Today as planned, my group made our terrarium so we brought it to the lab. We tried to set up our terrarium starting from pebbles. The ecosystem we chose for our terrarium is swamp. At first we wanted to make three parts which are (in order) land, water, and land. But, because we forgot to make the bisector we couldn’t make our aquarium as planned so we changed it and make it to only two parts, water and land.
After deciding what the terrarium will look like, we start to pour in the pebbles to our terrarium. Turns out the pebbles we bought aren’t enough for all the groups in this class, so we couldn’t do anything else after pouring the pebbles we got. The only thing we did after was trying to buy more pebbles for next meeting.
TERRARIUM JOURNAL
Day 1: Incomplete Materials
Day 4: Mistakes (HAHA)
The pebbles are refilled! Today, we start by putting in the pebbles and the sand inside the terrarium. After putting enough pebbles and sand we opened a pack of charcoal and put it all inside a sack and crushed it with our feet. After crushing it, we pour it all over the terrarium and that is the second mistake we made. We want to do our terrarium half water and half land but we mistakenly pour the charcoal all over the terrarium including the water part which is what we are not suppose to do. With a very regretful and disappointed feeling (hehe) we decided to take all the charcoal pieces from the water part and move it all to the land part of the terrarium.
After moving all the charcoal pieces we move on to the soil. We put in a bit of soil on the land part and pack it a bit. Because of our mistake earlier, we start putting a lot of pebbles in the middle to differentiate or separate the water and land part. After pouring a lot of pebbles turned out that the time we have is out so that's the only thing we can do today.
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For next week, we are hoping to be able to put all the soil we need, pour in the water and putting in the plants.
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Day 8: Not Enough Soil
LAB VISIT 1
JANUARY 23, 2018
Today we continued putting the soil inside the terrarium since we don't have the bisector, we only divide it with pebbles which will make it easier for the water to ​seep in to the soil. Because of that, we need to put more soil until it gets taller so that the water seeped won't be too much and the soil won't be too wet. After packing the soil inside the terrarium, we start putting more pebbles for the bisector.
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Finally we are done with our swamp terrarium!... that's what we thought when we put in the water, but then we can see the water seep in too much through the soil and made it very wet which will not be good for the plants that will be there. So, we decided to put in more soil until we realise that it is already all out and it means that we still don't have enough soil to pack more on top until it gets taller.
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After that, the finishing touch we did today is putting in one water lettuce on the water. We also need to buy a glass (custom) to put on top of the terrarium, to close it. For next lab visit we hope that we can actually finish and finalise the terrarium so that we can put in animals next week.
Day 11: More Soil!
Today we finally put in more soil inside the terrarium. We put more soil and felt that it's enough and so we put in more water. The water lettuce seems okay and is doing well inside the terrarium and we also tried to make the pebbles look neater and packed it more.
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That was the things that we are able to do. For next week, hopefully we can put in the plants and also check the water hoping for it to not seep in to the land part.
Day 14: Adding plants!!! (and finally putting the terrarium cover/lid)
Day 15: Discovering the problem...
Like we planned, we finally put in two kinds of plants inside our terrarium (sorry can't remember the name of the plants). After putting in the two plants we added more soil to the plants so that the plants (the root) will actually be packed inside the soil. After that, we added more water to the water part of the terrarium. When we first see the terrarium it turns out that the water is no longer seeping in to the land part of the terrarium. The water stays the same from last week.
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The last thing we did (actually only Nino and Andhika because I went upstairs first) is putting on the lid or the terrarium cover in order for it to rain. For next lab visit, I hope that we can see that the terrarium rained already!
I did not see what I wanted to see. The terrarium did not rained, although we did saw a bit of fog on the lid or cover of the terrarium. Turns out, the reason why it didn't rain was because the lid did not cover the terrarium tightly. It did cover the whole terrarium but because it wasn't tight, the "rain" that was suppose to come didn't come, instead it went out of the terrarium from the hole. So, what we did was we folded some papers and stick it onto the side of the terrarium that causes the problem. After knowing that it is tight enough, we put back the lid and cover the terrarium.
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I hope that on Friday we can see that the terrarium rained. And next week, we can put in the animals.
Day 18: Progress
I checked to the lab today to see the progress of the terrarium and it is looking good! I was very happy and still very happy that the terrarium rained already! Just hoping that the animals we're going to put in next week are going to be able to survive inside the self-sustaining terrarium.
Day 21: Putting in Animals
LAB VISIT 8
FEBRUARY 12, 2018
LAB VISIT 9
FEBRUARY 13, 2018
Day 22: Dead Guppies
Today we put in the animals! The animals we ordered are guppies, a frog, a bag of crickets, and suckermouth catfish (ikan sapu-sapu). We put in all of the animals including the crickets one by one (Nino did that). After that we observe a bit and keep on putting in the crickets. We also put in earthworms inside the terrarium. The dead guppies that we got, Nino buried them inside the soil, so that the soil will be fertile.
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Besides doing all that, we just looked at the other group's terrarium and observe ours.
We found out that our guppies (most of them) are dead. So, Nino started moving the dead guppies and buried it inside the soil. After that, we just added more crickets inside the terrarium. The others are looking good.
Day 23: Alive
LAB VISIT 10
FEBRUARY 14, 2018
Andhika took pictures of our terrarium from the lab and gave updates of the animals. The sapu sapu is still alive and well, crickets, and also the frog is also still alive. The only thing that's dead is the guppies, only 2 (I think) remains alive.
CONCLUSION
Based on our observation, we succeed on making our self sustaining swamp terrarium. Me, Nino, Andhika, and Emily succeed on making the swamp terrarium. It's not as great as an actual swamp like it's not that swampy but it's still pretty cool. Our terrarium is self sustaining because the organisms are able to live inside without lots of help from the outside. We have a frog, crickets, suckermouth catfish, earthworms, and a few guppies. Besides that, there are also biogeochemical changes such as water cycle, nitrogen cycle, and carbon cycle. As seen from my journal a lot of guppies died. I think it is because they need more oxygen and the water did not suit the guppies, also because there wasn't enough space because we have the water lettuce and because of that the guppies probably feel stressed.
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I had so much fun doing this project for this term. Although there are a few things that was difficult for me or something that I don't really like. First of all, in the beginning of the term I was the only one contributing to the planning of this project one of the reason was because one of my group member was in Japan. After a few weeks making the terrarium, I realised that one of my group member, different one, was not working at all and I don't think that's a good thing. Overall, today's term project was fun and a good experience for me.