Invertebrates and algae

We found lots of spirogyra and clams and ghost shrimp and also butterfly larva.

These things can help monitor a ecosystem and help keep the things balanced. They work together and give bacteria to absorb nitrates and they provide food sources also.

Dichotomous key

The purpose of the the key is to help identify an algae. It helps with remembering the aspects of each algae. And getting the characteristics over it.

Dissolved oxygen

In this experiment it showed how much oxygen that was in the water based on what was in the water. 

From left to right:

The first one was gravel and tap water

The second has gravel, tap water, plant

The third has tap water, lake water, gravel and plants 

The fourth has tap water, lake water, gravel, plant, fish.

My Fish Babies ( lab report)

I. Purpose: To moderate a freshwater ecosystem over time and collect and interpret data.

II. Materials:

•ammonia     • declorinator

•nitrate          • real plants

•sponge        • filter

•paper towel   •fish

•tank             •thermometer

•water          •test tubes

•bubbler       •net

•rocks          •sponge

•props          •food

•fake plants  •water pitcher

•sieve           •bucket

•charcoal      •sink

III. Procedure:

1. Find a tank with rocks in it without water in it.

2. Take the rocks out and clean them with a Sieve

3. Clean inside of tank (do not use soap)

4. Put rocks back in tank

5. Fill tank with water

6. Put decorations in the tank

7. Put the declorinator in the water (one capful) 

8. Test the temp and ammonia and nitrite and nitrate temp should be 72°F

9. Buy fish that get along with others and can live in that temperature

10. Put fish while in the bag in the water to get used to the temperature and let it sit there for 10 minutes

11. Find a bubbler

12. Put the bubbler in the tank and let it run

13. Poof the fish and store water In a net to get rid of water and keep the fish

14. Put fish in water

15. Find a filter in a filter bag

16. Clean The filter bag

17. Put charcoal in filter bag

18. Put filter bag in the filter and fill with water

19. Put filter in tank and let it run

20. Put beacopia plants in tank

21. Test water every day

IV. 

A. Quantitative data-

Date.   Ammonia.   Nitrite.     Temp. 

9/3/13.  .5 ppm.    0 ppm     22 C. 72 F.

9/4/13.  .25 ppm.  0 ppm.    22 C. 72 F.

9/9/13.  .25 ppm.  0 ppm.    22 C. 72 F.

9/10/13. .25 ppm. 0 ppm.    22 C. 72 F.

9/11/13.  .05 ppm. 0 ppm.    22 C. 72 F.

9/12/13.   1 ppm.   0 ppm.    22 C. 72 F.

9/16/13.  .25 ppm. .25 ppm. 22 C. 72 F.

9/17/13.   .25 ppm. 1 ppm.   22 C. 72 F.

9/18/13.   .2 ppm.  .25 ppm. 22 C. 72 F.

9/19/13.   .2 ppm.  .5 ppm.   22 C. 72 F.

9/20/13.   .2 ppm.  .5 ppm.   22 C. 72 F.

9/23/13.  .25 ppm. .5 ppm.   22 C. 72 F.

9/24/13.  .25 ppm.  .5 ppm.  22 C. 72 F.

9/25/13.  .2 ppm.    .2 ppm.  22 C. 72 F.

9/26/13.  .2 ppm.    1 ppm.   22 C. 72 F.

9/27/13.  .25 ppm.   1 ppm.  22 C. 72 F.

9/30/13.  0 ppm.      5 ppm.  21 C. 71 F.

10/1/13.   0 ppm.      3 ppm. 22 C. 72 F.

10/2/13.   0 ppm.      3 ppm. 22 C. 72 F.

10/3/13.   0 ppm.      1 ppm. 22 C. 72 F.

10/4/13.   0 ppm.      .5 ppm.22 C. 72 F.

 

                           

B. Qualitative data-

9/17/13- the nitrite was very high

9/18/13- add mondo grass and 2 clams

9/19/13- my fish stays around rocks

9/23/13- fish are hungry and swimming fast

9/24/13- added 2 baby fish

9/25/13- added 1 baby fish

9/26/13- fish are hungry, baby fish hiding

9/27/13- one baby fish seen

9/30/13- one baby fish, hungry fish

D.O. 100% temp. 21 C. Cond. 570

PH 7

10/1/13- fish are hungry and aggressive 

10/2/13- baby fish is hiding from big ones

10/3/13- Changed my water and fish

Are hiding

10/4/13- nitrate is good and neutral

10/15/13- all water is neutral

V. Conclusion 

1.  Ammonia- is the most common and harmful waste product. It is fish waste, and excess food. Ammonia is very poisonous to fish and can kill them.

Nitrite- toxic compound for fish. It can stress out the fish and is the second most poisonous thing for a fish.

Nitrate- the least poisonous of the nitrogen compounds, unless they come in large amounts. It can cause algae.

Temperature- measures how hot and cold things are. Fish need to live in water that resembles the feeling of outside. 72 degrees Fahrenheit is the best for fish.

pH- the degree of acidity or basicity of 

a solution.  It is on a 14 point scale. A level around 6 to 8 is good for a fish. 

Conductivity- the degree at which electricity can be made through water. Animals are adapted for a certain salinity.

Dissolved oxygen- the amount of oxygen in the water. The fish need oxygen to breath.

Hardness- measure of the quantity of certain metallic ions presented in the water. It helps the fish maintain a balance between internal body fluids and the external environment. 

