11.29.14: More layers?

Happy Day After Thanksgiving, guys! Check out my columns today:

***UPDATE***: Actually, both of my columns are anaerobic right now. I'm at my boyfriend's house, so I didn't want to impolitely set an open jar of dirt and bacteria in his lovely home. I will introduce oxygen to Column #2 (right) starting tomorrow.

Column #1 (left) has quite a few layers established....but what used to be my top water layer is now gone.

I can't say for sure what is happening, but feel free to take a look:

This is a photo of Column #1 from an aerial view. See the BLACK layer growing in the mid-bottom left corner of the photo?:

Column #2 now has a layer floating on top of the water layer. Is it debris, small gas bubbles, a bacterial colony, or all of the above? The dark layer is very noticeable in this column. Here:

Next, I will start leaving the cap off of Column #2 to allow the column to have access to oxygen

***UPDATE***

The cap on Column #2 was ACTUALLY TAKEN OFF on December 1, 2014.

11.27.14: Ugh...weird blackness and new layers???

So I took these pictures on Thanksgiving Day, but good times were had, so I ended up uploading them now.

Some layers were finally visibly established--most notably the top mud layer that is black.
Also, one of my columns looks drastically different. I can't really explain it, but here's a photo:

Apparently, my water column decided to migrate to the middle of the column...haha.

If you looks really closely as the top of the mud, there's a layer of dark, blackish mud. What kind of bacteria is this? Hmm...I located a source that provides the following as a possible explanation:

"The sulphur-reducing bacteria (Fig. B) such as Desulfovibrio can utilise these fermentation products by anaerobic respiration, using either sulphate or other partly oxidised forms of sulphur (e.g. thiosulphate) as the terminal electron acceptor, generating large amounts of H₂S by this process. [In our ownaerobic respiration we use O₂ and reduce it to H₂O]. The H₂S will react with any iron in the sediment, producing black ferrous sulphide. This is why lake sediments (and our household drains) are frequently black. However, some of the H₂S diffuses upwards into the water column, where it is utilised by other organisms"

Source: <http://archive.bio.ed.ac.uk/jdeacon/microbes/winograd.htm>

Here's column #2:

The black layer is much more noticeable here, but my water column is still on top off the mud instead of wedged in the middle of it, such as in column #1.

I'm glad to see much more is happening apart from gas buildup and rising mud! I wonder what I'll see next.

11.25.14: Playing with Fire, and Two Columns are Better than One!

My column's cellophane bulged out again.
Today was the day that I found out what kind of gas was inside my column.
With some help from Dr. Sun, I suspected it to be methane, but wasn't too sure.
My column at this point had it's mad reach almost the top of the jar, and my water column pretty much disappeared. Here's what it looked like:

Notice the gas pockets in the soil and the dome-shaped cellophane top?

Here's what the contents of the column looked like through the top:

My mud also looked a bit green...possibly because there are green sulfur bacteria in here?

Anyway, to make sure the gas that was being produced was methane for certain, I had my suitemate film a test. I tested for methane by puncturing through the cellophane with sewing needle, then holding a lighter to the pin-sized puncture where gas was coming out. Here is the video:

 

The flame turned blue and tripled in height before I took the lighter away from the column.

The pinprick-sized hole became dime-sized:

I deduced that the trapped gas was probably methane and that there were a lot of methanogens in my column.

As suggested by Dr. Sun, I made two columns out of my old one:

1. One with oxygen (shaken up and left open, AKA the one with the black lid)
2. One without oxygen (left alone and closed)

Let's see how this goes!

11.23.14: Following up on the new column

I checked out the column again today, and the SAME thing happened:

• The mud rose an inch, at least
• The mud is also more porous-looking
• The water column rose
• The cellophane looks like it is about to burst open and explode again
• The air column is now less than half and inch thick

The column looked like THIS today:

I emailed Dr. Sun to inquire about the condition of my column. Here is the following correspondence:

Me: Dear Dr. Sun: I made my Winogradsky column about 2 weeks ago, but I keep coming across the same problem: Although I keep filling it up with mud 3/5 of the way, water about an inch and a half high, and then an inch of air space, my column keeps "bursting" and the water level rises, and I've had to rebuild it. Is this normal?

Dr. Sun: I don't think there's anything "normal" about the column. You must have a lot of gas-producing organisms growing. If you gently bang the column to let the air come up, can you smell what kind of gas it is? That actually sounds very exciting!

Me: Dear Dr. Sun: Okay, thank you for the feedback. 
Also, different tutorials say different things. Are there supposed to be slits in the cellophane fir gas exchange, or no slits so that it is an anaerobic process? 

Dr. Sun: I think even with gas exchange, there will still be anaerobic zones toward the bottom. Without constant mixing, oxygen is typically consumed faster than it can dissolve into the column.

Me: Ah, okay that makes sense!

I actually didn't puncture any holes.

