Turn Mud into Energy with a Microbial Fuel Cell — and a Dash

[cgkk12]

How long will it take for this to stabilize the first time (before adding salt)? We are going in to the 20th day and numbers continue to jump each day.

[deleted-71709]

This is an interesting experiment.

I have just read its description, and the first thing I saw is that the time required is "Very Long (several weeks to months)". So perhaps working with it for 20 days is not unusual.

You mentioned the "numbers continue to jump each day". It is important that you carefully record these and plot them on a chart. Place days on the horizontal axis, and your measurement on the vertical axis. If they have been jumping around since the very first day in a very similar manner, that is they create sort of a band of data going along with time, then you will probably need to wait longer. This time will be a function of the nutrients and the microbial matter in your particular soil sample.

If, however, they started and some value, and then after a short period of time have settled down to changing a little every day, then you might conclude that your system has stabilized as much as it is going to and it would be the correct time to add the salt and see what happens.

So, so plot your data and take a close look at it. If you need help drawing conclusions from it, that's one thing we Experts here at Science Buddies can help you interpret.

Good luck.