FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

[roarke]

Overview of specimen jar one. I dub this era as, "The Great Culling" or the Lesser Extinction Event. This is because of the recent removal of a huge swathe of string algae that caused many of the remaining plant-life to wither away in huge amounts, almost to the point of death. By also removing the algae, I unknowingly doomed many seed shrimp that had made the Green Pasta their home. Ostrocod levels are very low at this point in time.

This reminds me of the movie Logan's Run.

[Fishkeeper]

Oh, triops, I'm jealous! Is there a large population in the area? Any way I could get you to send me some mud from there when it dries out so I can try to hatch them out?

I'm not surprised you're having trouble. The only known airtight 'ecosystem' terrarium is one that was made accidentally when a guy put a plant in a huge bottle and sealed it up. It's been going for something over a decade now IIRC.
You'd probably have a lot more success if you let oxygen exchange with the air happen. I know that's not the point, but if it were me, I'd set up a jar, open to the air, for the purpose of maintaining a healthy and stable community. Might help you figure things out a bit, see what a system that only has to balance minerals and nutrients, and not oxygen, does.