Do you suggest I do? Or would you prefer the gases collect with an unpunctured top? It seems to keep bursting anyway...I apologize for the onslaught of inquiries, and I appreciate your feedback.

Dr. Sun: Is there any color developing? If there are signs of oxygenic photosynthesis (like a green layer of cyanobacteria), then you have endogenous oxygen production. Puncturing the holes will help relieving the oxygen. If you have sulfate reducers making sulfide, then the gas it emits will smell like rotten eggs. Maybe you can stick a hollow coffee stirrer through the cover to help the gas escape the column.

Me: There is currently no color developing, but for the first week, the smell was horrible...like rotten eggs. But the smell neutralized within 5 days. Now it smells more like worn socks. There is still no color in the soil itself, but it does keep rising and getting more porous...would you like a link to my blog to see the pictures? 

11.22.14: Away goes the smell...

Well, the smell is mostly gone.
Before this point, the smell was analogous to refuse from a sewer plant.
I sprayed the surrounding area with Glade aerosol spray because it was just putrid.
On November 22, however it smelled less intense--kinda like used socks: bad, but bearable, almost neutral.
It may be because the column settled a bit.

However, my mud column is somehow higher than it should, and all my water evaporated as well.
As such, I started a new column.

I used the same mud (so the egg and newspaper bits are still in there), but I mixed it up with a chopstick to sort of renew the mud.
I also through out about 1/3 of it to make room for a larger water column (about 2 1/2 in thick) and an air column (about 1 inch).

It looked like this by the time I finished making changes:

When the suspended mud in the water settled, the water became more clear and the column looked more like this:

I sealed it just the same way: cellophane and two rubber bands.

11.17.14: My column bulged...then it exploded

Today is November 17, 2014.

My column looked like it was about to explode two days ago, so I placed it inside a gallon Ziploc bag in case it did.

And it did.

It smells God awful and there is source water in the bag, and the stench is pervading the air like crazy.
This is disgusting.

The cellophane looked bulgy, but I didn't think it would leak...and it did.

Also, my worms aren't moving anymore. I wonder if they're dead. They aren't moving when there's a light source, and they sure as heck aren't moving when there isn't one.

***UPDATE: 11.26.14***

So, I talked with Dr. Sun on Sunday night (11.23.14), and she said that the types of bacteria come in waves:

1. The awful smell I previously mentioned in this post was SULFUR (smelled like rotten eggs). I think it make be green sulfur bacteria because the sulfur smell was overbearing, and green sulfur bacteria "deposit sulfur externally" (http://archive.bio.ed.ac.uk/jdeacon/microbes/winograd.htm)
2. When the smell went away, I noticed the cellophane was bulging. My column of mud was also rising more than I expected it to, so my water column and air column essentially vanished. Dr. Sun proposed that it may have transitioned to methanogenesis, in which a lot of METHANE was being produced by methanogens. I tested to make sure it was methane in my 11.25.14 post. Check out the video and pictures there!

11.15.14: Weird Worm Things?

I didn't intend to check on the progress of my column until later, but I noticed worm-like things floating at the top on Saturday, November 15, 2014...hmm.

Those were DEFINITELY not there when I first made it...

Yay macroinvertebrates? I hope it doesn't disturb the growth of other organisms that were supposed to be there otherwise...:/

Here's a video of these things:

11.14.14: Winogradsky Column: Getting Started!

On November 13, 2014, Chris Valadez and I drove down to the duck pond behind the the Kroger located in Kettering (right next to a combination Pizzahut and Taco Bell).

We went at about 5:30 pm and it was 28 degrees fahrenheit outside (AKA really cold).

I started to dig for mud, and I found a pencil. The mud was filthy and foul-smelling.

I set up my column the next day (Friday ) at about 10 am. Here is the set up:

The contents needed for the column setup are as follows, starting from left to right: 

1. 2-liter bottle with pond/lake source water (far left)
2. Mud in a gallon Ziploc bag (top middle) 
3. Old pasta sauce container to act as the column container (bottom middle)
4. Raw egg yolk (sulfur source) (top right)
5. Shredder newspaper (carbon source and cellulose)  (bottom right).

I mixed the mud with source water until the mud became soft and pudding-like in consistency. Then, I added the shredder newspaper and an egg yolk. Then, I added the contents into the old pasta sauce jar and made sure to shake the mud down into the jar to get rid of air bubbles. I topped off the mud in the jar with source water until it reached the brim. Here is a photo of the column prior to adding the cellophane wrapper on top, but after the source water was filled to the brim:

This next picture features the FINISHED AND SEALED Winogradsky Column next to one of my favorite Anime characters:

Winogradsky Column Instructional and Explanatory SOURCES:

http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/e/jel5/biofilms/winogradsky.html
http://archive.bio.ed.ac.uk/jdeacon/microbes/winograd.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivRxB3w41I0