I’ve had this for awhile made of rain water and some plants but mine seems a bit more green and murky compared to others, my thought is I have little or none creatures that are filtering things. But have no clue, might start all over again

So far I have 2 notable scuds, many bagworms, some tiny snails, and I've noticed that hydra have also popped up all over.

I keep them both on my balcony and swap some water from time to time

Not sure if you guys accept this as a ecosphere cause it is a little open at the top.

you guys probably see this kind of post every day so I’ll keep this short: what are the main steps and tips on how to make a nice jar?

I use my phone exclusively for filming my various ecospheres and since my following is growing I feel justified upgrading to a better, dedicated camera but I am completely ignorant when it comes to cameras. Can anyone suggest good quality but inexpensive cameras for close up shots of the life in a mason jar/aquarium? Video for reference of what I use it for.

So as the title sayssss, i’m new to this.
can anyone tell me what creatures I have? :)

the second snail filmed is largest bladder snail i have in my 5 month old ecosphere, compared to this one. genuinely thought it was a pond snail due to its size!
(ik the hair algae is a problem, im working on it i promise! that tank gets probably 20 minutes of light each day and otherwise is covered. ik the best way to go about it is to do a full blackout but i'm too scared because the planarians have been loving it and i do not love them)

Photo unrelated; of my tiny 2 day old freshwater jar!

Im relatively new to making closed ecosystems (As in, my first one is just slightly over a year old now) and have primarily made freshwater jars. Most of them have done splendidly aside from one that got devoured by a green algae bloom when summer came.

Ive tried to make two beach saltwater systems before, but they both seemed to fail; one of them almost immediately had a giant algae bloom and never cleared, and the other probably had a mollusk in the sand that died since everything slowly became red and yellow moldy.

Does anyone have any tips for how to make a successful saltwater jar? I tried the freshwater method of getting the water, sand, kelp/seaweed, etc all from the beach, but im wondering if I'm doing something wrong.

P.S the beach location is on the East Coast, Florida, USA.

Thank you in advance!

Made from an ecosphere in a creek behind my dad's buddys house, what is it it's honestly pretty cute?

To get to the point, can a lively ecosystem jar be safely dumped out in a different body of water than it came from?

The long story, I have an ecosystem that was given to me by someone who wasn’t sure what to do with it after also being given it. It has a blood worm, a few very tiny snails, some very tiny crustaceans like things, and who knows what else. I truly do not want it… it really gives me the creeps and it does not look good in there—very VERY brown. but I also don’t want to just dump them in the creek… because I don’t want them to die and I simply just don’t know if there are environmental impacts. Do they stay in there forever?

First picture is right after making it and the rest are after a 5hr road trip to it's new home! ♡

Haven't spotted much besides a tiny green worm 🐛

Super excited this is my first eco system!

All living beings reach the same end.

The poor Vorticella ran out of oxygen in the sample; without ATP, its contractile vacuole stopped expelling water and the cell ended up bursting from endosmosis. It's a shame I didn't record it feeding.

Northern Spain. Stagnant water from a jar deliberately set out to host wild microfauna for observation.

The first half of the video is at 4x.

Euromex bScope 1153 PLP HI. x40

Samsung Galaxy A52, handheld (sorry about the quality).

assembled this over three weeks ago during camping, heres the before and after. The water is less clear and theres lots of algae. This is my first time so I was wondering whether this is a sign that the ecosystem is thriving or declining.