Bioactive terrarium

...out of local stuff. This is just my recent inspiration, so a note to self a little bit... looks great for studying the tiny details of the micro life in our gardens (or other surroundings). Also, maybe the native, not endangered species should be more appreciated?

The idea is to take samples of local plants and soil (and the tiny critters will probably hitchhike on that) and grow it in a bioactive terrarium, recreating a miniature version of an ecosystem.
I like that whatever grows in there, can be put back in the garden (if I take it from the garden), and can be studied closely.
The idea of a bioactive terrarium is that it doesn't need much maintenance, other than feeding the animals and changing their water, and even less maintenance if it's mainly about the plants.

Here is a tiny native terrarium being made step by step:



And here is a corn snake bioactive terrarium:



The owner says, that the snake is 9 years old, and that the substrate in there is as old as she is. I think it's super cool!

I guess a sophisticated permie would do all these things differently, but these two videos were most inspiring to me I think - or the ideas behind them (to use native stuff, and to create such a durable living soil).

I think I'll make that in the room that's too dark for growing plants on a windowsill!

Another exciting discovery: I found an Instagramer named Mini Terraform, who does this:
(I don't know how to make an image visible here so I'll post them as links)

- collected yellow aphids from a milkweed and used them as a golden dye
- collected the over populated super worms and used them as food
- created a "curry forest" in a terrarium! So beautiful! It was the first post from this person that I found.

So many possibilities for indoors growies!

My next "note to self" will be about the first terrarium that I'm thinking about creating; a small one, because I never had a terrarium (although I did have a red-eared slider many years ago).
I first want to create a nice environment for my pitaya cacti to thrive; they need a lot more light than they receive now, and a little warmer. And more humid. Then I'll think about other plants... and maybe the Helix pomatia from my garden.
Of exotics, I thought of green anolis - a small lizard, and a corn snake or a common garter snake. However, I do have native snakes and lizards in my garden, too... I actually almost stepped on a tiny grass snake baby just recently.

I'm not going to pretend that setting up a terrarium is permaculture, but having a permie mind while doing that, makes a difference!
At the moment, it has just rocks, aquarium soil and bioactive terrarium soil, and a bowl which is supposed to be a small pond. We'll see if it can thrive without a filter. It currently has a tiny store bought plant, which is supposed to create a small "carpet" on the bottom. I'm thinking to add daphnia, a small clam, and maybe least killifish; they're all supposed to eat everything and clean the water. But I want the plants to grow first.
In the soil, I added springtails, and I gave them a small piece of moldy tomato, but they seem to be happy finding organic matter to eat in the soil too. They also might be the funniest tiny critters I've ever seen, bouncing around, also on the water because they just float.
I could have collected them from my garden, but when I made a first "sealed terrarium" just from the garden soil and plants, I found maybe 10 different species of critters just during the first hour of looking at it... of course I didn't mean to collect any. So this time I wanted just the springtails, and I found a very good source of them. Also, these terrarist people are very knowledgeable, it's impressive that they always say the names of their pet reptiles in Latin. Can you imagine other pet breeders to always use Latin when talking about species, breeds and varieties?
The ones who make bioactive terrariums seem especially promising as potential future permies ;)

Later on I will also add some red wigglers from my garden, but I'll probably wait till spring for that.

For now, I added seeds of pepper (small, very hot chilli peppers which I got from friends), basil, sedum and arugula. The peppers should look like "trees" in the setting, if they grow to their expected size. They shouldn't reach the "roof".
My goal is for it to be suitable for a garter snake, which needs humidity at about 60% and temperature 20-30°C. Currently it's at 22-24°C and 60% humidity so almost perfect; I would just need to add a small heat lamp for a hot spot, and maybe I will need to add a fan when the plants grow bigger and thicker. We'll see if they change the humidity too; if it increases, it would be more suitable for a grass snake.
I decided that it would be a home for one of these snakes (or a corn snake which seems most popular, but it needs less humidity and higher temperature; and I'd rather see what the terrarium wants to be, without forcing certain conditions too much...).
One of my most desired plants for this setting is watercress; I'm now waiting for the seeds. I'm planning for it to grow in and around the "pond". Which maybe should be bigger, and could be prettier... for now it's just a plastic bowl. I have friends who make pottery and maybe I could make a more sophisticated, and prettier ceramic bowl in their studio.

