The gel, in itself, was very peculiar in that it acted quite differently when it came to the diffusion of water. Water particles moved from a region of lower concentration to a region of higher concentration.
And it was not osmosis or anything like that. He could already observe that even in the gel itself where there was no membrane separating water particles, they also behaved the same.
It was not hard to figure out what was going on, but who in their right mind would think of doing such a thing? Using muscle tissue to cultivate some silicate sand was the last thing that he would think of to solve the water and nutrient distribution problem.
There were better and more efficient ways, but they all required energy to maintain. But this method saved a lot of resources and if used right, they might even use the same technique to generate energy. But that was highly unlikely.
This also gave him a glimpse of how they solved the water problem.