This was my first aquatic ecosphere, I made it a month or so ago. The water was taken from an artificial pond in my backyard, which had no sediment that I could collect, so I took some terrestrial soil. But I didn't do a good job of making sure I was getting proper soil– a significant portion of it is plant debris (mostly pine needles)
The life in the jar seems to be doing well. No species have gone extinct, and there is more life in there now than when I first collected it. I've got bladder snails, two species of ostracod, cyclops, and even a limpet that seemed to manifest out of nowhere. The jar smells fine. The cloudiness seems to come and go. But there are a lot of bubbles in the sediment, and i'm worried there's going to be a serious ammonia spike. I've gone and removed la bunch of debris, (which i placed in the container to the right,) but so much of the soil is made purely up of pine needles, and if i wanted to remove them, it would be easier to just make a new jar with new soil and transfer the water.
my question is whether or not it would be best for me to rebuild it with better soil, maybe exchange some of the water, or if that would cause more stress for the critters and plants than it would help them.
Sorry for the long winded explanation! I care about the wellbeing of the critters and i want to make sure they're as comfortable and healthy as I can make them, and i'd love some advice on how to do that.
by Nomi_Bomi
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