Possibly setting up orchidarium

Thats realy nice!!!
That looks like a $500 (¥56,000) tank!!!
Are you wanting a green house style (not very pretty but grows plants well), or a planted rainforrest/temporate forrest setup?
Here are some pics of each one:
Greenhouse style
Planted style Btw, these are NOT my pics.
They are from Acme orchidariums.
orchidarium acme

 

The first thing to ascertain is if it is water tight.

 

Sounds realy neet!!!

Sounds good.
Are you using a filtration system for the water?
It keeps the algae and bacteria way down.

 

I personaly prefer the greenhouse style because it can be easly taken apart and cleaned.

A planted tanked is harder to maintain.
Pluss, once its setup, it can be very hard to clean.

 

I've grown orchids in terrariums for the last 7 or so years and also keep and breed poison dart frog species for roughly the same span of time. I maintain about 20 planted terrariums for the frogs.

In looking at your tank, I think it's definitely suitable for conversion to planted. You'll be thankful for those sliding doors when you're working inside! First thing I would do is to make sure there is an area for water to pool to be drained off later. Is there tank space below the doors? If so, I would create a "false bottom" either by making a raised platform out of something like egg crate or laying down expanded clay or some other rock-like material to raise your substrate out of the saturation zone. Add a stand pipe or something that allows you access to the bottom for occasional siphoning of the water reservoir.

I would skip the fogger. It doesn't really do much (outside of it looking cool), and it tends to leave a bit of water constantly on the plants' leaves making rot an issue. Your enclosure will be humid enough within the glass enclosure with regular waterings. A Mistking system is an excellent addition but also be prepared to spot water since they tend to not cover every nook and cranny.

Being that your tank is roughly 4.5 feet tall, I would invest in 1-2 quality 4' LED fixtures with a color temperature near 6500K. Alternately, you can use one LED fixture and one T8/T5. In my experience, the fluorescent bulbs tend to grow plants a little better and their light is more pleasing to the eyes. I recommend at least one LED, though, because their light can penetrate down to the bottom of the tank much more efficiently than fluorescents. If there is no budget on the project (Hey, we can all dream!), I would run a combination of one Finnex Planted Plus freshwater LED fixtures combined with some T5HO (high output) fixture designed for freshwater aquariums.

This site is a wealth of orchid culture knowledge, and I think I have a few photos of my terrariums both greenhouse style and naturalistic around somewhere. If you want more terrarium design information, check out dendroboard.com.

 

Yes.
Unfortanatly this can be very hard to do in a planted tank.
Thats why I prefer a greenhouse style
Because you can put a tray in the bottom and empty it once a week.

 

Yes.

A small water pump will do but I prefer a small water filter.
For realy small tanks, some people use air pumps (the kind used in fish tanks).
But since yours is quite large, I would use a water filter.
Nothing fancy or large, just a small, inexspencive, internal water filter.

 

Sounds realy neet!!!
When it's finished, please post pics.

 

That site is great referece!

 

2 mins. once a day will do.

 

Curculating water limits bacterial growth.
The shiny film on the water's surface is caused by certen bacteria.
With a small filter, the film can't grow.
It also keeps algae growth down.
That stuff grows extreamly fast.
Besides, moving water is soooo much better than stagnet water.
Especally if you have mosquitoes.

 

For some reason I thought you wanted a small pool in the bottom.

 

You would be surprised how much and how quickly

 

Sounds like your drainage plan should work. I would still create a false bottom above the drawer, so that the entire volume of the drawer can be reserved for drainage water.

Those lights should work well for the upper reaches of the tank. I would still recommend and LED fixture if you're wanting many plants on the floor of your tank. I tend to avoid giving sealed tanks much exposure to sunlight because they can heat up much faster than you expect. I assume you already have a working knowledge of this since you have maintained this tank for a while. The extra humidity added by converting it to a full-fledged terrarium may make temps inside feel a bit higher (see the greenhouse effect for further reading), just something you need to keep in mind by planning. This may affect your plant selection down the line.

The frequency of watering will totally depend on your plant selection and how you decide to grow them. If you use a lot of supplemental mounting media (i.e. sphagnum moss on cork bark), then you will want to mist less frequently. Also, if you're growing Lepanthes species and not Cattleya species, you may want to mist a little more often. I grow primarily Pleurothallid Alliance species and Bulbophyllums in my tank, and I would recommend a 1-2 minute mist cycle 2-3 times per week. My tank is totally sealed, though with only internal air circulation, and my climate makes the house naturally fairly humid.

You will likely get algae growth on the glass walls and doors if you get any at all. It's easy enough to wipe away from time to time. You won't accumulate enough water to need a filter if you just create a false bottom and dump weekly or when necessary.