How to Construct the Aquarium

The first step in creating a MicroAquarium is to acquire the MicroAquarium, which comes with a glass tank, a stand holder, and a lid. In order to tell your MicroAquarium apart from others, utilize the color dots given to distinguish your tank by placing the correct stickers in a vertical column on the left-hand side of your tank. The top dot tells which lab section you are in, the middle dot shows which table you sit at, and the third dot portrays the seat upon which you sit. Your initials are to be written on each of the dots  (McFarland, 2014).

After the tank is labeled, the next step is to use the pipet to put the silt and water into the MicroAquarium. A small layer of silt should cover the bottom of the MicroAquarium, do this by using the pipet to pull the silt up with the water and fill the first 1/3 of the tank with water very close to the bottom. Fill the next 1/3 of the tank with water from the middle layer, and finally fill the remaining third with water from the top layer of the sample  (McFarland, 2014).

After this was completed, I put two plant samples into the tank:

Amblestegium varium (Hedwig) Lindberg. Moss.

Collection from: Natural spring. at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. Partial shade exposure. N36 01.168 W83 42.832. 10/12/2014

And

Utricularia gibba L. Flowering plant. A

carnivorous plant. Original material from south shore of Spain Lake (N 35o55 12.35" W088o20' 47.00), Camp Bella Air Rd. East of Sparta Tn. in White Co. and grown in water tanks outside of greenhouse at Hesler

Biology Building. The University of Tennessee. Knox Co. Knoxville TN.

10/12/2014

(McFarland 2014).

After the samples are placed, the tank should be set in its stand and the lid should be placed on top.

Materials: You will need the MicroAwuarium tank, a water sample from a chosen source, a pipet, and dot stickers to color code your tank as well as plant samples to increase the diversity of your project  (McFarland, 2014).