Oase Biorb Air
I was contacted by Ashley Cobb, rep for Oase North America shortly before Aquatic Experience this year, and asked if I would be interested in doing a demo, scaping one of their Biorb Air terrariums. I must admit that while I agreed to do it, I had some reservations. How could these possibly be worth the amount of money that these were going for, retail? But my friends George Farmer and Rachel O’Leary were also doing one, and they had already been involved with demos at Aquashella. So I agreed to give it a go! Ashley also offered to let me take one home so that I could see how it functioned long-term.
Ashley was great, providing a number of very nice plants for us to work with from Glass Box Tropicals. Knowing that the plants that went in would come home with me, I also visited Paulie Deema’s Vivariums in the Mist on the show floor, and bought some lovely plants from him. So I definitely was NOT working with your average “Home Depot” level terrarium plants!
George did the mechanical part of putting the Biorb together for me since he has done them before, but everything you need comes in the box. If you are serious about plants, I would not recommend using just the substrate that is provided, since it is just coconut fiber. While this can be a useful component in a jungle vivarium substrate, by itself, it is very absorbent, doesn’t drain well. It’s like a big sponge and is likely to hold too much water for the liking of many plants. As Ashley said, “It’s a starting place.” I added sphagnum moss, orchid bark, horticultural charcoal and sand to it to make a lighter, better draining mix, more akin to ABG to use as the substrate in my orb. I also added springtails to keep the enclosure healthy, because as far as I’m concerned, every living terrarium or vivarium should have springtails!
Next, I placed the hardscape and realized that one of the challenges with the Biorb is the narrow opening. I think that the reason for this design might be two-fold; to keep humidity in and to keep humidity out of the lighting. But it does make it a bit difficult to work in. You can only fit one hand at a time into the orb, and it is not possible to fit branchy wood through the opening. If you want to make a branchy arrangement, you need to put the wood in, one stick at a time, and secure the branches together using only one hand, once they are inside the orb. That’s not easy! (Oase does have a number of pre-made decorative pieces you can use, but you KNOW I wasn’t going to do that!) It also turned out that the space inside the orb made it difficult to use my normal scaping tools. So I had to work a lot more by hand than I am used to when arranging the plants. But I got the job done, and oh, my! It looked so pretty, even right after it was set up! Here is a slideshow of the set-up:
I’ve had my Biorb Air at home now for just over a month now. It functions exactly as advertised. You DO need to read the directions! The lights are a straight on 12/off 12 cycle, but this isn’t an aquarium, and you don’t have to worry about algae. I haven’t seen a problem with this. I have had one power outage at our house during the last month, and I do find it slightly problematic that the Biorb does not come back on automatically afterward. That could be a big problem if you were away on vacation. So I will certainly make sure I have someone checking in on it when I go away, with directions to reset it if necessary. (that part is easy, it is one button that needs to be held down for 3 seconds)
The humidity and fan can be set for three different levels. Since I am keeping tropical jungle plants, I have it set on the most humid level. You MUST use either distilled or RO water in the Biorb to avoid clogging the mist head as well as depositing minerals on the acrylic walls. But that is standard vivarium operating procedure anyway. I have an RO filter at home, but it is easy to buy distilled water at the grocery store if you do not. When I saw how small the reservoir was, I thought I would be refilling it constantly. But it holds the humidity well enough that that really isn’t the case. I’ve been refilling the reservoir about once a week. I seem to lose most humidity from “messing” with it… moving plants, checking on things, taking photos, etc., with the cover open. Things that aren’t STRICTLY necessary! I opened the top to take the following photo of the little reservoir, and with our current cold weather and our hot air heat, that immediately caused the mister to come on! (It looks pretty when it mists too!)
You do also need to put water (also distilled or RO) into the bottom of the orb, where it wicks up into the substrate to keep the plants watered. There is a small tube/gauge on the side of the bottom where you can see how full the bottom is, and, if necessary drain water out so that the plants are not drowning.
I’ve added a few more plants since I brought the Biorb home. I had a jewel orchid, Ludisia discolor, that I knew would be a stunning offset for the Calathea ornata I had put in at the show. I also found a little Chirita tamiana at Logee’s that I thought would add to the already lovely grouping of tiny flowering plants I had going.
Between aquariums, terrariums, and vivariums, there are a lot of pretty enclosures to look at in my house. My Biorb is the one people are drawn to first. It is stunning. The plants continue to do extremely well. There is something new flowering all the time, and even little mushrooms popping up!. It is an absolute jewel in my home.
Can you get the same results in terms of plant growth while spending less money? Sure. But if you really keep track of what you’re spending, you’ll be surprised how much things add up for DIY also! And will you end up with such a beautiful enclosure? That is up to you to decide. I think that for someone who can afford it, there is a tremendous amount of value in a well-designed system, where you can just plug it in and it works.
It took me about an hour to set this gem up at Aquatic Experience. I can’t tell you the number of hours of pleasure it has ALREADY given me in the month since then. Here are just a few more photos of the delightful moments spent with my Biorb!