Picture time!
There is a number of volcanic rocks, as I thought they will be good for air flow and micro life, and also it was inspired by the landscape of Madeira island. The white/yellow rock is the artist me, who wanted to contrast it against the black rocks ;)
One is from my garden and one is not a rock, but a bone! Can you guess, which one?

Update after a while. I added a lot of everything! The water bowl is now a small aquarium, and is doing well without a filter, from the beginning. I read a lot about filterless setups, and the trick is to use a lot of plants, and critters that prefer still or slow moving water.
There is also a vanilla, basil, some ornamental plants, a strawberry from my garden... and I will add mourning geckos soon. The peppers haven't really started, because there are too many fungus gnats (other plants have trouble growing roots because of them, too). Isopods do eat some plants, but not other insects... but most of the time they are "the cleaners" like they should.

This is amazing!!

Thank you, Hannah (and welcome to Permies!).
Here is another update!

Of the plants I really wanted (because I can't grow them elsewhere), some look really promising: vanilla, pepper and strawberry (transplanted from my garden, where snails always get to it before me...). Vanilla is in the top left corner, behind a root, and strawberry is in top right corner.
I'm still having trouble with watercress... it keeps dying, although the conditions should be perfect for it. I bought a lot of watercress seeds and I'm not giving up!
I also started a small aquarium next to this. It shares some light and warmth from a heat lamp with the terrarium.
I added guppies (newbie tip: buy critters and plants that are cheap and easily available, preferably the excess from other people's aquariums/terrariums - they are more likely to grow happy and healthy without fancy stuff).

One of the guppy mamas gave birth to 20 babies, or more! Now the babies live with shrimps in the smaller aquarium, and some (maybe 4) are with big fish in the new aquarium. Guppies hunt their babies, but these four guys know how to hide in the moss!
I think guppies can be excellent for small aquaponics in a container, something like this:

Effortless Fish Pond With Edible Plants

I will probably have a lot more guppies than I need, so I'll set up something like this with them, in the summer. Koi carp is probably better if you also want to eat the fish eventually, but guppies might be a great option for a smaller container.

Another change I made in the design was to break some of the ornamental stones, to make them smaller, and remove some weight from the terrarium; people usually make terrarium designs mostly from mounting foam and cork, which are really light. I also added aerator (the small blue "ball") in the aquarium, and I turn it on just for a minute or two daily.
Today I tested the water for nitrates, phosphorus and dKH (carbonate hardness) in both aquariums, and in a container which I keep outside, and I pour there any excess water from cleaning etc. All three were fine! The "dumpster" container had a little more phosphorus, which is understandable, but it was still on the safe side.

Big change again! Seems like less things than previously, but in fact there is more; I just removed some stones that were adding unnecessary weight, trimmed some plants and some are starting over from seeds.
Vanilla seems to do best, which makes me really happy.
The aquarium part is getting bigger with each major revamp... water world turned out to be much more interesting than I thought. So I'll be selling the cube to someone who has snakes or lizards.

About bugs: springtails are my favourite. They have their own colonies underground, they don't hurt plants, and they happily visit the water surface from time to time, becoming fish food. I'm a huge fan of them.

I got angry with the isopods. They started eating plants!
They would do much better with a predator that would eat them and feed them with its poop, so it's not entirely their fault. And it's fairly easy to control them, because they breathe with gills, so when surface is dry enough they will stay hidden in moist areas. Despite the gills, they can't survive in (or on) the water, poor losers.

