Those ecosphere ball things

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone can point me to a newsgroup / forum about
ecospheres. I recently saw those ecosphere balls at
http://www.eco-sphere.com/home.htm and wanted one. Yes I realize it's
old news, but I just found out about it. Anyways, the price is way too
high for me, so, being an idiot, I decided to try and make my own.

I took an old spaghetti sauce jar, 3 ghost shrimp, and a plant, and
sealed them in. Two shrimp died fairly quickly because the third killed
and ate them. But now, after two months, the shrimp is still alive.
It's fun watching it run around eating the algae, and it's molted twice
so far. I feel bad for it because it's probably lonely, but I am
reluctant to add more shrimp for fear that it will kill any new friends
I add.

Anyways, I wanted to add my experience in case my random luck helps
someone build their own. After all, $5 for an ecojar is much cheaper
then $80 for an ecosphere. Plus, my jar is 5" in diameter and 9" tall.


Thanks in advance!

P.S. In case anyone is interested, the way I made it work was to start
new with 3 shrimp, let them all die. Leave the top open and let the
bodies rot at the bottom for a few months, adding water as needed. (To
get the bacteria started and stable - and to get the algae to start
growing). Throw in a pinch of iodized salt (dunno if that helped, but I
did it for the iodine). Add 3 new shrimp, then seal them in. I can't
give many more details because I never tested the water for anything or
calculated anything. I don't even know what kind of plant is in there.
I just chose one that looked cool. Also, the room temperature is no
where near stable. It varies from 65 to 95 degrees. I was actually
surprised that the shrimp didn't die after it hit 95 degrees.