Week 7

This week I seen a lot of growth taking place in our entire eco column.
In our aquatic chamber alge continues to grow to the point it is becoming a little difficult to see through the plastic. If you take a closer look at the plants inside the camber, you will see the alge growing on the dead roots. I did some search on alge and I learned that alge is good for the system because it produces oxygen for the system thus the fish will be able to breath in the water. I know people who would think,"Fish just need to be in water to survive." I learned that fish needs oxygen to breath in water through all my past fish tank experience. To affirm that fish needs water, we are doing water test weekly checking everything especially oxygen in the water. In our camber, I believe that it is rich in oxygen thanks to both the plants that are taking root and to the alge. I also learned from wikipedia that alge is very beneficial to the system because it takes in waste from things around it like toxic chemicals to bio waste from the the fish.

In our decomposition chamber, things are really growing thanks to the sunlight and to us watering it. I did not see much change in this section until we watered the camber and things started to take off. The moss is growing very quickly and the soil is moist most of the time now. Before we water the soil, the soil was always dry even though the system was watering itself by the humidity. After we did the initial watering, the soil becomes very moist and is still moist till now. Now that I think about it, the cap at the bottom of the decomposition chamber is submerge in the water and therefore the water is wetting the soil. You see this in stores now and days where there is a water tray beneath the pot of plant. At first you would think that when you water the plant the excess will go to the tray. In reality, the tray holds water and is soaked up into the soil. It also helps because when the water evaporate into the air, the soil will be able to grab some of the water as it enters into the atmosphere.
There is one more thing that I notice is the white root that is found sticking out of the soil. I do not know what it belongs to right now but in due time I think we will be able to see where it comes from.
For our terrestrial chamber, there is some new things but not very much. One new thing is that the small flower is developing to form it's buds. Another new thing is some new roots that are forming all over the soil. We added a small cricket to the camber and our anole snapped it right off. Our big plants are getting taller compared from the last few weeks and when we started the project. There is also thing that I notice and that is our soil is all the same moisture but for some reason, the soil seems to be dividing itself into two. What I mean is that the top soil is divided but an empty space or not as much soil and then there is the bottom half of the soil which is full. I guess that is why we have top soil on the earth and beneath that is harder soil and then we have rocks and such.