I went back to Pacific Aquarium and bought 3 silvertip tetras. Although the tank says “RARE,” silvertips along with other tetras are very common aquarium fish. They’re labeled as rare because they don’t breed in large numbers, but they aren’t rare in the wild. They’re native to the Amazon so the water shouldn’t drop below 70°F. They’re somewhat aggressive, and they school together. They’re omnivores, so regular fish food will be fine but can be given occasional larvae or other small creatures:

The food and water primers (I used spring water, then inserted the prime and stability a few hours before introducing the fish):

Acclimating to the temperature:

Supplies purchased for the filtration system. A water pump, mason jar, airline tubing, ceramic biofilter medium (little ceramic blocks that house bacteria feeding organisms as water travels through) and aquarium sealant caulk which was used to seal the holes I drilled into the lid of the mason jar for the airline tubing:

The pump pumps water into the tube that introduces the water into the bottom of the jar. Then the water rises through the filter medium and back out through an exit tube at the lid:

I went back to Pacific Aquarium & Plant and spoke with an employee about what I should include in my tank and how to go about my first steps. He insisted that I don’t buy fish just yet, that I have my tank set up before doing so. I made sure that I left with something so I had him help me pick out easy to maintain plants that would inhabit freshwater at room temperature. An anubias plant:

Java moss (in the black container):

Gravel as substrate (gravel is easier for planting than sand, it holds the roots down much more easily):

2.5 gallon tank, washed:

Substrate rinsed and put into the tank:

Planted anubias and moss and filled with bottled water (room temperature, not refrigerated) from the grocery store:

The moss is held down with with a couple pebbles which probably won’t be sufficient once a pump system introduces current.I will probably have to replant as shown in this video:

Plants also need light. I knew I would go with an LED fixture because they produce far less energy and are generally cheaper. Lighting aquatic plants seems fairly complicated though:

“When concerned with supporting photosynthetic aquatic life, hobbyists should look for PAR values of LED fixtures. PAR or Photosynthetically Active Radiation designates a spectral range of light that photosynthetic organisms utilize during photosynthesis. Keep in mind that PAR values vary at different depths and distances from the LED light source. In other words, the same LED fixture will have multiple PAR values capable of supporting different species with different light requirements. Due to the relatively complex nature of expressing PAR levels and a lack of standardization, not all manufactures will provide PAR information the same way. To determine which LED aquarium light fixture is right for you, please refer to our handy LED Lighting Comparison Guide.” [1]

Since my tank is small and doesn’t require too much light, I used the abundance of LEDs I have at home to make my own fixture, adding a potentiometer so I could experiment with various colors and brightness over time. Daylight (more reds):

Night (more blues):

Next steps:

• Pump (not required right away but would be nice to have)
• Filter: could start with a DIY biofilter, similar to the ones they had bobbing around in some of the tanks at the store

Eventually I want to build out a custom filtration system in a way that will facilitate easy/accessible, automated water content observation/measurement.

• Water testing kits
  • ammonia test kit
  • nitrate test kit
  • co2 test kit
  • thermometer
• Finally introduce a fish or two: possibly a small school of guppies or similar micro fish, but not a betta in case another fish is to be added later on.

[1] http://www.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=42

1) Establish container which houses a simple ecosystem that generates toxic ammonia (which is produced by fish waste, excess food, decaying organic matter)

B.O.M.:

• Aquarium setup
  • tank (<5 gallon to start)
  • Water pump
  • Biofilter (“A biological filter will convert toxic ammonia (from your fishes’ waste, excess food, decaying or dying plant mater, and dead fish) into Nitrite, and toxic Nitrite into Nitrate… Nitrate will also contribute to algae growth. Biological filtration occurs as the water passes over any surface that the bacteria processing the waste can grow on.”)
  • Biotic matter
    • Plants TBD
    • Fish? TBD
  • Abiotic matter
    • Rocks, sand, dirt, water…
• Measuring tools:
  • Colorimeter (“to determine the concentration of colored compounds in solution”)
  • Thermomter
  • Test kits (see step 3 below)

