Procedure for Filtering Fen Water

*Do this procedure in Room 110, where you will find all the necessary materials.

Materials:

• 2000 mL flask with a vacuum spout (See Figure 1: E)
• vacuum hose (See Figure 1: G)
• filter spout (See Figure 1: A)
• 300 mL open-ended glass (See Figure 1: B)
• blue clamp (to clamp the filter spout to the open-ended glass) (See Figure: C)
• 47 mm circular filters (See Figure 1: D)
• a squirt bottle of de-ionized (DI) water
• 50 mL sample tube bottles with caps (9 bottles for each fen sample: label all tubes with the appropriate fen name and label 3 bottles "ICP", 3 bottles "IC", and 3 bottles "Nutrient")
  ex. "Fen Name" ICP #1 "Fen Name" IC #1 "Fen Name" Nutrient #1
  "Fen Name" ICP #2 "Fen Name" IC #2 "Fen Name" Nutrient #2
  "Fen Name" ICP #3 "Fen Name" IC #3 "Fen Name" Nutrient #3
• Zip lock bags
• Sharpe Permanent Pen (one that does not wash off with water)
• Small funnel
• Tweezers (See Figure 1: F)

Procedure:

• Apply DI to the filter paper to hold it in place after you have placed the filter onto the spout using the tweezers.
• Place the open-ended glass on top of the filter spout and make sure that everything lines up and that the filter is in the center and clamp them together.
• Hook up the 2000 mL flask to a vacuum hose and hook up the hose to the vacuum nozzle (This nozzle has the yellow handle that says vacuum), which is located on the lab counters.
• Turn on the vacuum and begin pouring the fen water into the 300 mL open-ended glass. The water should poor right through and the sediment should get trapped in the filter.
• After all the water has filtered into the flask, shut off the vacuum.
• Disassemble the apparatus.
• Place the dirty filter in a labeled zip lock bag. (Make sure the correct fen name is labeled on the bag).
• Pour the filtered water into the 9 sample tubes, each tube being labeled correctly. Use a funnel to avoid spilling.
• Pour the rest of the water back into the 1000 mL sample bottle and refrigerate it.
• Rinse all of the glassware and the funnel three times with the large supply of DI which is on the very top the of lab counter.
• Repeat the procedure for all of the water samples. (You should do 7 samples in all…5 fen samples….Taylor Seep, Taylor Fen, Taylor Shrub, Savadge Fen, Bartlette Fen…..plus 2 Jacoby Creek samples).
• *If you are not analyzing the samples right away, add .33 microliters of nitric acid to each ICP sample to preserve them….DO THIS UNDER THE HOOD WITH GLOVES ON….Nitric acid’s fumes are very potent and if it spills on your skin, it will burn and make your skin turn yellow. If it does spill on your skin, wash it off thoroughly.

Figure 1
Figure 2