Here’s an interesting soda shop jar. $128. 24″ tall x 9″ diameter with a 4″ opening. So about 6.5 gallons. Just big enough for one arboreal thumbnail poison dart frog. I’d probably have to toss the top and come up with my own solution for lighting and ventilation. Well I don’t really want to pay the cost, or the tax, or the shipping. So I’m trying a little ebay action.

I’m told this jar is 20″ tall x 10″ diameter x 5″ opening. It also has feet on the sides when the jar is on the side. My guess is this will hold 6 gallons, but the guy claims 8 gallons. Either way it appears to be a mason jar from 1776 and works for my needs. With any luck I’ll get it in the next two weeks. I admit it doesn’t look at cool as the soda pop jar, but you gotta start somewhere.

I’m debating how the 5″ top will work. I have some test lights I might switch out. But I’d also like to add a vent with a built in fan. I really don’t want to crack the glass, so drilling in this case is not an option. It’s all about the lid.

I think once I have my jar, carboy, demijohn, whatever you want to call it, I’ll move on to a simpler and cleaner design for the tank,with less focus on it being a “jar” and more about a beautiful pieces of glass designed for containment. So I’m really psyched about hand blown glass terrariums. I think in the end, these will look the best in terms of naturalistic. Lighting, venting, and misting will be a pain.

I would love a low maintenance terrarium. Or rather something that has uniform machinery to create the best living situation. I saw this BIOME and thought it was amazing. How about having a total environmental controls for an ecosystem run from your ipad? But in all honesty this one was just a mock up. Where are the lights, the fans for vents, or water filtration system? Yeah, this bio dome is just a dream. And all I want to find a way to build a micro mister that comes on for 5 seconds every 4 hours!