A couple hiccups at Manchester today

When Grace, Olivia and I walked in this morning, the salinity and pH probes were frozen on the following screens:

Figure 1. The salinity probe read “-L” in both seawater and freshwater.

Figure 2. The pH probe was frozen on this screen and was unresponsive when I tried pressing any button.

I unplugged the pH probe and plugged it back in, and it worked! I turned the salinity probe on and off, and removed the battery and put it back in, but it stil was unresponsive. Grace had to use the refractometer instead.

Figure 3. Placement of seawater on refractometer.

Figure 4. Grace using the refractometer.

Here’s the data we collected. The higher pH and temperature values are consistent with what Laura and I saw last Wednesday. Another thing to note is that our salinity readings, usually around 28, were around 25 instead. This makes sense with the heavy rains we’ve been having recently!

Figure 5. Data sheet.

While Grace collected water chemistry data, I poisoned samples with mercuric chloride. Olivia got to work on the system maintenance.

Figure 6. Olivia cleaning filters.

After she cleaned filters, the two of us bleached algal lines.

Figure 7. Set up to bleach algal lines.

Once Grace finished water chemistry and we ran freshwater through the lines, the two of them put weights and HOBO data loggers back on seawater lines.

Figure 8. Grace and Olivia putting seawater lines back into culture tanks.

Grace and Olivia will be on their own March 29! I wrote a system maintenance protocol that they’ll follow, so there should be no confusion.

In other news, when I came back from Manchester, Laura and I got to look at our histology samples! Check it:

Figure 9. Histology sample for one C. gigas gonad specimen.