Reflection:

In order to keep a living organism alive, even as simple as a shrimp, it takes filtering water, heating the water to a specific temperature, helpful bacteria for purifying the water, and water conditioner.

Due to technological inhibitors we were not able to make our environment a vacuum sealed closed loop system. We also couldn’t manage to keep all of our shrimp alive for more than a day. If we can have more time and more iterations we would focus our efforts on changing the proportion of water, air, and nutrition elements in the system as well as coming up with a more permanent housing for the sensors within the habitat.

Open Questions and Challenges:

1. How do we quantify the exchange of living elements underwater? How do we effectively use the data of the sensors to adjust the design and keep the ecosystem in a positive cycle?

2. What caused our shrimp to die so quickly?

Attribution:

[1] What is the difference between pleco & algae eaters?

http://animals.mom.me/difference-between-plecostomus-algae-eaters-8151.html

[2] Top 5 Algae Eaters for the Planted Aquarium

http://www.aquatic-eden.com/2007/03/top-5-algae-eaters-for-planted-aquarium.html

[3] Amano Shrimp Care, Feeding, Algae Eating, Size, Lifespan

http://www.aquariumcarebasics.com/freshwater-shrimp/amano-shrimp/

[4] Algae Problem in your Fishtank? Find out Which Species Really Eat Algae

http://www.fishchannel.com/fish-magazines/aquarium-fish-international/july-2009/which-species-really-eat-algae.aspx