Research Update: Sketchy Plastic and Funky Tanks

  Hey, everyone! I was hoping to get some more news to you before this past weekend but it has been a bit of a whirlwind. Our time frame for the experiment is excruciatingly tight for the rest of June. As it turns out, the algae and the veligers will be ready for testing! And, of course, as usual, we're not quite ready for them but we will have to push forward. Which will mean that we will be crossing our fingers and hope we are doing it right during the experimental runs. We will not know the full results until the analysis in July. It'll be like receiving an inappropriate Christmas present every day and trying to explain what it means. Now do you see what I mean by not everything running smoothly?

What's a veliger? A fancy term for oyster larvae.

Source: pbs.org

Parts of the larvae. Source: uas.alaska.edu

Oyster life cycle. Source: el.erdc.usace.army.mil

  I will be taking a lot of pictures tomorrow of our set up(s) which should give you folks at home a better idea as to what we are doing. Until then, let me share a few experiences with you.
  Yes, we were able to test the equipment last week and we are continuing to modify the setup. The calibration target I built works pretty well but I am improving the design. We have completed two data sets, after processing and running the analysis to check for convergence (convergence is a technique in which the Matlab code picks five random points and like a needle going through 300 pictures, tells us how well our data corresponds in the system), we had decided to run two more sets of data with improvements that I had suggested. First, give more time between the three speeds for the turbidity pattern to be well established and instead of beginning the stir plate at speed 1 (about 60 rpm) to begin with Speed 3 (about 100 rpms) and work backwards. After that, we should be ready to switch from freshwater data collection to saltwater data collection on Wednesday.
  But this is not the only thing we are doing, we have been gathering materials to create our own laboratory ocean and keep the algae and veligers until testing time. What this has incorporated is buying an inexpensive garbage can from which we can mix freshwater and a measured portion of something called Instant Ocean which is used in hobbyist's saltwater tanks (I had to call PetSmart this past Saturday to hold a massive bucket of the stuff for us. The advisor on the project said that it was a good thing that I did because they were all out by this morning).
  We had to fill the garbage can with water this past Friday to let it out-gas over the weekend so that it would reduce the amount of toxin exposure. Unfortunately, someone from another lab emptied it because they thought it was going to burst. So, it is near full again and sitting outside for the night to out-gas. My advisor did mention that the plastic garbage can being so inexpensive might make it look sketchy when it is full of water. We will dump out the water and wipe and down in the morning. I have also drilled a hole through the trash can lid so that we can stick a couple of air stones in it to help keep the dissolved oxygen content at a respectable level.
  We also acquired a 55 gallon saltwater tank someone was going to throw out. It needs a massive clean up but it has a filter and we are going to check it as soon as we can remove all the gunk off of it. One thing is for sure, there is no shortage of work to do this week.