Cleaning crew

Picked up a few hermit crab at the beach this weekend to help clean up the fish tank. Hermit crabs do not make the best candidate for still photography!

Fish tank update

It's been almost a month after the tank was set up. The rocks and sand (which we bought from Fay) are in place for now (hopefully no more moving them around to suit personal taste of Hannah or/ and I :P ). Pumps and pre-filer are in as well. Had a scare the other day. I used a cheap made-in-china aluminium kitchen scoop as a mean to capture debris when the water coming down the pre-filter. However, the scoop started leaking as what we speculated - some sort of galvanised metal into the water. It killed almost all the small brittle stars which were hitch-hikers from the live rocks. Did a quick water change, and things are slowly going back to normal. Now the tank is going through it's normal cycling process - with a high nitriate (25ppm) and phosphate (0.5ppm) level. Hopefully these levels will go down soon. The brittle starts are not the only hitch-hickers from the rocks and sand. There are some zoanthids, mushrooms, sponges, and encrusting corals. Hannah even found/ rescued a piece of hard coral (Pavona vernosa) in the sand! At the moment, all the corals looks brownish. I hope they should colored up, and regain their original color once the water parameters are in order. Today, we put in activated carbon to absorb any additional metal in the water. Now, we are just waiting for the rain to pass so that we can go out and collect some natural sea water (NSW) to do a water change.

Pavona vernosa which Hannah rescued

Pink centered zoanthids

Full tank shot

Hairy mushroom and green mushroom

Visit to Victoria University DAY 4

Today was an easy day.... Checked out of the hostel early in the morning, had a quick coffee, and off to the lab. I was excited because today will be the last day I can further tap the brains of some of the students in the lab. Unfortunately, when I reached the lab, there was no one there! People did not show up until about 10.30am. I guess it was a Friday, and everyone was just having an easier morning. I worked on my own writing, and did some last minute preparation for the presentation I am supposed to give later on in the lab meeting.

During the lab meeting, we went around the table, each person giving Simon an update on their research. I did a very short presentation on my research, and received some great feedback. It is definitely great to be with a group of people who are doing similar research! They can understand what I am doing, and can give constructive feedback. After the meeting, I had a short debrief with Simon on my trip. We had a good, short chat about advantages of being able to immerse among people who do the same research, and get ideas bouncing off each other. We decided that I should come here again sometime nearer to the end of the year, after I have gotten some data from my first experiment in Taiwan. In that way, I can present my data, and get the lab to help with some interpretation etc.

Now, I am at the Wellington airport on this network called "Wild at Heart2"! I don't really know whether I should trust the authenticity of the network with such a name! There isn't much things to do at the Wellington domestic airport! All the gates departing fo domestic flight are gathered around this small corner, and there are 10 gates! Thus, the place is always full of people. Luckily I came early through the security check, found a seat with power nearby! I could have got on an earlier flight but I am too cheap to change my flight to an earlier plane because there is an additional charge.... sigh! 2.5 more hours to boarding!

Visit to Victoria University DAY 3

Today I got some hands-on practise on the diving PAM. The theory was all nice but using the diving PAM could run into some tricky situations that can only be overcome with experience. Therefore, it was wonderful to get some great tips from Paul Fisher. He also teamed me with another PhD student, Tom who had been using the diving PAM for a long time for his research. We were PAMing some aiptasia anemone. It was great to see how the PAM really works! It is relatively easy to use, when there is no problem! So, keeping my fingers crossed and hope it is as easy PAMing the corals for my own experiment.

We got done by 3pm today, and I took the rest of the day off. I had nothing much to do, and it seemed that I was constantly in the way of the others. They needed to work on their own research, and yet they needed to take care of me. Therefore, I decided to leave the lab at around 3pm, and went around to explore Wellington central. Actually, I just ened up walking around Cuba Street. I went browsing around in this comic shop - brought back memories of when I was collecting comic books (I am sure I still have three boxes of high-value comic books at my mom's place in Singapore!). Had coffee at this cafe, Fidel - which was highly recommended by the staff at the hostel, and on various tourist website. Came back to the hostel at around 6.30pm, prepare the presentation for tomorrow's meeting, relaxed and just surfed the internet.

