Top removed from the biosphere.  You can see the lights and a bit into the tank.

 

Biosphere II

Summary:

The main goal is to make a water table imitate the earth on water movement.  This device has a well created using a 4 inch PVC pipe going down the right side of the tank.  A thermal electric heater is used to condense water in the air and drip it down into the well.  Water is present at the bottom of the system and move up through the stones, clay and soil.  Plants consume the water and let it go into the air.

Goals:

• Design a water table in a biosphere.


• Make rain. (more like move water around)


• Improve the heating issues.


• Control H2SO4 cycle.  


• Improve lighting where it does not heat up the tank and take too much space/energy.


• Attempt to grow veggies for consumption.

Results:

• The results were very good.


• Water pressure within plants depends on the daily RH of the environment.  The lower the RH, the more volume of water moves through them.  It's also dependent on temperature and specie of the plant.


• A water table provides a habitat for H2SO4 producing bacteria to live.  This keeps the pH in line.


• Plants (grasses and strawberries) grew very well.  Well, too well.  Grasses started to take over and none culture the top part of the tank.  


• Heat is under control.  Fans are provided at the light source.  It only raised it 1 degrees C.


• Water does wick up through the soil, but it's still better to move water through rain.


• CO2 levels moved between 100 ppm to 500 ppm.  


• The failure rate for LED light for green houses is very high.  Certain brands don't last a few months.  LED lights need to be water cooled or chilled to increase life and not heat up the tank.

 

Below is an explanation of all the parts.

This is the close up picture of the RH being frozen and dripped into the PVC well going to the bottom of the tank.  The dehumidifier has to be cycled on and off to get the most water from the air.

LCD display.

A board was laid out for the computer data collector and controller.  It was easier and more reliable to use a board than to hand made the CPUs.  All of the CPU use MicroChip PIC processors.  This one uses the 18F4550.

Biosphere III

Summary:

After doing tons of learning how the earth works, it was important to design in a chiller for the whole system and a way to sink CO2 in ocean water.  I was important to have an ocean because that is how the climate works on the earth.  

Goals:

• Cycle and build an ocean environment where a echo-cycle in the marine can survive.


• Sink CO2


• Make a water table where the water comes from the ocean and returns to it.


• Grow veggies


• Solve heat problems.


• Stabilize RH and CO2.


• Design in lights that work for a while.


• Design a water pump that prevents microbiology in water from being blended.


• Continue to build the differential equations for micro-biological organisms count depending of available food.

Results:

• Sinking CO2 worked.  The phytoplankton in the water can keep up with the decomposition from the land layer.


• Veggies grew like strawberries and New Zealand Spinach.


• Crustaceans grew in the marine layer.


• Air temperature is very stable because of the marine layer.


• There were a lot of problems with maintaining the marine layer temperature with the current chiller.


• The water went mono-culture because of temperature fluctuations and out gassing of acrylic plastics.  The next device needs to be made only with glass.  No plastics.  Plastic does something to the reproduction of microorganisms.


• The system ran for 1.5 years without opening it.  All plants grew and replenished themselves.  The crustaceans lived for most of the time until the chiller gave out.

 

Below is a picture of biosphere III.  

Close up picture of the marine layer.

The system has been taken apart and everything has been examined.  The water has been checked for species and chemicals.  The marine lights have been taken out.  You can see the copper chilling coils that goes around each of the lights.

Below is a picture of the lights without the soil layer.

For more information on the hardware setup for this system, click below:

http://celss.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=3954

 

Biosphere IV

 

Summary:

This system uses two 40 gallon tanks sealed with glass.  All plastics are removed.  The plastics give a lot of trouble to micro-biological reproduction.  The physical water movement device (the motor with the paddle) has been replaced with air pumps/stones enclosed in glass cylinders.  This moves the water around.  An air pump is installed in the inside of the biosphere to move the water around.  That was not easy.  I went through a half a dozen air pumps to see what worked the longest.  When it comes to biospheres, equipment reliability is critical.

Currently the system is cycling the marine layer.  The water table is not completed. Air is moved from the marine tank and pushed into the water table tank.  There the air is chilled and water is removed.  The water is then trickled back to marine layer over an overflow.  That means water is contained in the water table tank for a while before returning.  This give water a chance to wick up through the soil back to plants.

The majority of the problems for starting and maintaining food/chemical cycles have been solved.  The last issues are plant growth control (prevent plants automatically taking over another plant), climate simulation and introduction of higher concentration of energy animals.  If this water table can provide enough water for plants to grow, I may introduce a mouse or something.  Crabs have lived in biospheres already.

 

Goals:

• Provide adequate fresh water for plants to grow.  


• Control the water temperature. ( the chiller has been replaced with a 1/4 HP version)  


• Add seasonal light changes.


• Design the water table tank to automatically control plant growth control.  Once these takes are sealed, they are not opened because they are biospheres.


• Program climates into biospheres.

Results (so far as of Sept 30, 2015):

• Since air pumps are used to stir the marine layer, everything is growing and living longer.  There is no more physical impact/contact with microorganisms.


• All plastics are removed.  We have had no mono-culture development over the past 6 months.  The past biosphere III mono-cultured in 6 months.  DO is measured around 13 mg/L for both systems. pH maintains around 8.  It appears things are living longer because of the removal of plastics.  


• Crustaceans before died within 3 weeks (sand crabs).  They are now reproducing over the past 6 months.


• Water temperature control has been around plus/minus 1 degree C.


• In general the biospheres are keeping a high diversity of animals and bacteria.  They normally run until I take them apart.

 

This is the only picture I have of it so far.  A DO meter is measuring the DO in the water.  You can see some algae and cyanobactin growing on the glass walls.  

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