Re: Ecospheres - not sure where to put this
#3
I have done two small, plant only ones in old 2L whiskey bottles (my tipple of choice) both of which are entirely sealed.
and found that there is a huge problem with fluctuation of the basic elements, especially in the air in the bottle. They are both still up and running, one has been going now for 6months and the other for 5.
I tried to seed the first with plants and flowers to make something rather nice to look at, but they all died as there was little to keep it alive ( I even conducted a form a cycling first to get the bacteria up).
This is still going however with some interesting mosses and a weird jelly like thing ( almost like a sea squirt) and the chemistry in the jar seems to be settling down. but I don't think even at this stage I will be putting anything in it. I did consider a snail but that might be a bit detrimental to its progress.
The second one I made however I must have picked up some slug eggs with the soil and they have been flourishing in the jar. and there seems to be less of a problem with the chemistry. this time I started with a mass and tried to seed with natural bacteria ect.and added twice as much activated carbon, and I concentrated some waste from the fishtank to fertalise.
They look like very interesting pieces with just plants in but I don't think they are big enough to support any animal life really.
The problem with things like this is that a single animal needs quite a bit of space to support it, for example one snail would need enough algae for it to eat plus enough algae to turn the CO2 to O2 and this need with increase as they grow. it will also need enough bacteria to remove its waste ect.
In theory if you had a large tank you could support a few snails or shrimp in a completely closed way but they would be constantly living on the fine line between life and death.
In my opinion no they are not ethical on a small scale, you would need to factor in a large amount of biological processes to provide exactly what the organism would need before sealing the tank.
They have managed to do it (sort of), the Biosphere projects were sort of working ( apart from massive O2 fluctations from 2%-60% amongst other things) but there is a long way off.
In conclusion to this rather long post, I would say no they are not ethical, just stick to plants you would be surprised with the interesting stuff which springs up in one you just add soil and water!
Eat, SCUBA, Fish.