Bioactive Orchid Forest biOrb AIR

what's up sir / squad I've shown you how to make a number of terrariums on this channel from the ground up primarily cheap low-tech ones that you can easily replicate at home with little to no money aside from the complexity of certain builds I typically don't go high-tech well we'll switch gears in this one though and set up a bio or bear this unit automatically controls lighting humidity and air movement so I guess you could say that it's high-tech truthfully this probably isn't something that I would have got on my own however ASSA reached out to me and wanted to see what I could do with their product so I took them up on the offer full disclosure they sent this to me for free but they didn't tell me what to say or anything like that otherwise this video wouldn't be happening all they wanted was for me to set it up and make a video about it when I removed the buy orb from the Box I was pleasantly surprised to see how large it was I've seen several pictures of it online but they don't give an accurate sense of scale they come in a few colors but I went with white because of high brand my stuff I got a say at first glance it's really sleek looking I was also surprised by how light it is if Ellie could hardly wait anything aside from the orb itself the kit comes with a few other components that require assembly the first component being the equivalent of a false bottom what it consists of are two pieces of plastic which clip together and are covered by a fabric mat to get this into the orb you have to remove the misting reservoir and turn the lid counterclockwise until it can be pulled off the support tray fits snugly into the bottom of the container and is topped off with the rubber stopper [Music] the kit also comes with the block of cocoa fiber that is no different than what you typically use you put it into a bucket with water and it expands the kit implies that cocoa fiber alone is a suitable long-term substrate but I have really hard time believing that so I added all the necessary components to turn this into my tropical ABG mix including sphagnum Moss charcoal orchid bark cocoa chips and course and having not used to buy orb long term I can't say if cocoa fiber alone would have been sufficient based on what I've seen in the past I bet that even in a regulated environment it would gradually make less than ideal conditions I have very few complaints or critiques about the buy orb but this is certainly one of them anyways I could then add the substrate into the orb doing so it was really easy but I had to be mindful of how I placed it since I added sand to the mix it could easily scrape the orb because it's made of plastic also since I mix charcoal into the substrate I'm not adding a dedicated layer although the kit doesn't come with or call for it I like to add it to all of my setups as you would expect I'm going to hardscape this set up like I typically do for my materials I'm going with wood and rocks for what I have several pieces of Malaysian driftwood as for stone I've pagodas done I like this one because there's a lot of nice texture to it in placing the stone being mindful of the striations is really important it has a very directional look to it and if you don't follow the lines then it won't look right my goal is to build up a nice Hill in the back of the orb using the stones as I work through the design I gradually transferred a lot of the substrate from the foreground into the background to create a greater sense of depth don't worry we'll utilize the negative space in the foreground later on once the hardscape was just right I went back with my fan brush and cleaned up the design now the by orb can be brought to life with all of the plans I tried to use a lot of oddballs in this one the first of which being pateros credit Cairo airy this is a really cool and prehistoric looking firm that will add a lot of great texture to the background per usual I dug a hole put the plant in place and made it look proper next up is another fern adiantum pubescens more commonly referred to as the rough maidenhair fern just like the one before it was situated into the background [Music] from marijuana and add a pop of color with the begonia Rex rumba I placed this one near the front of the scape to really draw you in with the vivid color ation and details introducing another plant Lamia mock Yule autumn white Nancy or the spotted dead nettle I don't have high expectations for this one but I wanted to experiment with it typically it doesn't like high humidity but it's been going around my propagation bin so I figured it was worth a shot I planted segments of this on either side of the Pateros Kartika let's move to the mid ground with Cantus okay this Jade in my opinion this one is a very striking plant that really adds some nice texture to the setup and helps draw the eye throughout at this point I felt that the background was lacking so I added another protaras credit car from there several segments of all turn on traffic OD a Christmas tree were introduced to the mix this plant has a lot of great texture and a nice dark green hue that will really add to the setup now I add the gems of the forest mini orchids first up her three segments of poor ethology small these plants are an epiphyte so they shouldn't be planted directly into the substrate what I did was wrap the roots and some java moss and then nestled them into crevices where they wouldn't come in direct contact with the substrate next up a few segments of mass Duvalier knit a fika I planted these in the same fashion as the pleura thalis this one is really cool because the leaves get a pinkish purple hue under the right conditions and they seem to have long periods of bloom moving on to a trailing plant that will really help fill in the space and add some nice color Pylea glocca aquamarine this is a really cool and delicate plant that will cascade throughout the design adding pops of interest adding yet another fern places red Thai monster Farah like a lot of the other plants I added to this setup this one is definitely an oddball with some really interesting textures this setup wouldn't be complete without more orchids so I proceeded to add a jewel orchids in the coats patola even when it's not in bloom this is a really beautiful plant it has some seriously detailed leaves to it on to another plane for the high ground saxifrage a vet gianna otherwise