Procedure:
• Prepare the trays with agar jars and filter papers shortly before deployment. This could
be the night before, but don't do it much further in advance as the agar shrinks on
exposure to air.
• Rinse off the lids and keep them handy. You'll need them if the media is to be re-used.
• Select a suitable location in the river. If monitoring at multiple sites, ensure that depth
and velocities are the same at all deployment points (see Section 6.6.2).
• Once your limitations for water depth, velocity, shade, etc. have been set, then choose
more-or-less stable locations on the stream bed.
• Make a depression in the bed (if bed material is suitable for this) and secure the trays,
tags upstream, using a warratah wired onto the upstream handle. If in doubt, secure
the downstream handle as well.