Slow stream simulator Updated periodically

[Radazz]

This is an attempt to provide myself with a source of micro organisms that I don't need to leave the house to collect.

Week 5 of the experiment:
Got rid of 2/3s of the fish, and now bacteria in the substrate have dropped to more sensible levels, now I am seeing fewer paranema and a more diverse group of protists in the substrate, which consists of the blue glass beads with a little gravel to anchor the plants, so it has balanced more like a slow rivulet than a stagnant pond. The plants are covered with vorticellids and rotifers.

Removed the filter so there is a constant flow of bacteria over the plants and a piece of quartz where a garden of alge and diatoms is already developing nicely. When this is lush, I intend to brush it off and spin it down. Hopefully, I can figure out how to bleach and mount diatoms.

Time to start hunting amoeba, hydra, and stentor.
I will update this thread as the simulation developes.
Jim

upload picture
The simulator a 1.5 US gallon aquarium equipped with a pump that draws water from the substrate and flows it over the plants, rock, and unfortunately, the front of the tank.
image sharing
The garden

[mrsonchus]

Looks great! This is going to be an interesting adventure old chap! Keep us updated.

[Radazz]

Thanks, John. The plants will give me material for my ham handed attempts at hand sectioning as well.
Jim

[JimT]

This is going to be an interesting adventure old chap!

I agree and look forward to your images of the life forms.

[rabitt]

Is the tank acrylic or glass, if glass where did you purchase it (1 1/2 gal), if acrylic was it a kit with everything supplied.

[Radazz]

Is the tank acrylic or glass, if glass where did you purchase it (1 1/2 gal), if acrylic was it a kit with everything supplied.

The tank is acrylic, and came with I small pump and light.
Really a penthouse for a beta.
The filter was about like a teabag, but I left it out to stream water from the substrate out into the tank.
Alge and protists abound!

[billbillt]

Hi Radz,

This is a wonderful experiment!... Looking forward to more installments..

BillT

[Radazz]

A quick dip with a pipette into the substrate brought up these two
Wild Heerbrugg M20 20x PH

Heres a crowd (What is the proper term for a bunch of amoeba?)
Wild Heerbrugg M20
HI 50x PH in oil

[Radazz]

More algi on the quartz, and streaming like Spanish moss in the current

upload a gif

[charlie g]

Congrats on your microcosm, Radazz...all microscopists benefit from:'a zoo on the window sill'..as has been suggested for over a century in microscopy hobby. charlie guevara , with indoor microcosms, outdoor microcosms, and now an outdoor mesocosm 'work in progress'.