Tuesday, May 4, 2010

We got fish!

Yesterday (4/2/10) we got FISH! We got two big goldfish, one koi, some sucker fish and some little catfish.

We will have a detailed report on what we bought once the fish settle in.

Currently we are putting down gravel in the big tank to hold down the sand when we use the new water filter we got along with the fish.

With in a week we should definitely have the fish settled in and start working with water pumps so that we can have the whole machine working!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

We're Rolling Right Along

We have accomplished tons in the past few days! About a week ago we went shopping for our materials for our eco machine. These included plexi glass, a gutter, silicon caulk and a few other things. Once we got those items we first started on the oh so dificult task of trimming the plexi glass to size. We had a few close calls but in the end were able to cut the plexi glass to almost perfect. During this time we also hung the gutter which will serve as a gutter. As you can see in pictures it is hung from the ceiling. Because this will at some point be holding water, sand, rocks and other items we will also be adding supports from the bottom to help hold the weight. On Monday April 12th we installed the Plexi glass using the caulk into the 75 gallon tank. Later in the day we also added a second coat to reinforce. We then had to wait for it to cure the prescribed 24 hours pushing us to this morning. We began the enormous task of filling the tank via five gallon bucket and have gotten about 2/3 of the way. We installed an air pump and poured and smoothed out sand to nurture bacteria growth. Now we simply have to wait for the sand to thoroughly settle before we can really progress.

Sorry for dropping the ball on the Blog and not updating it.
Thanks for looking,
Miles, Baxter and Aidan



Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Our Eco Machine Plans

These are the plans that we just drew up for our Eco machine. Thanks for looking. Miles, Aidan and Baxter!


Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Eco Machine Should be Up and running soon!

The VCS permenant Eco Machine's main tank has finally become almost perfectly clean and we plan on making partitions to it by next week. We should then have it fully running in a maximum of 3 weeks but it could be a bit shaky. After all, it needs a little bit of time to self organize and we will also be constantly adding to it so its final state may take a while.

Thanks for following,
Miles, Aidan and Baxter!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Welcome!

Hey there! In the following months we are going to be working on a permanent Eco-Machine for the Vermont Commons Schools bio-lab. The post below is our Journal of Work since March 18 until today, March 23. We will be adding our Journal entries often and hopefully have some pictures and video of our work and findings! Thanks for visiting, VCS Eco Machine group.

Naturalist Certificate
ECO Machine Journal
3/18/10
1:30-2:25
Start project

Clean tank J for Elephant plant transplant. Dug Elephant plant from 75 gallontank, cleaned dirt off of roots. Put Elephant plant in tank J, filled until 9 ¼ inches full, hopefully successfully making it hydroponic. Started mucking the 75 gallon tank. Got maybe and 1/8- 1/5 done.

3/19/10
3:30-4:45
2nd Day of Project

Finish getting the main amount of muck out. Notice that there is a distinct difference in soil quality between left and right side of tank. Finally unearth the big rocks on left side of tank. Probably range from 10 to 60 Lbs. Start to see the bottom of the tank from sponging. Fill with 1-3'' of water before we leave.

3/22/10
10:50-11:45
3rd Day of Project

Finish the right side of the tank for mucking. Begin vigerous sponging to get the mud and water out from the previous session. Empty of all mud and gravel except for edges and corners. Also begin scrubbing the side walls of the tank. Find Miles's two "lucky rocks"




Both rocks very smooth.

Multicolor is a brown black and reddish with some faint black and white lines through it. None of the lines are straight. Sort of stacked.
Black rock is black. Very smooth. Some indentations.
3:30-4:35

Change the water of the elephant plant. Using Seventh Generation soap and a sponge begin VERY VIGEROUSLY scrubbing the sides getting old growth off. Tank is now completely clear on the bottom and sides of medium size patches of algae and orange or yellowish growth. Growth is very difficult to scrub off. Plug both sinks temporarily. Fill tank back up about an 2'' at 4:30.