how to know the pop bottle terrarium what you'll need a 2 litre plastic pop bottle small pebbles or coarse sand activated carbon this is optional potting soil some plants a spray bottle and scissors and a marker getting started okay so I'm starting with the the pop bottle here I cut it into already just to save little time but you want to cut it about one-third of the way up it's about four inches from the bottom this part can be a little bit difficult so if you're doing this with children you might want the adult to do this I just popped a hole in the side of the bottle and then I just cut along the line with a pair of scissors so we're going to start the terrarium with the bottom of the bottle we're going to add about one inch of the coarse side or small pebbles here I'm using some fishtank rocks which work really well but you're going to use pretty much any sort of sediment that is going to allow drainage and what this inch layer is going to do is going to allow all of the excess water from the terrarium to gather here I mean this is going to prevent the soil from getting muddy and just keeps the terrarium a little bit healthier so the next step is optional but we find it helps to keep your terrarium nice and clean and I'm going to add about 1/4 of an inch layer of activated carbon or activated charcoal you can find this at any pet store the sells true aquarium supplies and it's going to act as a filter for your water so all of the water that goes down to the bottom and the gravel it's going to get sucked back up through this charcoal and it's going to prevent mold growth and keep bad smells out and it's generally just a good idea for a long term trick next we're going to add the soil so here I'm using a potting soil you shouldn't use garden soil because lots of garden soil will have fun G and bacteria in it which is fine in your garden however in a terrarium it's going to be very moist and very warm which is an ideal growth condition for the spongy and bacteria and it can cause some problems so here I'm just using some sterilized potting soil and that really also promotes growth so it's a really good idea and I'm filling up the the rest of the bottle arm almost to the top not quite a little bit of room left but almost the top and then you can just Pat it down good little tap to get any of the large at your ear pockets out of there and just tap down again so now my soil is actually a little bit dry so I'm just going to add some water and this is going to help while I'm planting keep the dust down you don't have to do this if you have nice more soil so now I'm going to add the plants here I have a first laughing and some moss if you're going to collect your own plants it's a really good idea to get them from the same area because then you can almost guarantee you that they have the sunlight same sunlight and water needs or you can just plant one plant and add a little moss in there um it's really just up to you it's not rocket science it should be pretty easy it's something to play with and really this is the the part of the terrarium that you want to have fun with be creative be artistic add decorations if you want really it's up to you and the sky's the limit so now we're going to water the tritium you want the soil all the way through to be nice and moist not wet but nice and voice you don't want it to be muddy or soggy so you can just check this either to see how dry it is all the way through so now we're going to put the top of the bottle on but it can be pretty difficult so I'm going to add some slits I'm going to add four along the along the side here equally spaced out and that's just going to help the the bottle top go on a little bit easier it is going to be a pretty snug fit though so have little patience and eventually it's just going to go on there then your terrarium will be complete so this is a closed system and it's a really great learning tool to learn about ecosystems and the water cycle and what's going to happen is during the day your terrarium is going to heat up and the water is going to evaporate from the plants in from the soil but during the evening it's going to cool down it's going to condense on the sides and it's going to rain back down to water your plants so it's like a little mini water cycle I hope you enjoyed the video and good luck with your terrariums