You may have searched web, but if not here are few links with plant suggestions: How To Make A Plant Terrarium http://books.google.ca/books?id=jZvsnsLIkNsC&pg=PA203&lpg=PA203&dq=woodland+terrarium+plants&source=bl&ots=iiwaerHScA&sig=wUth2_Hw8oDT_KEoPyEhEJIHabY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sbuKT5S1O-Tg0QGMqKjOCQ&ved=0CFkQ6AEwBzgK#v=onepage&q=woodland%20terrarium%20plants&f=false q=woodland+terrarium+plants&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=6bqKT_66MYfp0gHrxYX5CQ&sqi=2&ved=0CHkQsAQ&biw=1262&bih=574 Good luck with your project - maybe you can post some photos when finished? Rina

It is difficult because it is hard to commercially grow them. You have to have more exact conditions to produce them. Terrarium types are generally from a higher altitude where the temps rarely venture far from 65-80F and humidity is ALWAYS 75% or higher. Depending on where you are located, the only place to get them are begonia meetings. go to www.begonias.org and check out the website. Greg Sytch ABS Horticultural Correspondent

Totally keep the halides! Most of us only dream about that kind of lighting! =) Of course you will need fans to take the heat away from those babies, and don't bother replacing the actinic (as already mentionned), or even the VHOs, since the halides will be plenty. If possible, you could run only one halide. This would enable you to put extremely high light plants on the side with the halide, and normal high light plants on the other side. You could also try raising the light hood above the tank several inches (this would also help keep the heat down). The spectrum is just about perfect (10,000 K). If you find it to be too white of a light for your tastes, you could try adding a normal 'warm white' fluo (the really cheap ones at Home Depot and similar stores) to balance the colour out a bit, but that would only be for aesthetics, not valuable to the plants at all. And of course you can't put a normal fluo. in a VHO fixture, as you'd blow the bulb. =) For plants, forget moss. I think that is way too strong of lighing for moss. You could try 'spanish moss', which is actually a tillandsia, and being one of the silvery ones, it would probably like the higher light. Think full, blazing sun plants. If your tank was big enough, you could grow vanda orchids! Speaking of that, you may think of getting a bigger tank eventually. You could have a very tall tank, and you'd be all set with the lighting. If you build the tank yourself from plywood and scrap glass, it becomes even cheaper! =) But anyways, back to plants. . . you could try cacti and succulents, as gary said. You'd need some really good fans going to keep the humidity down though, especially in Florida. Perhaps alpines? Or tomatoes, so you can have them year-round? The possiblities are nearly endless! But you really would burn broms, most orchids, and mosses to a crisp unless you hang the fixture from the ceiling, about 3 feet above the tank. That, of course, may be a possibility, but then you may as well just not use the tank and set up a growing area for more plants! I think you need a bigger tank. . . =)

Hi Patrick888: I know nothing about the growing of Gesneriads. You mentioned adding a glass lid to the top of your enclosure. Would the glass top be used as a light support ? What type of light do Gesneriads require (e.g, high, medium, low)? Do Gesneriads require humidty? Problems associated with lack of air movement, stale air, and high humidity, could come into play with some species of plants (even with a glass lid that is not tight fitting). As to lighting, are you looking for something that is cosmetically pleasing to the eye, or something that will just get the job done? 17"w x 13" tall is indeed a unique size. Might be hard to acquire a fixture to fit that footprint if placing directly on top of your enclosure. One t5ho fixture that might be a possibilty: an 18" Sunblaster Nano Tech t5ho. If you were considering a longer standard size t5 or t8 fixture (e.g., 2 ft), you could probably suspend it over the top easily with some creativity. For an inexpensive 'fix' that may not be the most eye-appealing, you could get a couple of clamp-on "dome" aluminum light fixtures (Lowe's carries them) and use 'daylight' compact fluorescent screw-in bulbs as an option. As suggested by the above poster, aquarium lighting is another possibility. Examples might include something like the Finnex LED fixtures (FugeRay 16" or 20" - Ray2 18" - and I believe the mounts are adjustable), although they are a bit pricier than the Utilitec LED tape (which I don't think would produce enough light for your application, even though the depth is only 13"). You could always hang an inexpensive pendant over the top (with your idea of using an LED spotlight) and design it so you can adjust the hanging height. Looks like you have a wooden base (?) under the glass... you could fabricate some type of hanger (e.i., conduit) off the side, or off the back of your base to suspend a light fixture. Looks like you are going to have a very nice display/set-up when finished! This post was edited by o2tiller on Tue, Oct 15, 13 at 16:25