I found an earthworm when removing the cube aquarium. It was giant. And pregnant.
I also saw... SLUGS. I have no idea how they got in!!
I killed one and another appeared pretty soon, so I used the old slug poison... which I haven't used in a year, anywhere. I thought, that at least I'll be able to observe its effect on other critters. Springtails ate the poison, but there is really a lot of them, so they haven't even noticed. Isopods - I don't know. Maybe they ate some when it dissolved, but didn't seem affected either. The earthworm was not interested. I haven't seen slugs since.

There are also thrips and fungus gnats. Flypaper works on them, but they also slowed down plant growth.

The plants I want most are: vanilla, peppers and watercress. The vanilla seems to be on its way to dominate, peppers are finally catching up, watercress can grow in the water but it's starting over too... and I will add columbine maybe.

I made some "fences" to keep the soil in place... I used willow and mulberry twigs, boiled first to keep them from sprouting. And I inoculated them with shiitake mushroom! We'll see how that turns out... maybe another disaster (if so, I hope the springtails will take care of it).

A much needed addition - background! My own artwork inspired by Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire. Now I just need to scrape that glass wall clean...
Fun fact: after I added the background, the temperature rose by two degrees Celsius. I guess it provides better insulation than just glass.
To the left, you can see Zoroaster the ginga rubra guppy. He lives with 8 (or so) young guppies, but they're hardly visible, because they have no coloration yet.

Oooh! I've been building a bioactive vivarium for Red Eye Tree Frogs and I started a bioactive native terrarium yesterday! Serpa Designs is great.

It's been snowing in the tiny world... with diatomaceous earth. That works much better in a closed ecosystem like this, than out in the garden... looks like thrips, fungus gnats and excess isopods are finally under control.
I tried to use ladybug or chrysopa larvae as a predator, but they really wanted to run up and down twigs to hunt for aphids. I don't have long twigs (yet) or aphids, so they were not interested and decided to eat each other or die (isopods should take notes). I released them to the garden.

I added bacopa monnieri in the middle of the aquarium. I read that it's edible and even improves memory?
I also added pistia, exchanged with other fish keepers for Ceratopteris Cornuta ("water lettuce") which is said to be edible too... or carcinogenic.
The banana plant (Nymphoides aquatica) produced a huge bright leaf when moved to a warmer aquarium. Guppies, on the other hand, seem to prefer the colder tank... although everyone says that they like it warm. Maybe there is something else in the colder tank, that they really love?

Finally, I cleaned the back wall... so the background is better visible now. Also, something weird: some plants seemed to rotate? Comparing to the previous photo? The two peppers and the spiderwort... maybe I just moved them while spreading the diatomaceous earth. Or they rotated?

If the guppies like the colder tank have you done a water test?

I made major changes to the aquarium portion of the vivarium. I added amano shrimp and a bumblebee nerite to my beta. I also did a massive water change, cleaned the submersible filter, put in new plant-friendly substrate and planted the tank with duckweed and... Something I don't remember the name of. I also have a lucens in there. The betta and shrimp got persnickity for a bit but as of this morning they appear to have settled in.

I have some springtails coming in from a pal for the tank. Next step is processing oak leaves for tannins for the beta tank and using the oak leaves as mulch in the tank.

Here's an older picture of it, right after I planted the bromeliads. I've got a few more plants in there now, and this was before the tank changes were made.

C Mouse wrote:If the guppies like the colder tank have you done a water test?

I do water tests all the time, because it's so interesting! Parameters are similar most of the time (and good). Today I moved male guppies (the young ones that were born a month ago) from both tanks elsewhere, and now that I see them all together, there doesn't seem to be a lot of difference between those from the warmer tank and from the colder tank. There were two males in the colder tank that grew bigger and had colours earlier than others, but everyone else looks similar. So maybe it's just a coincidence.

I have some springtails coming in from a pal for the tank. Next step is processing oak leaves for tannins for the beta tank and using the oak leaves as mulch in the tank.

I would keep them separated for a while, to see if anything other than springtails hatches. If they have moist soil they will be fine. They also like cork and the soil for orchids (usually some mix of bark, moss, etc).

Your vivarium looks great!

