Dissolved Oxygen and cycles

Oxygen dissolves into water from two sources: the atmosphere and from plants in the water. The primary source of oxygen for a pond is from microscopic algae (phytoplankton) or submerged plants. The CO2 and O2 levels alternate and the O2 levels are high when the sun is out and low at night. Photosynthesis is the reason why these levels are affected by the time of day. When the sun is out, plants are photosynthesizing and producing oxygen. 

 

Dissolved Oxygen

Dissolved oxygen is the amount of oxygen dissolved (and hence available to sustain marine life) in a body of water such as a lake, river, or stream. DO is the most important indicator of the health of a water body and its capacity to support a balanced aquatic ecosystem of plants and animals. Waste water containing organic (oxygen consuming) pollutants depletes the dissolved oxygen and may lead to the death of marine organisms.
To conduct a DO test you need to fill this tube with 25mL of water from whatever body of water you wish
to test. You need to break the tip off of another tube inside the tube you filled up with water and wait for a bit. Compare it to the chart and hopefully it is above 3 mg/L. I think there would be more DO in a large river than a small pond.

Aqua check

The five components of the Aqua check test are pH, free chlorine, total chlorine, total hardness, and total alkalinity. pH is the measure of the activity of the hydrogen ion. Free chlorine does the hard work of killing bacteria and oxidizing contaminants. Total chlorine is just the sum of both combined chlorine and free chlorine.  Total hardness is the sum of all hardness constituents in a water, expressed as the equivalent concentration of calcium carbonate. The total alkalinity is alkalinity of water is its acid-neutralizing capacity.

We were unable to perform our tests and we have no test results. I am sure that we would have had solid results because our water quality tests were good. 

My Fish

My angelfish that I bought from Petsmart is a very shy creature. It doesn't like to be bothered and likes to stay behind the big rock in the middle of our aquarium. It is very easy to take care of and doesn't require a lot of attention. It is a member of the cichlid family and it originates from South America. Angelfish are carnivorous and it is best to feed them flakes. They can grow up to 10 inches, but they average about 6 inches. When they grow to be adults, they will get very aggressive and it is better to put them in different tanks. They need a temperature range of 74F to 78F when they are kept as pets. The pH of the water must be from 6.5 to 6.9. They are very prone to ick, which is what I think one of our fish died from. And finally, males and females look the same. You can't tell the difference until the female is ready to breed.

Field Trip Experience

After finally making it to Dallas World Aquarium, we only ended up skimming the surface of the place because of the limited time we spent there. I would love to go back and take more time to look at each animal. I think the most interesting part of the whole trip was tunnel of sharks. Just being able to watch these creature glide over your head and interact with other sharks was incredible. I stood gazing at them for the longest time. It was the best part of the trip for me. I learned that Aquarium also encompasses mammals and birds. I had no problem with it, but it was kind of like a zoo with more fish. I also learned that the Japanese Spider Crab is the largest arthropod in the world. I also learned that the Antillean manatees were brought to the aquarium by plane as babies. The Dallas World Aquarium was opened in 1992. I also learned that they have many endangered species including the Orinoco Crocodile at the aquarium.

Aquarium Update

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but one of our fish died, and so far the other has seemingly been better off. We never saw either of them eat, but now that this fish is all alone he is eating more and more active. The quality of our water has improved as well, we recently filled the water back up in the tank because the water level was almost past the filter. The Ammonia and Nitrate tests ended up at zero. This has remained steady for the past few weeks. We haven't changed much about our water. We have just added some bacteria supplement.

Pollution Index Chart

The purpose of the Pollution Index Chart is to assess the quality of any body of water. The benefits are you can find out what is wrong with the water and if the quality of water needs some attention. Although, that only represents part of the problem. You can't always test every bit of water, so there might be other problems that you can't see. I think it is the definitive test for water quality at this moment, because of its quickness and accuracy, but there could be a better way to test water in the future.  With a high population and low diversity the water quality is poor with plenty of pollution. This is most likely because of all the pollution being dumped in oceans and lakes.