The last two days have been busy for our coral ponds and the microbial communities adapting to the new habitats.
Yesterday we put the sand and seawater into the second coral pond. We collected samples from the sand and water before and after mixing. The freshly set up pond was and remained relatively turbid overnight as a result of fine particles from the sand.
We also noted that the first coral pond had a protein skimmer installed to help keep the water clean. David noticed that with the addition of the protein skimmer there was a rise in the pH. You can check it out yourself using the tweetameter. This morning we did a full chemical analysis and microbial sampling on coral pond one to catch any changes that might be happening in the microbial community as a result of additional filtering.
Today was the big inoculation day as one of the established coral tanks was torn down and placed into the two new coral ponds. This included the rocks, numerous soft corals some snails and hermit crabs along with all the sediment from the bottom of the tank. Unfortunately adding the old sand (while important to establishing a healthy microbial community into a new aquarium system) had a terrible impact on the clarity of the water. Due to the probable negative impact the high sediment load would have on our water chemistry kits, sampling was put off until an afternoon sampling.
Dismantling the Coral Tank
Pond 2
Hopefully the water has cleared and good luck to those of you doing the afternoon sampling. I will be checking in on the ponds again in the morning.
Jonathan Eisen's Lab 