Unlabelled Jarrariums - Does this count? Found on my property.

January 20, 2020
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Jarrariums - Does this count? Found on my property.

Does this count? Found on my property.

Posted: 20 Jan 2020 06:38 AM PST

Buried alive! Fun little jar I made today with local moss

Posted: 19 Jan 2020 12:14 PM PST

My Bacopa vase has been going strong for four months now!

Posted: 20 Jan 2020 06:32 AM PST

Smol snol

Posted: 19 Jan 2020 12:03 PM PST

Rate my candle jar. My second terrarium

Posted: 19 Jan 2020 07:21 PM PST

Does anyone have recommendations for Macro Lenses?

Posted: 20 Jan 2020 09:09 AM PST

Hello,

I am absolutely enjoying this hobby (as its getting me out of the house!), however, I absolutely love the up close videos and images of the life you see in your Jarrariums. I have also been watching the youtube channel "Life in Jars?" which use a macro lens.

Anyways, do you happen to have any recommendations for Macro Lenses? Do you use something on your phone or a DSLR or is it a completely different device on its own? I currently have an Iphone so it would be neat to attach a lens to that but I am not sure if it is possible.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

thanks

submitted by /u/suchascenicworld
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I was just gifted these plants! Can any of them go in a Jarrarium? Closed or open?

Posted: 20 Jan 2020 08:44 AM PST

A sealed jarrarium I made

Posted: 19 Jan 2020 05:58 PM PST

Post apocalypse

Posted: 19 Jan 2020 03:39 PM PST

In the operating room

Posted: 19 Jan 2020 05:49 PM PST

4 days in. What do you guys think about rocks with moss? All locally collected.

Posted: 19 Jan 2020 11:27 AM PST

Planted this today! It's in an old flower vase, with a cheap aquarium light on top, and the plant is an "Alternanthera reinecki var. ‘roseafolia’"

Posted: 19 Jan 2020 06:34 PM PST

Took your guys’ advice... more plants, ditched the bubbles. Added stone turtle for moral support.

Posted: 19 Jan 2020 02:08 PM PST

5 month update(heavily planted (7+ types) and deep substrate )

Posted: 19 Jan 2020 06:19 PM PST

Acitivated Carbon (AC) in your terrariums/jarrariums is a staple of the hobby nobody questions and it's time to.

Posted: 19 Jan 2020 11:32 AM PST

The use of AC in terrariums is such a common practice that nobody questions it anymore. This is partly due to the fact that in addition to that it is promoted by lead hobbyists, like SerpaDesign. SerpaDesign has incredible talent and knowledge of his craft but in his terrariums AC does more harm than good.

A quick google search about AC and terrariums lead me to a how to about building a sealed terrarium. Sealed ecosystems, specifically aquatic, is something of a business and passion of mine. This how to stated:

"You don't have to use activated charcoal unless you have a sealed container for your Terrarium. If you do, then it's a must. ... The charcoal helps keep the water clear of buildup of microorganisms that might grow in your substrate, such as algae and keeps the air clean for your plant to breathe."

Everywhere I looked I saw explanations that were similar. It gave the impression that the only thing people knew about AC was what they read on the box when they bought it at the store and thought "This sounds like it would do well". And somehow without further questioning, simply became the staple of the hobby.

In a closed ecosystem, the need for....an ecosystem is very important. If you have an aquarium for example, it is like an ecosystem it simply doesn't have all the processes an aquatic ecosystem has because instead of one kind of process you add fertilizers or instead of another processes you perform a weekly water change. In a closed ecosystem you cannot do these things. All processes have to be present and functioning optimally and sustainably. If they are not, all you have is a slowly collapsing incomplete ecosystem, it might look ok for a few weeks or months. But it's dying. And in reality, they all are even a "perfectly designed" one cannot get around the laws of thermodynamics and entropy.

But we're just talking about AC. Firstly, when you hear that it "absorbs toxins" you should be suspicious , in fact whenever I hear the word "toxins" I am prepared for some stretch of the truth, lie, ommission of detail, or pseudoscience to come next. AC absorbing toxins? I guess technically it does. But AC does not absorb all toxins, or even know what a toxin is. AC isn't "smart", it has no idea if it has just absorbed something like chlorine or if it just absorb one of the dozens of trace elements essential for plant growth. Yes, it will absorb plant nutrients, locking them away, in essence removing vital nutrients from your ecosystem.

In addition to absorbing beneficial things it leaches things that will have negative consequences. Only specific kinds (that are made and marketed as such) will not leach phosphates, the rest will. Have you heard of eutrophication? Google a picture of it. The addition of AC and it's leaching of phosphates puts your risk of algae through the roof.

People in the hobby also say AC will keep your water clear. Yes, it helps with that through absorbing dissolved organic compounds. The fact that those dissolved organic compounds may be important to the nutrient cycling and health of the ecosystem never seemed to cross their mind. But that is what we must never forget. We don't build jarrariums, terrariums, biospheres, or whatever someone wants to call theirs (mine are LifeJars :) )we build ecosystems at various levels of sustainability through the inclusion or exclusion of optimally functioning natural processes. If you don't look at your jarrarium through this lens it's easy to make the mistake above. If one looks at their jarrarium through that lens they will see much more, much deeper into the beauty of it all that dissolved organic matter is as important to the stability of the ecosystem as the plants that give off oxygen are.

[[I am not exaggerating either. Dissolved Organic Matter is called DOM and is a VITAL component to an ecosystem. I wont get into the importance of DOM but if you are interested you can google "the importance of dissolved organic matter". ]]

And besides all that after 2 to 4 weeks of absorbing plant nutrients and "toxins" (which ever get to it first!) and leaching phosphates the activated charcoal will be full and wont absorb anything else. So it will pretty much completely useless, very quickly. It will keep leaching phosphates though!

As far as being home to any microbial activity. That can be good, it's just too bad it slows microbial activity by almost 50%, and with no water rushing past it like it does in an aquarium, isn't as powerful of a microbial engine as you'd think.

Nature doesn't need AC, your ecosystem shouldn't either, since you are emulating nature. So, emulate nature try to find what it does. Also, don't include "toxins"! Use only organic in your terrariums/jarrariums.

Soil is the MOST important thing in your aquatic jarrarium or terrarium ecosystem. Get the soil right, and you're 80% of the way to a functioning system. Trust me when I tell you this.

What should be used instead of AC? Charged Biochar.

https://biochar-international.org/biochar/

Related reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta

submitted by /u/AggressiveEagle
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