Our column is evolving

Today the ecocolumn seems to be doing well. Its definitely evolving! The roots of the plants are spreading out in the soil. The network can be seen through the plastic. The lizard is climbing on the wall of the column, but the frog is hiding in the vegetation. The vinca is still growing but is not flowering as it was when it was added to the chamber. We added 8 oz of water today. The water is not being evenly distributed, so one area is saturated, another is moist and one seems to be dry. There is less condensation in the chamber today than there was on Friday. Perhaps this is due to the cloudy days. The decompositon chamber is changing. The mushrooms are soggy now and the plum has a healthy growth of mold on it. No fruit flies! We're adding a piece of banana peel today in hopes of getting some fruit flies for our predators. The spider and the beetles are still in the decomposition chamber. One of the beetles died and is being eaten by some little red bugs that look like mites or ticks. They're the size of the head of a pin! One of the mealworms is burrowing in the litter. The other is burrowed under the plum and is much larger than it was when we added it. It looks like it is about to emerge as a beetle. The aquarium is getting high. The water is almost to the level of the decomposition chamber. The water is brownish. The salvinia roots are getting longer, and new salvinia are growing.