New Drop Checker

[donkey]

Hi all
a few days ago i got my new drop checker from a guy off Ebay .and i just want to make sure i have it working right .ok this is what i did .i could not get hold of any distilled water for love nor money . in the end i got some De-ionised water from a car shop .for £1.99 a Litre. i then found i could get a Litre bottle from wilkinsons for 54p just my luck .Anyway i mixed some bicarbonate of soda in with the de-ionised water till i got a reading of 4 degrees KH water . i checked this with my KH test kit . i then added 3 drops from my PH kit till it went a dark blue color . heres some pics of how it looks going through its color change .do you guys think this looks ok .

the first pic is just after it was put in the tank . the next one is it starting to go from blue to green after about 2 hours . the last one is after 3 hours

 

[Dave Spencer]

CO2 droppers are nice bits of kit, aren`t they? I have one for each tank.

How much reference solution did you make? The more you make, the smaller the margin for error. You are probably getting a fairly accurate reading, but seeing as you have invested in a dropper, why not go the whole hog and make as accurate a reference solution as you can?

Cheers, Dave.

 

[donkey]

Hi Dave .well i ended up the just under a Litre of the reference solution .the car shop i got my De-ionised water from only had it in 1 litre bottle .would it have been better to get hold of say a 5 litre bottle ? to make the reference solution . this seems a lot of reference solution i would think that would last about 200 years . would this not go off ?

 

[Dave Spencer]

Here is the evolution of the system I use:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=169942

Dave.

 

[donkey]

Thanks for the link Dave .i see some people are baking the bi-carb before using it and then adding it to 5 Litres of water .are you doing it this way Dave .and is it worth the extra work .

 

[JamesC]

Thanks for the link Dave .i see some people are baking the bi-carb before using it and then adding it to 5 Litres of water .are you doing it this way Dave .and is it worth the extra work .

This method is now wrong as baking soda converts to sodium carbonate when heated. Now we add 6.0g of baking soda to 5 litres of DI water and then 10ml of this solution is added to 90ml of DI water to make the KH4 solution.

Is it worth it? Yes IMO as you only do it once and you know you have an accurate KH4 reference solution. I bet it is also quicker than trying to do it with test kits.

James

 

[donkey]

Thanks James . so i dont need to bake the bi-carb at all

 

[Dave Spencer]

I used the old baking method at low temps and 4.99g of BiCarb, and mixed up a solution at work that I believe is very accurate.

However, using 6g unbaked is the latest thinking that is being used. I didn`t realise MrG`s thread had not been updated with this.

Cheers, Dave.

 

[donkey]

Thanks Dave .so thats 6g unbaked to 5 Litres of water

 

[JamesC]

Don't know where the 4.99g came from but I think Tom Barr picked it from somewhere. Whoever did the calculations got it wrong so if you have used 4.99g then your KH solution will have a KH of about 3.3. 6.0g is the corect amount to use and gives a KH of 4. I even got the old brain functioning again a checked the figures and 6.0g is right.

James

 

[SuperColey1]

From reading the other thread with the link that is up above, it was after baking the solution that 4.99?? grams should be used so I guess this has now been superceded by the 6g unbaked.

I am following this thread with quite a high interest because I bought a drop checker which arrived yesterday (One of the egg shaped ones) off ebay, and like George I'm a bit dissapointed the sucker is black rather than clear(ish).

It came with a solution and I followed the instructions which were to put 5 drops of solution (which is red) and then fill to line (what line) with tank water, so I filled it with 5ml of tank water, carefully turned it the right way up, and in it went. After 1 minute it was green, after 1 hour it was dark green and this morning it was bordering on very dark green/very dark blue. I have 2 Nutrafins wired to one ladder (bubble counter, check valve and ceramic diffusor on order) and the 2 produce 1 bubble per second.

I guess the dark Green/Dark Blue reading now means that the CO2 is too low (although it is obviously not going to be as accurate as the Bicarb and DI method).

Therefore I have asked the lab at work if they can weigh out for me exactly 6g of bicarb, so I can give this a go.

p.s. noticed when I put the drop checker in that my 21mnth old son had turned the filter off, may have been off for a long while, and all the poop had gathered where it fell, whereas when it is on the current from the spray bar moves all the poop from the sand at the front, round the sides and back where the plants are. I guess that even though I have a too low reading then because the filter was off I would have more CO2 than if the filter was on, giving me a false reading.

Sorry to jump in on a thread again, I seem to be doing this quite often at the moment. I guess I'm getting into this at the same time as several others. I blame George, Jimboo and all the other planted genius'

Andy

 

[donkey]

Hi Andy .no problem about jumping in on the thread its all good stuff mate . my drop checker came with a clear sucker and a small bottle of solution . i never used the ph stuff that came with my dropper i used my own .i never even got instructions with mine .anyway i dont think i would trust the readings you got if you used the water from your tank as a referenced KH solution . i have just sent a email to Richard from Aqua Essentials and he tells me that he will be selling the pre mixed referenced KH solution soon in about 10 days time .so if anyone out there cant mix there own it might be worth waiting till Aqua Essentials start selling the pre mixed referenced KH solution .i think i will wait till Aqua Essentials are ready to sell it and buy it from them instead of mixing my own .i think it will work out cheaper in the long run

 

[SuperColey1]

Do AE do translucent suckers as well. lol, If not does anyone know where I can get one to replace this bloody great indiscreet black one.

Do you think it will be cheaper from AE?

After all if 5L Deionised water is £0.54p from Wilko (on someone elses thread) and 6g Bicarb is £0.024 (guess) and this makes 5L 40Kh solution. Once diluted and say you change 5ml every week in your drop checker this means the 5L of solution will last 500 weeks.

I know we're probs talking a shelf life for accuracy, but we are talking a long time for the price of 2 bottles of water and 1 tub of Bicarb. Probs maximum £2 per six months, if you decide to start a fresh solution every 6 months.

Oh and there weren't really any instructions on mine either, just on the back little bottle of solution (which had leaked) it said put 5 drops into the checker, then fill with tank water to the line (There is no line). There was also a colour chart (which you couldn't see the colours due to the bottle leaking on the paper) which had the ph and colours for each one.

(This was wrong because the colour in the checker is between 7 and 8 Ph, whereas my normal Ph was 7.2 before Co2 and is now 6.2-6.5, Can't wait to try out this BiCarb solution tomorrow night)

Andy

 

[donkey]

Hi
not sure if AE sell clear suckers but send Richard an email he might be able to help ya out .and its 54p a litre from Wilkos so i would need to buy 6 litres in all 5 for the mix then take 10ml and add that to 90ml to give you your 100ml mix .and that would last u ages .so this means you still have about 5 litres just sitting there for years doing nothing .but im not to sure if this might go off over the years . i did ask Richard over at AE about a price and he said he had not worked one out yet but he did say it wont be much

 

[SuperColey1]

I must learn to read these posts instead of scanning them, always making mistakes. lol