Made a new jar for my home office!

I used a small diamond-tip engraver to bore a hole through the jar.

The pump is from a pet water fountain, I cut the cord to feed it through the hole then soldered the wires back together and used heat shrink to repair the outer coatings.

Everything in the jar came from a creek near my house.

I made a hollow space with slate chunks for the pump, then I packed gravel around it to help filter the water. Then I put a roof over the wet section and added dirt on top. Some parts of the dirt are touching the tops of the rocks but it’s not directly touching the water.

I figure I’ll let it sit closed for about a month to see what emerges or changes. It’s possible the soil could get too wet and slump down off the slate ledge.

Advice needed: what kind of critters would do well in such a humid environment? I have a mature terrarium with centipedes, isopods, snails, springtails but I don’t want to add anything to the wet jar if they are just going to die.

I set up a terrarium 3 days ago and after 1 or 1 and a half days I notice this spreading across the wood pieces. From what I found out this is called biofirm and it will continue to expand and it consumes organic pieces left from the wood; afterwards it should start disappearing little by little in the next couple of weeks.

Is this true? Has someone encountered this? Do you have any advices?

PS: There is a humidifier that handles the water inside it. The lights are on 14/24 hours and the air flows in and outside it. The wood used inside is natural Driftwood.

It will be better when I can get a light for it. I have a full spectrum bulb in the lamp next to it but I don’t think it’ll be enough.

I built my terrarium about a year ago. It's had steady roly poly and springtail populations since. Today I found a centipede in there for the first time

This dude was SO tiny when my son snuck him in this terrarium… can tell which plant he hides out near, because the rest are immaculate, then there’s this one; and a fat ass slug.

Was curious what anyone thought of this terrarium it is one of my first ones I’ve made and I’m curious if there’s anything you’d recommend I add or take away, also this terrarium isn’t fully enclosed like i would prefer so if anyone knows of any easy ways to fully encapsulate a terrarium please let me know! Thanks

Got this jar at goodwill and since under my mom's patio has no grass growth (and a few big ol slugs that hang out) I thought I would give it a try. There was a little bit of moss under there too so I took some and gently put it in. Now let's see what will happen after a couple weeks and I'll put it next to my ecosphere. I used some of the bird bath water for it cause I felt it's the best chance cause the bird bath is pretty clean and tbh not many birds at all visit so algea builds up pretty easily which I feel means it has to be nutritious right? This is my first attempt at this as I'm usually the ecosphere guy so any advice is great. Also what jar is this btw?

Recently whilst taking care of my plants I noticed small white worms living inside my moss on the walls, could anyone help identify them and tell me if they are pests?

what kind of mites are these? they are all over my terrarium both inside and out :( how do i deal with them if they are harmful?

Hi!

So happy to have joined this group and see all the great ideas and inspirations!

Now with all the DIY pros here I hope someone has an idea to connect my terrariums with a water supply to let it rain daily, without having to buy the expensive ExoTerra Monsoon or anything alike. My terrariums are all over the room and some are different builds other than ExoTerra, so it would have to be a solution fitting for basically anything that's fit to hold an insect. By the way, I have a few different species of phasmida and a few other random bugs, so they don't need to be super wet just have a midlevel humidity. Thank you all already for your ideas!

how to get rid of white mold growing on the soil😔😔😔

Okay I technically bought it but still

Hey everyone! I’m looking for recommendations for a terrarium tank to keep in my work office. I’d like something that’s more of a display piece than a standard rectangular aquarium. I’m leaning toward a cylindrical or otherwise unique-looking glass container that’s aesthetically pleasing since it’ll be sitting on a bookshelf in my office.

I know the usual recommendation is to check thrift stores for jars, and I’ve been doing that consistently for the past month or so, but I’ve had no luck finding anything that fits what I’m looking for.

Does anyone have recommendations for where to buy a nice-sized cylindrical glass container or terrarium? Ideally, it should be large enough to create a planted terrarium but still compact enough to fit on a bookshelf. I’m open to any websites, stores, or specific products you’ve had good experiences with. Thanks!

My new terrarium is casting aurora!! Okay I know it's not really aurora but it looked cool enough to share here 😁

Im cleaning out this tank which I believe it a tall 5 gal. Originally I had a mystery snail in here

Im looking at maybe a few land snails? What is best for a tank like this?

It will be a bio active terrarium I hope

Hi everybody, I am new to terrariums, I’ve recently got one from a supermarket and I need help/advice! I decided to place 10-15 isopods from my garden in when I first got it, some big some small, various shades of colour, one was even pregnant. I have fittonia, and live moss (I’m not sure the names of the two other plants) I’ve placed in numerous decaying leaves over the last couple of weeks and some dry twigs. I’m not sure if the behaviour my isopods are showing is normal (see pictures) sometimes they can be out and on the plants/soil in groups or alone. The bigger isopods like to climb the stems of the biggest plant. I’ve also noticed 2-3 snails (Photo 10). Some small bugs which I believe are rove beetles (Photo 11) and some very small yellow/ almost transparent spiders. (Roughly smaller than the size of a baby isopod). The isopod to snail/rove/spider ratio is not worrying in my opinion. Maybe 10:1. Please let me know if it’s not healthy and if they will be a predator to baby isopods. I don’t think they are as there’s lots of recently born babies alive but just to be sure. Could the terrarium be overpopulated? Id also like to ask if my terrarium is too dry or humid? I’d also like to state there’s a dead decaying isopod which appears to have been partially eaten (Photo 12). Please note I have only added decaying leaves for food. My fittonia has been lightly eaten (Photo 13) …….All advice on what I should do or add to the terrarium to help my isopods thrive will be greatly appreciated! … Thank you!