12.5.14: No progress...

Column #2's water layer grew much murkier than it ever was previously:

The black particles that were still present on 12.3.14 are no longer visible. There is now a layer of brown, floating particles of dirt on top of the water column. The mud has also risen considerably in Column #2, but unlike Column #1, the water column is still on top of the mud:

Column #1's water is also murkier than it was previously. No cellophane bulging. Mud is still porous. There seem to be patches of black mud/bacteria growing the mud area below the middle water layer. 

12.3.14: Rising layers in Column #1, black dots in Column #2?

Here are my two columns again! I took the cap off of Column #2 today:

Column #1's mud is really porous-looking, but that's no surprise, since it did that previously. Column #1's top water layer disappeared again. The water is distributed all along the length of the column, mostly in the middle: 

The cellophane layer on top on Column #1 isn't bulging like usual. I'm guessing the production of Methane gas stopped.

See how there is no more water layer on top of my mud?"

Column #2: Uncapped

What are these black spots on the side of this column? It looks a if it's climbing higher up the column!

12.1.14: Brought them back from Cincy and they were a bit shaken up...

Because of the transport of the columns from Cincinnati back to my apartment, my columns kinda resettled into how they looked like when I first made two columns on November 25, 2014. I virtually had no time on Monday to take a picture of my columns, but because they are similar to how they were on November 25, here is that picture again:

It was a shame that the progress that happened during Thanksgiving Break disappeared because of the car ride, but there wasn't much that could have been done. 

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?