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HELP!! How to create a homemade hydrosphere or biosphere!?!?

Does anyone have advise for me? I am interested in creating a sealed, self sufficient hydrosphere or biosphere. I started out with pond water in a sealed jar with dirt and I am taking notes on it’s development. However I wonder what is the next step to creating a saltwater hydrosphere?

Materials needed:
_ clean, empty, 2 L soda bottles
_ X-Acto knives or scissors
_ hammer and nail (for poking holes in soda tops)
_ cotton string
_ wide, clear packing tape or glue gun—to attach segments of bottles together
_ dirt/potting soil, plants, and/or seeds (I use white alyssum plants and grass seed)
_ netting
_ assortment of animals such as crickets, which are available from pet stores. Small crickets do not have mature wings and are
silent. Large crickets can chirp. A small piece of fruit or vegetable provides crickets with food and moisture. Pillbugs, worms,
snails, and spiders can all be found outside. Pillbugs are decomposers and are found in moist, dark areas under rocks or in
low growing ground cover. Small freshwater fish (guppies or goldfish) and aquarium plants are also required. I ask the pet
store clerk for the hardiest species. Aquaria rocks should be
obtained to finish off the water environment.
Making the hydrosphere/biosphere:
_ Remove the top quarter of the bottle
_ Fill the bottom segment 2/3 full with distilled water.
_ Add aquaria rocks and plants. The plants serve as a food
source as well the source of oxygen, and the rocks anchor
the plants to the bottom
_ Add fish.
_ Store the unit in sunlight.
Making the lithosphere/biosphere/atmosphere:
The segments that contain plants need to have a source of water.
Because the eco-columns are closed systems, students must
develop their columns to be self-sufficient. To do this, students
must use two or more bottles. The most common approach is to
create a wicking system. Other approaches that students have
tried include a water source that slowly drips water (like rain)
from above and submerging the base of the plants into a water
source (to mimic groundwater). To make the wicking system:
_ Cut the bottom off a clean, empty bottle
_ With a hammer and nail, poke a hole (or holes) into the
plastic lid.
_ Thread cotton string through the hole so the lid is in the middle
of the string
_ Saturate the string in water.
_ Reattach the lid. At this point, the string will be hanging from
the empty bottle and sticking into the empty bottle.
_ Flip the bottle upside down and fill it with dirt, covering the
wet string. Be sure that the string is spread out in the dirt, not
just at the bottom. This supplies water to the plants.
_ Add plants or seeds.
_ Cut the top off another bottle, at the bend in the bottle.
_ Fill the bottom section of the second bottle with water to a
depth of approximately 10 cm.
_ Balance the bottle with the dirt and plants on the water
reservoir. The wick from the top bottle should be in the water;
the lid should not.
_ Add animals and cover

Try this site:

http://www.euronet.nl/users/rkohm/biosphere/makeyourown.html

and

http://www.usoe.k12.ut.us/CURR/Science/sciber00/8th/energy/sciber/biospher.htm

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