Creating A Flowing Waterfall Inside a Glass Jar!

In this video I'll be making a waterfall terrarium inside this glass jar. This jar was made to be filled up with water and to use this tap here to fill up your drinks. I got this one purposefully as this feature is going to be really useful in building this waterfall terrarium. What I'm going to do first is turn the jar on its side and remove the tap. This is easy enough to do by hand but some pliers will help out if you're struggling. Now the tap's removed you can see the clean hole going straight through the glass. Now you could drill this hole yourself but I think having the glass jar with the hole already in place is a lot less intimidating and a lot more beginner friendly. These are some silicone tubes and they're how the waterfall is going to be created. They'll hook up to a pump where it pulls water from the bottom of the jar and pushes it all the way to the top. It might look a bit confusing at the moment but trust me it's going to be pretty simple. This is the intake pipe that will pull the water from the bottom of the jar. I've made a mark for how much of the tube I want inside the jar and now I need to make some holes in it so the water can be pulled in easily. The simplest way I've found of making these holes is by pinching the tube and then cutting it with some scissors. I'll repeat the same process until I've made a good amount of holes. I'm making sure only to cut them after the black line that I measured earlier. That'll be more than enough so let's get it in place inside the jar. I'll secure it shortly but let's first install the output pipe. This is even more simple as all I'm going to do is pull the tube through until it reaches the top of the jar. Now I'm going to use this aquarium silicone to seal up the hole to ensure that it's water tight and doesn't leak. I'm applying a generous amount and then using my finger to spread it out to ensure that there's no holes. I'm also going to place a few dots of silicone on the inside of the jar to attach the intake tube to the base. Over 24 hours have passed and the silicone is fully cured. I've water tested it off camera and there's no leaks whatsoever. The next thing I'm going to do is install a drainage layer at the base of the terrarium. I think the best choice for this build is going to be some coarse filter foam. If I was to use something like gravel I'd have to put a guard on the silicone tubing as it will get sucked up by the pump. I place the jar on top to get a rough idea of what size it needs to be and now I'll cut it down with some scissors. This certainly doesn't need to be too precise but having it slightly bigger than it needs to be is better than having it too small. The filter foam serves a few purposes. It will stop the substrate from getting down into the pump, help filter out the water and also elevate the hardscape. Talking about hardscape, that's what I'm going to work on next. I'll build the waterfall using these dragon stones. What makes a build like this one difficult is the small opening in the jar as it does restrict what you can fit inside. With that said it's nothing a bit of patience and trial and error can't work around. I'm happy with the placement of these pieces so I'm going to go ahead and join them together with some gel type superglue. Now they're locked together I can go ahead and build the hardscape up even higher. All the dragon stone is inside and locked together but I do still have to be careful as it is quite fragile and I don't want it falling into the glass. I'm really happy with how it's looking so let's move on to the next step. This here is some expanding foam and I'm going to use it to fill in all the gaps behind the dragon stone. Filling in the area behind the waterfall is not only going to make it much stronger but it'll also allow the water to flow down over the rocks like a proper waterfall. If I don't fill this area in the water will simply trickle down the back of the stones and you won't be able to see it at all which is not what we want. Whilst the expanding foam is still wet I'm going to use some small pieces of dragon stone to plug in some of the larger holes. It's the next day and the expanded foam is fully cured. I can now tear off all the excess that's poking through the rocks. I've cleaned it up as best as I can but there's still a lot of foam showing. Usually I'd cover this up with some superglue and crushed dragon stone. I think the small opening is going to make this really difficult so I'm going to hide it with moss and plants later on. Before going any further I want to test the waterfall so let's get it ready to go. I've trimmed down the silicone tube so let's now install the pump or in this case the mini canister filter. I built this mini filter myself using a small plastic container and I do have a tutorial on my channel if you want to learn how to make it. Inside is some filter foam and I'm also going to add some fine filter floss which will help keep the water nice and clean. It's really not too hard to make and even easier to maintain. Having the pump on the outside of the jar opposed to having it inside the jar means I have much easier access to it if I ever need to replace it or clean it. Now I can add some water to the jar and prime the canister filter by pouring some water inside. With that done let's turn on the pump and see how the waterfall floats. I'm really happy with it and I think it's the perfect amount of flow for this jar. It's great to see the water flowing down over the dragon stone rocks just like I planned and it's only going to look better with the addition of moss and plants. Changing the water inside the terrarium is going to be super easy as all I've got to do is remove the top tube and siphon out the water. I'll be doing this every week or so. Now let's turn the waterfall back on and move on to the substrate. I think the ideal substrate for this build is going to be aqua soil. It's made for aquariums so it's not going to have a problem with being constantly wet and having water flowing through it. My normal terrarium substrate would have a problem with this and it's not suitable for this build. I've poured some in the foreground and evened it out so now that's done I think it's about time to start adding the moss. This here is Java moss. It's an easy to grow beginner species that's often used in aquariums. I think it'll look great growing on the dragon stone rocks inside this setup. I'm mainly planting the moss in areas to cover up the expanding foam. One important thing to note is to make sure that the moss is in contact with the water flowing down from the waterfall. Only a very small amount needs to be in contact as it will wick up the water on its own. Using the moss to wick the water also allows you to pull the water to the left and right side of the scape instead of it just being flowing down the center. Next up I've got some of this beautiful trident fern. This plant is an epithyte so all I've got to do is wedge it in gaps between the dragon stone. It'll pour its nutrients from the water flowing through it. I really like this plant and I think its deep green leaves really add a nice jungle feel to this terrarium. Before adding any plants to the base I'm going to place in some of these dragon stone rocks to add a bit more detail. I think a carpeting plant will look really good growing at the base of the terrarium. I'll plant in a few patches of this Monte Carlo which has some really nice small green leaves. It will spread and form a dense carpet in no time at all. As some of you may know a lot of the plants in this setup are actually sold as aquarium plants. So long as the humidity is kept high they'll also grow great in terrariums like this one. I've planted in a few patches of Leleopsis in the foreground to add some variety to the Monte Carlo. Next I've got a few cuttings of Hygrophila. I really like the leaves on this plant and also it's super easy to grow. I've planted some cuttings at the base as well as a few on the dragon stone waterfall. The last plants to go in is going to be some Anubias and Bucephalandra. These will add some nice detail in the gaps between the dragon stones. I'm going to add some springtails which will help keep the terrarium clean and healthy by eating things like mold and decaying matter. All that's left to do now is to close up the jar and let this slice of nature grow in. Four weeks have passed and I'm glad to say that this waterfall jar terrarium is thriving. All the plants have started to grow in really well and there's only been a couple leaves die off here and there. It's great to see that the waterfall is still flowing just as well as it was on day one. The mini filter has done a great job so far and I hope it stays that way. I've cut the tube slightly shorter so it can sit right behind the jar and you don't even realize it's there. In terms of the plants the highlight for me has got to be the stunning new growth from the Hygrophila and the lush Monte Carlo carpet. There's still a few gaps that it needs to fill in but it's certainly on its way. I really enjoyed making this terrarium and it's been a joy to watch it grow in over the past four weeks. If you enjoyed this video be sure to subscribe as I've got some really cool builds coming in the near future and I wouldn't want you to miss them.