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.

It is far from an aquarist interest

--
Paulo
"Jason" wrote in message
...
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.

"Paulo" wrote in message
.. .
| It is far from an aquarist interest
|


Lessee....water...check. Aquatic animals.....check. Aquatic
plants...check.

I'd call it an "aquarist interest", though an odd one.

Useful, post though, thanks Paulo.g

I once tried something similar with plants and pond snails.
The reason it doesn't work with snails should have been obvious before I
tried it.
Three snails can turn into 300 in a week.

A suggestion though - maybe you could get a gallon jar for your next try. A
gallon would give more room for plants and animals, and have a better
"margin for error" than a small jar would.

Live and learn;
Limnophile

"Jason" wrote in message
...
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.
snip

Paulo wrote:

It is far from an aquarist interest

How so? Looks like animals and plants in a container of water, which is
pretty much a working definition of "aquarist interest".


--
www.ericschreiber.com

Jason wrote:

I took an old spaghetti sauce jar, 3 ghost shrimp, and a plant, and
sealed them in.

I was really taken with the ecosphere thing when I first saw them, but
I was dubious about the idea, and the price also put me off.

I can't help with the newsgroup/forum request, but as I read your
message, it occurred to me that I pretty much built one, as well. I had
bought a very large "jade sword" plant for about $20, which promptly
died way back when I put it in my tank. Since it had cost so much, I
decided to try to save it. I put it in a half-gallon plastic jar with a
lid. The jar has a several-inch layer of potting soil, a layer of
gravel to keep the soil under control, and the rest is water. I stuck
it in a window and the sword is growing just fine.

The animal occupants are a lot of pond snails (one rode in on the
plant, and the rest are offspring) and a huge number of copepods. For
awhile I kept a couple of ghost shrimp in there as well, to help keep
the copepods under control.

It isn't *quite* a sealed environment like the ecosphere is, but it
certainly counts as a micro-tank.

--
www.ericschreiber.com

Okie dokie. I just thought I'd ask. I figured this was a much better
place to post the question than say, rec.aviation.homebuilt. Thanks
all!


Paulo wrote:
It is far from an aquarist interest

Guys,

Those ecosphere things are TORTURE for those shrimp. It's jut that nobody
knows about it. It's just that nobody knows enough about these shrimp to
realize it's torture.

I found this shrimp specialist website that explains eveverything and gives
a fair amount of information about these shrimp:

http://www.petshrimp.com

In this particular section you can find why those ecosheres are just a huge
lie sold to the unknowing public:

http://www.petshrimp.com/hawaiianredshrimp.html



"Jason" wrote in message
...
Okie dokie. I just thought I'd ask. I figured this was a much better
place to post the question than say, rec.aviation.homebuilt. Thanks
all!


Paulo wrote:
It is far from an aquarist interest

[quote=Moi;31585]Guys,

Those ecosphere things are TORTURE for those shrimp. It's jut that nobody
knows about it. It's just that nobody knows enough about these shrimp to
realize it's torture.

I found this shrimp specialist website that explains eveverything and gives
a fair amount of information about these shrimp:

http://www.petshrimp.com

In this particular section you can find why those ecosheres are just a huge
lie sold to the unknowing public:

http://www.petshrimp.com/hawaiianredshrimp.html



Thats Crap the ONLY site that says that is the petshrimp site also it even sells its own shrimp supplies whil the ecosphere provides a cheap small cute orb of shrimp for 60$ in a small space while there products take up alot of space and is more expensive than the sphere itself