Thanks! It's not where I want it to be yet but it's coming along. I feel pretty safe about the springtails - they've been isolated under a friends keeping for 6+mo. It's been his pandemic hobby.

The soil mix I have should be great for them, but I'm sterilizing a bunch of leaves to mix into the top layer too because I will have isopods when I get the frogs. It will also give me the tannin water for my betta tank since my PH is too high.

Also also gotta add some more landscaping and hardscape. It's a work in progress.

Great Post even the topic went a bit from Terrarium to Aquarium,

as I was reading this post the Name of David Latimer popped up in my head, who created an entirely closed world in a bottle.
According all info he never watered this kind of bioactive Terrarium world for over 4 decades which makes it for me the most self sustaining bioactive Terrarium in the world.
- off cause without bigger animals than the tiny ones for the soil conversion.

This made me thinking often of trying it myself to create such a closed world.

Great isn't it?

Mushroom!
That's not a Shiitake :P

Funny that it decided to grow right next to these two miniature ornamental bottles. This little shroom knows about insta glam!

See Hes, I love these closed bottled terrariums! They are somewhat easier to maintain, as nothing can escape them ;) I have two setups like this, not completely sealed, but closed and I'm not doing anything with them. One looks pretty, the other does not ;)

I can't believe how much these things have grown in two weeks. Especially the floating plants, pistia and duckweed - I didn't realize that there's so much more of them, than two weeks ago! The peppers have finally started and they're about to make a jungle. Vanilla will soon touch the top of terrarium and I'm thinking of cutting it in half. Good bugs are alive, bad bugs are under control, and all bugs want to be fish food, so it's almost a closed loop.

Back to the terrarium! I had to restart it, because of the mites... I'm not even sure what they were eating, but they definitely multiplied too fast. I tried to leave some of the springtails, from one area of the terrarium where only they seemed to thrive; in the lower, moist layers of gravel. I placed them there also in the revamped terrarium.
I think, that bad bugs are already in the soil from the store, because I got new and I already saw some fungus gnats in it. So there doesn't seem to be a way of getting rid of them completely; I could sterilize everything but I wanted to keep some plants from the earlier setup, and I could only clean them so much without killing them (I know of the in vitro method, but that's too much fuss for me... and things would still come from the outside one way or another, I guess).

I kept the vanilla and it's growing really well, which is great. You can see it through the aquarium - I made a new seedling from a cutting. I also kept the wandering willie (which almost got killed by the natural bug repellent... and maybe by the bugs too), and the gynostemma (a new plant from my other pot). The aquarium is the fastest growing thing here, haha... it got bigger again, and now I'm more educated having read Diane Walstad's books about low-tech planted aquariums. I kept banana lotus, water lettuce, pistia, duckweed and  bacopa monnieri, and there is now guppy fry along with some snails and and the coolest critters that hitchhiked - ostracods! They are the underwater cleanup crew.

I didn't put earthworms in the terrarium part this time, because they wouldn't have much to eat. Maybe I'll put them in later, if plants grow more without another invasion...

Also, the setup doesn't look as "natural" as before perhaps, because I wanted to ensure more aeration and visibility.

This thing still exists! Now it has only two terrestrial plants: wandering willie and vanilla. I added moss and anubias (which was a gift) into the aquarium. Seems like only springtails live in the soil now, which is strange, because I didn't do anything to remove the mites. They just disappeared along with the plants that were most vulnerable to them. I had to cover the aquarium with glass, because guppies jumped out every now and then... seems like they can do it for no reason too.

As a kid I used to tinker a lot with closed-off ecosystems in jars (like the bottle above, but smaller and mostly rather less stable). I remember at least one lasting for a couple of years though, an aquatic one starring lesser duckweed, algae, aquatic worms and copepods. Great fun! If I ever found a really big sealable glass container, I might attempt it again. Since an ecosystem mostly gets more stable the bigger it is, I don't think I would bother with the honey-jar ones I used before if I was to try this again.

Eino, cool idea! When I change this setup I can remove fish from this aquarium and seal it completely.