Ninth Internship Experience

On March 21, I visited the HMNS for my internship. I learned a lot this time because we built the quarantine tank. We built this tank so that we could have a place to put the clean rocks. It also is to help get rid of all of parasites in the tank because we can put chemicals into the quarantine tank that we can't out in the normal tank. The quarantine tank is much more simple than the normal tank because it just has a pump and filter. The normal tank has many more parts to it which is why we can't put many chemicals in it(they could ruin these parts). After building the quarantine tank, we cleaned another tank which contained a lungfish. This tank was covered in algae because it had not been cleaned in a very long time. The staff don't clean the tank that often because the lungfish can survive in many different conditions. It is very adaptable which is why it can survive in many different conditions. 

I then took water tests of the tank that is full of parasites and the quarantine tank. I tested their ammonia levels, carbon hardenss, nitrite levels, ph, and salinity levels. The ammonia levels in the quarantine tank were much higher than the other tank. This is because when you first put water in a new tank this ammonia levels spike. All of the of conditions of the water were the same. Since the ammonia levels will go back down in about a week, next time I go to my internship, we are planning on putting some rocks in the quarantine tank.

We then went on to do a water change on the touch tank that is upstairs. We pumped out about half of the water in the tank into a big bin. We then put in water that had been mixed to match the conditions of the water already in the tank. We let the water circulate a few times, and then it was time for me to go. Overall, I learned a lot this internship time because we did so much.