Alkalinity- indicates the total amount of buffers that are present in the water. This takes in extra acids and bases. 

Chlorine- commonly used treatments. To much chlorine can kill a fish. It can disinfect water but are not good in aquariums.

2.   The nitrogen cycle is the process of changing ammonia into nitrate. This keeps the water neutral. Because when a fish is put into a tank there is a lot of ammonia so the nitrite and nitrate work against it and make the nitrogen cycle.

3.   My water quality has changed from really bad with high ammonia and nitrites to neutral ammonia and nitrites and nitrates.  My ammonia got up to .25 ppm and 5 ppm. And once the nitrogen cycle finished it went down to 0 ppm for nitrite, nitrate, and ammonia.

4.   The carbon dioxide/oxygen cycle is very important to the aquatic ecosystem. The plants need carbon dioxide to survie so when they breathe in carbon dioxide they breathe out oxygen which is what fish need to breathe. Also, by having the plants alive, it gives the fish food. This relationship is a symbiotic relationship between the two. Oxygen needs carbon dioxide to be made and carbon dioxide needs oxygen to be made.

5.    I faced bad nitrite problems. My nitrite levels were really high and I was worried about my fish. I started to add bacteria and more plants and that helped tremendously. I also changed out my water frequently. Once I finished the nitrogen cycle my nitrite finally went down.

6.  #1  I learned about the nitrogen cycle and how it works. By having more ammonia, the higher my nitrite was. So when I added plants to my aquarium the ammonia went down.

     #2  I learned that you can't put baby fish with big fish because they will die fast. The bigger fish will mistake them as food.

     #3  I learned that algae is really good for fish. It supplies nutrients to the water and sometimes a food source.

     #4  I learned that the more plants the better. With more plants, the ammonia wont be very high, and the fish can have shelter and food.

     #5  I learned what dissolved oxygen was. It is the oxygen within the tank that the bubbler makes. If the dissolved oxygen is low, the fish will die. Fish need a high percent of dissolved oxygen to be healthy.

7. The most interesting thing that happened was that I was able to keep my fish alive and that Tetras are very fast fish who love to be with groups of their own kind. The worst thing that happened was my nitrite and ammonia levels were escpecially really high. And the weirdest thing that happened was I put baby fish in my tank and they disappeared.

8.  My favorite part of this project was being able to see the way my fish interact with eachother. Because my fish stayed together all the time. Whenever one would swim up to eat the others would follow. When one fish swam a certain way, the other followed. My fish liked to hide behind the rocks and between the plants.

9.   The advice I would give students next year would to always check your water. Because having water with high ammonia or nitrites is really deadly to the fish. If I could change this project I would have had more elaborate fish. Because everyone knows about these common fish. And I think it would be cool to learn about different fish.

Watersheds

A watershed is an area of land where streams and rivers drain into one big area of water. I am a part of the Elm Fork Trinity River watershed #12030103.

Some benefits of watersheds would be that it provides shelter for fish, provides waters to cities and helps with pollution. Problems caused by people would be littering in the water and gasoline from boats in the water and polluting it.

http://water.epa.gov/type/watersheds/whatis.cfm

Freshwater fish

LARGE MOUTH BASS

the scientific name for the large mouth bass is Micropterus salmoides. They are reproducing rapidly and are becoming over populated. The bass is usually found in lakes and ponds. Mostly in murky water. They are omnivores and the things that hunt them are bigger fish and humans. Some interesting facts would be; there is competitions for finding the biggest bass, bass will eat EVERYTHING including trash, and there's not only a large mouth bass but also a small mouth bass. 

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/lmb/

Nitrogen cycle

First, the fish eat the food which turns into waste which is ammonia. Then the ammonia turns into nitrate and bacteria. Nitrite is turned into plant fertilizer and then the plants absorb the nitrate. Plants filter the water and clean it and then the water quality is improved and the fish are healthy.

Algae

When dissecting the algae to see what was in it I found lots of snails, scuds, and leaches. None of my fish ate them and they are still in my tank.

River model

The model goes p1 ripple p2 ripple p3 ripple p4. Mrs. Wood put in 6 orange meno, 20 brown meno, and 1 cray fish. After a couple days there was 2 brown in p2. 1 orange, 1 brown, and 1 cray in p4. And then she later on put 20 ghost shrimp in p3. There was pump deaths with the brown meno. 

Temperature and Density

In the demonstration the blue water was cold and the red water was warm. The blue/cold water is more dense than the red/warm water. And when the water is mixed the blue water goes to the bottom for the first jar and mixes and turn purple and then in the second jar the blue water stays on the bottom and the red on top. The red water slowly started cooling off in the second jar and started turning purple.

Water properties and issues

Lewisville lake is known to be crowded with people. It struggles with pollution and trash every day. Party cove is a huge example of things that would harm lewisville lake. People throw cans, food, tobacco and other harmful things in the water which eventually gets to the fish. There is usually 50-80 boats in one area and all of the gasoline from the boats is just seeping into the water. There is a lot of hazardous things fed into that lake every day.

http://www.lake-lewisville.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Party-Cove-21.jpg

Water cycle

Bridget and I chose the water cycle to show how important it is in our ecosystem. There is condensation, evaporation, precipitation, transportation, and accumulation. With out all of these we wouldn't have plants, lakes, or even drinking water. The water cycle has no beginning nor end. It is the source of everything we need today.

http://seedsofsciencerootsofreading.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/water-cycle.jpg