a 8 oz glass of water once a month, Just enough so they do not dry out. They start to sprout in March and I usually can put a good size growing plant outside at the end of May. You have to experiment and see what works for you. I just do not have time to dig up plants so any tender plants I grow are grown in pots and are used on the Patio, and Deck.

I use polyurethane (low density) cubes for lettuce. I score the top of each sheet in a grid pattern using a circular sewing pattern knife (looks like a pizza cutter). I put the foam in a flat storage tote containing an inch water that has been sitting out overnight to de-gas the chlorine. I squeeze the air out the foam to get it thoroughly wet, sprinkle the seeds on top, then cover the tote with it's white translucent lid to keep the seeds moist. Every 24 hrs I open the lid, mist the seeds, close the lid again. For lettuce,I also leave a daylight CFL lamp shining on the lid to help it germinate. After 3 days I open the lid and remove the excess standing water. By now the foam retains about 50% of it's maximum capacity, plenty for the lettuce seedling once the roots penetrate that far down (by this point all the seeds have germinated) I continue misting once a day for 4 more days. By then the roots have reached the bottom of the cube, the cotyledons are fully open, and I move the seedling to the half strength recirculating hydo solution tray, which has about 1/2" of solution continuously flowing through it. A week later and the roots are hanging an inch or more out the foam, the first real leaves have opened, and it's ready for transplanting. Different plants will require longer to sprout, and/or may prefer less moisture while germinating. Some need heat, some may need to be kept dark. Lettuce likes it cool, moist, light and airy. The fun is figuring each one out!

Well, as for more information, the tank is a glass terrarium manufactured by Exoterra, and measures 18x18x24 inches high. I scrapped the screen top and replaced it with a sheet of glass, that's kept about 1/2" above the tank due to the tabs that held in the screen. Lighting is a Coralife Aqualight 20" 96W, 6700K powerquad. It also has a 3.5" Coralife cooling fan in the upper corner, that's hooked up to a dimmer switch to keep it pretty low. Temps usually hang around 80, humidity is always over 80%. It gets misted once in the morning, and then certain plants get misted at night if they're looking like they're drying out. Everything else is just made of PVC and lighting eggcrate siliconed together, and the walls are lighting eggcrate held on with those bathroom suction cup hooks. And, for a plant list: Asctm. miniatum Oncidium pumilum Lepanthes escobariana Stelis sanchezii Pleurothallis stricta Pleurothallis grobyi Haraella retrocalla Dendrobium wassellii Neofinetia falcata (in bud) Tolumnia borinquensis Tolumnia velutina Masdevallia brachyura Lepanthes acuminata Platystele ximenae Dendrobium dichaeiodes Dendrobium lichenastrum Dendrobium prenticei Oncidium flexuosum Maxillaria arbuscula Bulbophyllum brevistylidium Restrepia 'Tiny Tot' Non-orchids include: Microgramma sp. fern Lemmaphyllum sp. fern Hydnophytum formicarium Neoregelia midget Brocchinia reducta Pinguicula cyclosecta Pinguicula esseriana Nepenthes aristolochiodes Cephalotus Heliamphora minor and for some reason, a venus flytrap

That's IT, Mr.B! You have totally inspired me! I now know what i want! You are spot-on with the stream edge/riverbank idea! So, I will now make one very large, fake tree going down into the water. It will be enormous, like a very old red-wood or Douglas fir, or even a mangrove, and you will see about 3 feet of trunk, and then about 2 feet of roots going down into the water. The rest of the walls will be the 'riverbank'. This is still realistic because the tree can be growing out of the side of a riverbank, not just on top of it. And it also allows for realism with branches coming down from the canopy (most likely fake, since I want everything to weigh as little as possible) or fallen branches sticking out of the riverbank. I will also then make my 'pool' like a river, with directional flow. This wil be very well-suited to discus, who live amongst the tree roots going down into the Amazon in nature. Sweet! I'm REALLY excited about this now! Not to mention eternally grateful for this forum that enables me to communicate with people I don't know and would never have met! As for where my tree will be, I don't know. Perhaps the back left corner, so that I'm not totally copying Mr.B =) and so that my waterfall can still be on the right side, now more of a stream that is flowing down the riverbank and into the river. I will also likely put some more tree roots entering the water on the right side, to suggest the larger picture. Hmmmmmm. . . I think I will leave the tree trunk hollow, so that it weighs less and also provides space to hide cables and whatnot. And of course I will have some jungle vines draping down, to provide additional space for epiphytes. I am really excited about making the texture of the bark! I love how moss grows on the ridges of tree bark in the forest, and I will strive to emulate that in my tank. What would y'all suggest for my main tree form, since I want it hollow? I think that a piece of PVC that large would be too expensive. Perhaps I could build a plywood frame that is sort of hexagonal (only not totally round, because the tree will disappear into the back of the tank, not be entirely molded 'in the round' so to speak)? Oh, another thing I am very excited about is the plants. I have decided that I must have a super dwarf lotus in my tank! I adore these plants, but it is just too cool here in the summer to grow them successfully. I think a terrarium could be just the thing! And mine would have enough space (I think) for the smallest variety out there, right? Gary, please chime in here and tell me if this will work or not at all. Would it require a cooler dormancy? If so, could this be accomplished by removing the plant and storing it somewhere for the neccessary dormancy period? And also, since I'm going with a riverbank idea, I think I will make some holes in the bank to contain pots for terrestrials. Some paphs. and phrags. would be REALLY sweet! Especially with the flowers arching over the water. . . oh my goodness, I hope you all can see this in your head like I can. It's a piece of paradise! One question about the fake branches: how does one heat the PVC pipes in order to bend them to the desired shape (a la the Dutch vivs)? Heat gun? Blowtorch? Homer, I don't mind you being contradictory. =) I think that I will need excellent air movement in my tank though, especially if I want a lotus. You're probably right, I probably am too worried about the technical aspects (I'm more artsy-fartsy than handy, especially when it comes to electricity. Thank goodness I married an electrician!). And the wet/dry filter probably scares me more than it should because I simply have no experience with them. I should go check out the pond forum, so that I at least know what you guys are talking about. =) Are they similar to the sump method of filtration for fish tanks? Because that's what I want to use. You know, the water flows out of the main tank via an overflow, which contains a pre-filter, and then it goes down into the sump, where it flows through various chambers containing foam, sponges, 'bio-balls' or other media good for growing beneficial bacteria, etc., and then back into the tank via some powerheads. I think I will need two, maybe three powerheads on the right side to create my river flow effect. Am I making kind of a riffle tank here?