Ecosystem

I looked through all the messages... There are no words... I also want to arrange "this")) But there is no possibility yet.

But what if there are a lot of plants and some animals and insects inside such a terrarium, then air access from the external environment can be completely restricted? (As far as I understand, plants will absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, but other gas impurities are also needed for respiration - from the external environment, or am I misunderstanding something?). Is it so easy to create a closed ecosystem and what difficulties may arise? What insects can help in eating withered plants and dead other creatures? (Woodlice?)

No, it is not advisable to restrict air access, the fact is that you need at least weak ventilation, which will prevent mold, air stagnation and other undesirable things. And for eating dead plants, yes - woodlice! And earthworms, of course, eat specially poured crushed plants in three days

Here are the current pictures, the first terrarium had to be "weeded out" quite thoroughly, I cut off all the aboveground parts of the plants, there were too many, and a lot of dried ones that did not fall into the ground and were not disposed of, in the end, probably about 3 kg of plant mass turned out.
But the plants recovered normally from underground rhizomes, so now everything is just like when spring comes

Well, the second terrarium, made in the spring of this year.

And another one is just a terrarium, without an ecosystem.

The inhabitants of these terrariums are copperheads (#1 and # 3), green lizard, swift lizard, zherlyanki (#2), tree frogs, green toads (#1), Vietnamese toads, lake frogs (#1,2), mantis, reaper ants, Ethiopian camponotus ants, garden ants, small ants strange ones, woodlice, drupes, tardigrades, earthworms, small black-bodied birds, marbles, stone crickets, various small snails, bagworm caterpillars, haymakers, the hichnets bug even seems to have one somewhere, etc.
It is worth noting that in addition to coppers, all animals are self-sufficient, they will find something and eat it.

I can't stop admiring your skills! Great, incredibly awesome, just no words!
[spoiler]For some reason, I'm getting more and more interested in observing the behavior of technology...[/spoiler]

This post was edited by alex017 - 29.10.2012 16: 25

Hierophis, can I ask you a couple of questions?

- Different types of soils are separated by glass dividers. And how are they mounted? If you just put them on, then water will easily penetrate from the wet zone to the dry one. It turns out that they are pasted in?
- In the pictures, the glass of the terrarium is clean. Is it wiped from the inside by hand, or does it just happen by itself?
- And how is access to the terrarium organized for working in it? If you just open the wall, then the animals can probably run away.
- The terrarium has a cooling system. What for? I have experience only in keeping toads, and everywhere they write that they need heating rather than cooling.
- Green toads are very fond of digging and breaking everything in the terrarium. How did you manage to protect plants and soil from them?
- Do I understand correctly that there is no cleaning on the ground and all plants grow calmly as they have sprouted, without human intervention?

There are different compartments made, there are sealed, there are just partitions. However, even in the first years, water still came to those areas that were dry, but this is not critical, if the area where ferns grow is watered abundantly, then there is not so much water where ordinary grasses grow.
However, for now, all these restrictions have disappeared! Due to the incredibly strong soil formation, the soil level rose by 5 cm and above, and all these boundaries were erased. The same grain, asparagus, and ferns have become extinct throughout the territory, probably due to salting of the soil.

Of course, the glass is wiped but rarely, there is no one to get dirty, but it gets dirty, croaks jump on it.

That's not, no one will run away, the copperhead is tame, the toads are hiding, the only thing that happened was the croaks and frogs jumped out.

Cooling is very important first of all for our local plants, but it is also useful for livestock! After all, this is a temperature difference and conditions close to rest in winter. And about toads, hmm, well, in general, toads and frogs do not really like the heat, and the gray toad so in general I died in the summer when +35 was in the room, but it did not live in this terrarium, it would eat everyone there.

No, the green toads had their own burrows, no more attempts to dig) Were, because this spring I released all, namely 4, I think, green toads, they grew from actually tadpoles to adults over the winter, and began to eat out all the woodlice and insects so that a catastrophe began.
As a result, I now have zherlyanki, they are much less voracious, a tree frog, and several African Botswana toads, but I also plan to distribute them, they grew up with tadpoles, took root, and have already grown sexually mature and are lathering to breed!

Yes, at the moment all the plants in the pictures are those that have taken root and grow well, as a care I cut off the overgrown ones, in addition, some have also begun to spread out by self-seeding, except for vegetative shoots underground and above the ground!

In general, the main problem is the balance between the number of amphibians and arthropods - if the balance is disturbed, then either mold occurs or plants begin to be damaged.

Pictures:

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Thanks for the reply. I have a couple more questions:

  
That's not, no one will run away, the copperhead is tame, the toads are hiding, the only thing that happened was the croaks and frogs jumped out.

With large ones, it is clear that they can be controlled. And the insects? Ants, woodlice and others. They are small and there are many of them.

- Lighting with conventional lamps, or with UV in the spectrum? If UF, what is the model?
- How is the water in the reservoir treated?
- How is the disposal of large animal excrement organized in general? As far as I understand, there are coprophagous insects in the terrarium?
- Are all the insects brought from nature?

Yes, there is no running up when opening the doors, why, there's not everyone climbing under the door to get out. The only thing is, with active foraging of ants, it is better not to open if the path goes along the glass, and then, no big deal, the ants will all return later, although I tried not to have any cracks, but ants are ants. And they will never run away, they have a nest there)

Lighting with ordinary fluorescent lamps, water is purified thanks to ... well, I do not even know how to explain it, thanks to the same thing as in nature - "ecosystem" however, the only thing is that once or twice a year it is desirable to change the water.

And not necessarily coprophages Any poop is organic, it is eaten by all sorts of leg-tails, woodlice, in the end, the earth constantly moves from top to bottom and vice versa, there are also a lot of earthworms.
And of course, everything from nature, who came from the ground, who is inhabited, like ants, woodlice, beetles of all kinds, millipedes, in general, this is a cut of ordinary natural soil with plants and inhabitants.

By the way, cooling is also dew falling in the morning and "rain" in the form of condensate drops from the roof.
In general, such a terr can exist for years, with soil formation, amphibian self-regulation, and other interesting things)

Yes, the terrarium is great. I would like to do something similar, but I don't think it will work. Yes, and winter has come, from nature you can only get snow, branches and stones.

Then there's the question of cooling. How is it done?