Week 3

The minnow is practically dead and the water is probably worse than the pond... The grass is looking fine and we still do not have an animal for the terrestrial chamber... We will gather further specimens this weekend on a nature walk... Our first minnow died within a matter of days, the second one is still around (barely), all we need to do now if find out what it was feeding on.

Week 3

I personally have not seen any changes in our eco column, so I come to the conclusion that as off right now the eco column is supporting itself. For one, water is being introduce on the walls of the column thanks to the warmth and the humidity inside the column against the colder air on the outside. I believe that the eco column is watering itself without our aiding in watering it because of the deferences between the inside and the outside walls of the column. Our plants seems to be very healthy because there are a lot of new root forming underneath the soil in search for a source of water. In our decomposing section of the column, I have no idea what is going on aside from our fungus is still alive. As for the aqua section, it is currently supporting itself alongside with two fish. The body of other fishes that died in this section in the first few days of the column seems to have vanish. I believe that the body decayed to the extant that it looks like the soil at the bottom. Although they died, their death was not meaningless because thier little bodies actually provides nutrients for the plants so that the plants are able to sustain its energy and provide oxygen for the two fishes.

J.Rojas- Week 2

Ok so this week has been full of ups and downs. On the downside most of our fish have died, with the exception of one, this we think for the most part is probably starvation (as if it was lack of well oxygenated water pr something else it too should have died). We have left one part of one of the smaller fishes in the lower chamber, in hopes that in may revert to cannibalism.

So on to the good news: our plant is very much alive and thriving. Over the last few days we have seen amazing amount of root growth. This may be from a lack of moisture and the plant burrowing its roots deeper into the soil in search of this. We have also not introduced any more water into the environment as we have seen moisture build up within the container.

Also, a moth has appeared in out terrestrial chamber. We believe that its possible that moth eggs were already on their. As there is currently no insects in the chamber, if we don't introduce any, it will die.

Week 2

In the second week since we first made the columns, everything seems to be doing well. For one our plants is taking roots because when you look at our plants closely, you can see that the rooting is taking place by all the new white roots. We did not add any water or anything else to it so far and it is still growing. The reason for this growth is because we have have not watered the plant and when the soil is dry the roots must spread out to search for a water source. My partner and I were surprise when there was a moth flying around by our plants, we are not really sure on how it got in there the first place. As for out aqua section things did not looked too good mainly because the fish were dieing off one by one except for one fish. I believe the reason why the fish have been dieing is because the fish has nothing to eat as out in the lake where there are many creatures the fish can pray on. I learned from Josh that when there is no food in the area, the fish will convert to eating each other to get energy. Aside from the fish, our plant is doing well because the fish is still alive producing CO2 and ammonia for the plant. For our decomposition section, the fungus seems to still be alive, but aside from that I did not see much change it in. Another change that I saw among the entire column is moisture developing along the inside walls of the eco column. The reason for this development is because the inside temperature is much warmer then the temperature out side. Another reason for this is because the humidity inside the eco column is very high thanks to the aqua system at the very bottom of the column. I believe that the water from the bottom of the column evaporates and because of the two different temperature water is formed on the wall of the column, I like to think of it as condensation. When the we can actually see the water drop lets it is called precipitation.

Josh Rojas, Week 1

The basic idea that we started out with, is that for our miniature environment to be successful it must be self-sufficient. This being the case we decided to take an already functioning environment and to simply maintain it in our system. Knowing that all life requires some sort of water, and it probably being the easiest to maintain therefore, we took specimens from primarily near the lakes. As of now however, we believe that its possible that we put to many fish into such a small environment that probably wont be able to contain all of them, nor provide them with enough food substance.

Week 1

We started out with just plain water in the aqua section of the column, but I thought we should add dirt to make like the pond out side where you have the plants on top, then water, and then you what the dirt at the bottom. We put three fish small fish in there and we decided to leave out the mid to large size fish out because it would not have anywhere to swim, so small will just do. We also added a shrimp looking like animal in there so that it would clean up or eat the bacteria, helping to clean up the environment. The last thing we put in here was the green alge which hopefully will provide oxygen for the fish and help keep the water clean by using the fish's waste to produce the oxygen.

Testing, Testing

What up Josh