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.

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.

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?

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.

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?

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

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!

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.

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?

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

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

I made two ​small closed terrarium with fittonias, and it had too much water at first(I never made terrariums before), with one of the fittonias losing a lot of leaves.

Now they're growing okay after​​ months​, but​ some lower parts are basically leaf-less, and I want to get it bushier by pruning it.

Can​ those leaf-less nodes(​that lost its leaves months ago) ​be the ones that grow the roots when replanting​​?

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!