2) Use a biofilter to convert ammonia into nitrate

3) Measure nitrate levels with colorimeter; nitrate/ammonia/ph levels mapped to internet speed

Automatic colorimetric aquarium monitors exist and would relay data to computer, but are brand new, expensive, not accessible enough yet:

• https://reefbuilders.com/2015/10/28/colorimeter-testing-finally-ready-breakthrough-aquarium-hobby/#
• https://www.seneye.com/

Manual process:

I spoke to someone who used to own an aquarium with a few different species of fish, and she claimed that maintenance only consisted of changing a filter inside a motorized pump and periodic tank cleaning. In terms of data collection, the following quantifiable elements are possible:

• Salinity/TDS (with TDS meter)
• pH (with pH test kit)
• Oxygen (with oxygen test kit)
• CO2 (with test kit)
• Carbonate Hardness (with test kit)
• Calcium (with test kit)
• Ammonia (test kit)
• Potassium (test kit)
• Temperature (thermometer)

4) Feed data into internet speed visualization

Currently don’t know of a way to gauge my internet speed considering time/money/technical feasibility constraints, so my options are:

• Consider possibilities of browser plugins to map some aspect of web browsing experience to aquarium data
• Feed data into a mock browsing speed visualization, possibly modeled after popular http://www.speedtest.net/ interface:

I can incorporate geographic ecological data and internet submarine cable infrastructure into this visualization.

I’ve been stuck with where I wanted to go with this project. I’m not completely satisfied with the original project idea involving creating ads for an internet service of the future because I’ve been wanting to explore the use of physical systems (rather than purely social), a la Hans Haacke or Tim Hawkinson, to not only transform the “viewer” into “user” but to do so in a physically participatory way. I spent a lot of time brainstorming in a way similar to my daily practice routine. Stepping away from the computer screen, standing up and drawing stream-of-consciousness style was a helpful way to get myself out of this rut:

So my idea is to build a laptop cooling system that will change fan speed based on various quantifiable parts of a desktop aquarium ecosystem that I will put together, as an attempt to map my computer’s performance to the health of an ecosystem. I’ll methodically document the entire process, perhaps daily, in the form of a blog.

This system will serve to symbolize a microcosm of our larger urban infrastructure, highlighting the manufactured disconnect we’ve imposed on ourselves through it. Many thinkers, including Donna Harraway, Tim Morton, Zizek, etc, over at least the past several decades have criticized the “nature”/man-made duality, yet I feel like this psychological disconnect is still prevalent which I think leads to a sense of powerlessness over this distant “nature”. With this project I aim to obfuscate this duality and illustrate the level of agency at the hands of each individual.

A rough sketch of the concept:

The cooling pad (containing a fan or two) will be connected to my computer for power and data transfer via usb. The tank will also either have sensors transferring data to my computer via usb or I will manually observe and quantify data points by hand. Some potential measurable aspects: light, water purity, # species, water temp, growth rate… I will try to generate as much biodiversity as I can within the aquarium, but am thinking of sticking mostly to corals and underwater plant life with as few fish or animated creatures as possible for simplicity’s sake.

This successfully acts as a physical system for which I’m an active part of and it’s both conceptually sound and feasible enough that I’m comfortable moving forward with it. Although the final output won’t be participatory/interactive as documentation in the form of a blog, the act of blogging should add a performative element to the work, immersing viewers throughout the process in a somewhat time-sensitive format. This also opens me up to documenting in different ways, like maybe live streaming an IP cam into the aquarium. One concern is monetary constraints, as building an aquarium is not cheap. Another is where to install: I’m always moving around from place to place, and so I might only be able to monitor/participate with this system for so many hours a day. I also need to consider that I’ll have a bunch of living things in my hands by the time I’m finished. When will I be finished?