I guess it would probably have helped to describe the overall goal... lol.
Basically I'm wanting to use this for small heliamphora and potentially germination purposes. So I'll need humidity pretty stable in the 90-95% range, but without frequent misting. Especially in terrariums, these plants are pretty prone to fungal growth when misted very often. So, the reason I want the flooding is to root water the plants, as well as providing oxygen exchange in the root zone when the water drains out.
Actually your mention of african violets is pretty close to dead on. That's exactly the sort of thing I'm going for: high humidity while keeping the plants themselves dry. Really, in the end, I'm hoping to rarely have to open the top of the terrarium except for feeding/filling the pitchers from time to time.
I'm thinking that if I use a substrate of clay pellets, that will allow me to place the pots at different levels based on watering needs vs. size of pot. The pellets along with a fan should help keep humidity up. The last thing is really to figure out how to introduce fresh air without killing the humidity level. Hence the "slot on one (or both) side(s)" vs. "series of holes" quandry. I'm still pretty new at the terrarium thing, so it's hard for me to predict the pros vs. cons of both.
Basically I'm wanting to use this for small heliamphora and potentially germination purposes. So I'll need humidity pretty stable in the 90-95% range, but without frequent misting. Especially in terrariums, these plants are pretty prone to fungal growth when misted very often. So, the reason I want the flooding is to root water the plants, as well as providing oxygen exchange in the root zone when the water drains out.
Actually your mention of african violets is pretty close to dead on. That's exactly the sort of thing I'm going for: high humidity while keeping the plants themselves dry. Really, in the end, I'm hoping to rarely have to open the top of the terrarium except for feeding/filling the pitchers from time to time.
I'm thinking that if I use a substrate of clay pellets, that will allow me to place the pots at different levels based on watering needs vs. size of pot. The pellets along with a fan should help keep humidity up. The last thing is really to figure out how to introduce fresh air without killing the humidity level. Hence the "slot on one (or both) side(s)" vs. "series of holes" quandry. I'm still pretty new at the terrarium thing, so it's hard for me to predict the pros vs. cons of both.