Tank Updates

Danielle and MVP Gump employee, Tony, have been working on getting a chiller system set-up for the water tables at Gump and today was the day! Using Hollies idea for a vanne à flotteur system where the water can be cooled and used but will always stay above a certain level to not damage the pumps or the chiller. This set-up will be a great addition to control ambient temperature levels for the planned tank system.

Danielle also labeled each individual tank, added Putnam stickers to each, and drilled holes for water flow to prep them before installation and sampling.

To prepare the water tables for sampling, the entire testing 6 tank system and water tables were cleaned. All tanks were throughouly rinsed and wiped down with microfiber towels and left to dry in the mesocosm room overnight. All heaters, cables, and temperature probes were cleaned and rinsed with freshwater and DI water. All cables were dried and wiped down with alcohol wipes and wrapped in velcro to keep organized. The pumps were turned on in submerged freshwater and then turned off and rinsed again under the sink. Their cables were also cleaned with DI water and wiped down with alcohol wipes before being wrapped. All labeled temperature probes, Apex cables, and Apex PM1 units were put in an organized order with each assigned bundle staying together for easy deployment later on.

Heatwave Experiment Prep

Danielle began coloring individual white plastic tags that had numbers ranging from 1-12 (x2). She colored each pair of numbers for the assigned genotype either red for hot or blue for ambient to be attached to the sampled colonies on the 18th or 19th. She also made a tank map for the outside wet tables and assigned each genotype by treatment to a tank number.