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Data Tables:
Parameter
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Water
1500
mL
1500
mL
1500
mL
1500
mL
1500 mL
1500 mL
1500
mL
1500 mL
Temp (C)
22.5
28.2
23.5
23.1
24.5
21.9
20.9
19.4
pH
Hydrogen
Sulfide
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Phosphate
200
0.2
Nitrate/Nitri
te
2/0
10/0
15/.4
15/.4
0/0
5/.3
10/.3
N/A
Organism
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Elodea
Pond
Snails
Crustacea
ns
Green
Algae
Observations: Through the first three weeks, our ecosystem was healthy, and growing. There
was an increase in pond snails and crustaceans. We added three grams of sodium phosphate,
which resulted in a major turn of events. After week 4 many of the organisms began to die out,
and it created an increase in algae. The pH level began to decrease after week 4. A pattern in
the data is right when the amount of algae noticeably increased the snails began to die off. Also
as the waters temperature began to decrease mostly everything living died.
Analysis: The data told us that the sodium phosphate that was added after week 3, caused a
decrease in all living matter except for the algae, which increased dramatically.The patterns of
the data mean that sodium phosphate causes a dramatic algae bloom and causes death for the
rest of the organisms. The colder temperatures also played a factor in the ecosystem, because
the organisms were not receiving enough nutrients. We think we got the results that we did was
because sodium phosphate is not healthy for living matter, and this dying off of organisms led to
increase in algae.
One surprising pattern in the data was the death of the snails and crustaceans. The
addition of sodium phosphate caused the organisms to die off. One source of error in this
investigation was the testing strips. For the last part of the lab we were using expire nitrogen
strips which led to inaccurate data. Another problem was we placed our ecosystem next to a
window, so as the temperature became cooler, the organisms werent getting enough nutrients.
These errors can be fixed simply by buying unexpired test strips to get more accurate data. We
could also put our ecosystem under artificial light, so the living organisms receive an abundance
of nutrients.
Conclusion:
If sodium phosphate is added to the aquarium then the algae mass should increase
because algae uses phosphate is grow which result in more algae. The data we collected
supported our hypothesis completely. Our conclusion is that sodium phosphate wouldnt work
well in an aquarium containing living organisms. It being added caused a decline in all living
organisms including the elodea. Without anything to feed off the mass amount of algae created;
the algae will take over and most living things inside the aquarium will die.
We could test it out on a bigger scale, such as a lake or pond. Testing it out in an open
system that isnt closed off could show more reliable results. It would be more realistic to test it
on an aquarium with more organisms and a wider range of plants. More variables to look at
could be if its closed off or is open to air and other weather conditions. Variables could also be
the organisms living in the aquarium, sunlight that was offered to it, and types of plants inside it.
The amount of sodium phosphate added into the aquarium could be tested with different
amounts. The 3 grams we added could've been to much;which is why it caused our aquarium to
slowly decompose into nothing.