Once again the science gods have struck against me. My mentor and I were trying the membrane distillation system to grow crystals on the membranes; BUT when I got here this morning our feed solution container was empty and all over the floor. A piece of tubing came undone and it simply pumped the solution all over the floor. After cleaning it up I put the tubing back in, made another solution and came to the office. When I went back in (about 10 minutes) the tubing had popped off again and my solution was all over the floor again. I cleaned the floor, shoved the tubing in even harder and made another solution. I then went to the restroom and came back and once again my solution was all over the floor. I figured by now my readings were useless. I went ahead cleaned the floor and shut off the machine. I went and got coffee and am trying to figure out what to do now. I ran into the RET-U that is also using the machine as he is suppose to use it today at noon. I warned him of the problem and told him that I loosed the bracket holding the tubing together shoved the tubing pieces together and tightened it but have no idea if that is going to work. My mentor has a doctor appointment so hopefully after the lab tours today we can check if we got any crystal growth before the incidents occurred. Hope everyone else is more successful in their experiments!
Real research… Troubleshooting needed. Can you use a tube clap to secure the tubing? Good Luck
Yeah that is what I ended up doing. Unfortunately the machine was scheduled for someone else’s use so we had to take our membrane out and flush the system for the next group to use it. We are drying the membrane and we will check tomorrow if any crystals grew on the membrane or not.
Sorry about your experiment Courtney. My mentor talked about the science gods earlier this week, she joked and said we needed to make a “sacrifice” lol fingers crossed it goes well next time!
I know how you feel- the computer science gods haven’t been very helpful this week as well. I’m wondering if the tubes falling is a common problem. What solutions did you come up with? I know someone else advised that you use another tube- what would using tape? Would that be inappropriate?