known as the strawberry begonia this is another delicate plant that will help add the necessary details to the overall look that's enough planting for now let's move on to the botanicals first off is the leaf litter for this one I'm using some willow oak leaves there on the small sides of the help retain the sense of scale and create some nice texture I [Music] then added several Korean IANA pods these by far one of my favorite botanical additions they look awesome among the leaves and moss speaking of moss I have a few patches of choice bad Moss selected for this setup what I did was separate them into smaller pieces and place them among the leaves to really help mimic that forest floor aesthetic we can't stop there though because I've even more plants including Sailaja narayana and sludge and a la paulo sentence much like the moss that breaks the slide janella into several segments and planted them among the leaves these will also help create some nice ground coverage and textural contrast another addition is an absolute essential plain of mine like Hispaniola Corsa folia commonly known as oak leaf creeping fig once established this will also create some really nice textures in the foreground finally is another accent plant live reward as of late I've really been trying to implement this into my builds I feel that they're underutilized and really help diversify the look of a forest floor although a single carpet plant would look cool it's just not something that you typically see in nature I believe that a combination of various plants is a more realistic look to complete the forest floor I added a handful of miscellaneous botanicals throughout from here I had to pour water into the base much like a regular terrarium this will go into a reservoir that helps keep up the humidity after that I screwed the lid back into place and put the misting reservoir in its proper location the reservoir was then filled up with the bottle of humidity mist water this is essentially really pure water that's devoid of minerals then I inserted the air filter and plug the bio orb into the power source before we take a final look so let's add our bioactive cleanup crew first off of course are the spring tails these guys will help deal with any potential mold outbreaks and aid in a natural decomposition cycle next up are the isopods more specifically pour clo skatebird dalmatian isopods these look awesome and will also play a big part in the cycle in case you're new to this you may be wondering why I added bugs the spring tails and isopods will break down the leaves and other organics which will then be converted into food for the plants and the cycle continues that's part of the beauty of bioactive setups no need to add fertilizers because the cleanup crew does the job these will also help keep the environment clean for the other inhabitants when the time comes here it is the complete bioactive orchid forest by orb that's a mouthful maybe we should just call it the bioactive form [Music] I think the biggest strength of the bio orb is how sleek it is it really does an excellent job at showcasing the design while keeping a low profile aside from aesthetics I'd say my initial impression of this is that it was easy and straightforward to set up all the directions were self-explanatory while walking you through the process they even came complete with illustrations that's great for someone like me because I hate dealing with directions the irony of that of course is that I enjoy making instructional videos a lot of the time it's a struggle escaping and planting a setup like this but I actually thought it was pretty pleasant to work with as for the functionality of this piece I can't give an accurate assessment at this time having not used the bio herb for more than a few days however my first thought is that I wish the features were more customizable take the lighting for example no matter what it runs on a 12 hour cycle and that cycle is program based on whatever time of the day you set it up meaning that if you wanted to turn on at 2:00 p.m. you have to program it at 2 p.m. although the automatic features are great I wish there was a way to program exactly what happens and when perhaps I want different light schedules based on the day of the week or maybe I want to run the lights for only 6 to 8 hours at a time all those and other features could of course be programmed through an app on my phone I'm sure that's something that will come with future models though so don't take what I'm saying the wrong way like I said earlier I also had complaints about the substrate but that's so minor because it has nothing to do with the bio orb itself despite my few columns I have to say that this appears to be an incredible item it looks awsom appears to function well and most importantly showcases the design flawlessly as far as that's concerned the fans do a great job of keeping the view clear of condensation sure you'll get someone you missed the plants but it dissipates quickly also I was surprised how minimal the distortion is because it's usually pretty common with this type of thing enough on that though I'll follow up in a few months to show you how everything is doing and to give you a better assessment of the buy orb itself a huge thanks to Oz of giving me the honor of setting one of these up I really do appreciate it and would gladly do it again in case you want to learn more about the bio or bear or looking to buy one I'll leave links down in the video description I'm curious to know though how do you think I did with this one I know many of you were asking for this project and I personally think it's some of my best work that's enough rambling for this one though time to move on to the next project thank you so much for tuning in I hope you enjoyed this one if you did please take a moment to like the video it only takes a moment and really goes a long way in supporting this channel if you like natural living art just like this and you're not yet subscribed what are you doing subscribe already so you don't miss out on future projects anyways I'll catch you on the next one circus squad take care and peace

Channel: SerpaDesign

Views: 738,426

Keywords: biorb, biorb air, terrarium, vivarium, paludarium, bioactive, bioactive terrarium, bioactive vivarium, aquascape, oase

Id: qXIAewzaW2I

Length: 14min 16sec (856 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 15 2019