20% Time Project Journal - Week 1

For my 20% time project, I have decided to make a self-sustaining aquarium, or aquatic ecosystem. This is somewhat like a terrarium, in which it is a sealed environment that provides itself all it needs. All that I would need to supply after making it would be sunlight. As is implied by the term "self-sustaining," this aquarium will have everything it needs to take care of itself. It is possible to buy one of these on amazon, and just observe it,  but I decided that I wanted to make my own. After researching I learned that this is what I will need.


Materials:
a large glass container
sand/rocks
algae and plants
a fluorescent fish lamp
snails
micro planarians or daphnia
ghost shrimp
guppies

Each of these things plays a part in keeping the aquarium self-sustaining. The plants oxygenate the water, and the herbivorous species on the bottom of the food chain eat the plants, keeping the growth in check. The guppies are at the top of the food chain in this scenario, eating both bits of the plants and the micro planarians and daphnia, and even the egg sacs of snails. Snails clean the tank, and the ghost shrimp keep the micro population under control. If I do this correctly, it should become a perfectly self-sustaining ecosystem that needs no influence from humans. After making the ecosystem, (it is a many step process, for each species to get established as a population before predation is introduced) I will observe it and monitor it until I am able to be sure that it can survive without me, at which point I will donate it to Jon Freer's future Environmental Science and Biology classes, so they can see and learn about self-sustaining ecosystems, and also have little fish friends.

Sources:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/smart-news/why-guppies-seem-to-have-a-death-wish-44001458/

http://www.amazon.com

http://wiseloris.hubpages.com/hub/sustainableaquarium

http://reefbuilders.com/2014/04/21/selfsustaining-ecosystems-box-close/