About 2 more months before I am leaving for Taiwan for my first experiment. Getting more nervous and excited as the dates drew nearer. In the meantime, I am still waiting eagerly for an answer from my Taiwan colleagues for the location of my lab work. Hopefully, Dr. Tang's colleague, Dr. Allen Chen would have some good news for me tomorrow. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Visit to Victoria University DAY 2

Today was a long day! Started the day discussing about my research with Simon Davy. We talked through the different parts of my research - experiment on bioindicators of stressed corals, lab experiments and field experiments. Overall, Simon was pleased with the experimental design which I came up with, but as with any advisors, he also added in more items to challenge me...more work, more thinking, more researching!

After the meeting, I learned some specific lab techniques on Symbiodinium genotyping, qPCR and DGGE. Shaun Wilkinson is Simon's PhD student, and his focus is coral Symbiodinium molecular work. Thus, he would be the best candidate to go though with me on these techniques. After the sessions with Shaun, I started learning the diving PAM theory with Paul Fisher. He is Simon's Post-doc, and he is very good with using the diving PAM. I was fortunate to learn from him because he is just done with his Pst-doc, and leaving NZ next month! I caught him just in time! I am using the diving PAM as one of my bioindicators for stressed corals, so this session is very important. We only covered the theory today, and tomorrow we would be carrying out some practical exercises.

I did not get out of the lab until about 7pm. While it seemed normal in most universities, it is considered late for New Zealand students to stay this late in universities... I was hungry because I only had a bagel for the whole day. Thus, I went to Subway for a 6-inches sandwich, but I think I got cheated! I am sure it was DEFINITELY less than 6 inches! And the guy/ server/ cashier was in such a lousy mood as well. He was impatient, unclear about his words, and just plain rude!

Looking forward to tomorrow to learn the practical aspect of the diving PAM. Paul had also indicated that we can talk more about my research tomorrow or Friday when we have more time. So far it is a really good experience!

Visit to Victoria University DAY 1

The plan was to visit my co-supervisor, Dr. Simon Davy these four days. He is the Head of the School of Biological Science in Victoria University in Wellington. The purpose of the visit is to learn some new techniques, specifically the Diving PAM and differentiating different clades of symbiodinum. These knowledges will be extremely useful when conducting my research in Taiwan during June/ July 2013.

The flight took slightly longer than an hour, and I arrived in Wellington around 3pm. Although I am excited, my throbbing headache made the flight and journey pretty painful. I took the bus into the city which cost $9! According to Simon Davy, the university is on top of the hill in the middle of the city. And he is RIGHT!... It is a hill, and it makes the hill at University of Auckland looks like a gentle slope! The hill is literally 60 deg inclination, and there are (I swear!) at least 100 steps to the university. Enduring the headache, the cold weather, I finally reached the school after climbing uphill for more than 20 minutes...

I had a brief meeting with Simon, get a tour of the lab. The set-up in the lab is very nice, with a lot of emphasis on coral physiology work. We arranged with his Post-doc, Dr. Paul Fisher on a suitable time to learn the Diving PAM tomorrow. We also came up with a rough plan for the next three days.

The walk down the slope was not exactly easy as well! I had hurt my back a couple of days back, the walking down the slope put a strain on it. There was just a bit of discomfort with every step I took. Checked in to Nomad's Backpackers (which is in the middle of the city) for the night. I am sharing the room with 9 other people. Fortunately, everyone is very quiet. Most of them are on their laptops, either "talking" to their friends, watching movies, or writing on their travel journal. My head is still throbbing... I think I am going to have an early night today so that I have enough brain power to soak in all the new knowledge the next few days.