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Best drop checker liquid?

Frenchi

Member
Joined
15 Jan 2014
Messages
671
Location
West Yorkshire
Hi
What's the most reliable drop checker liquid please .. I have been using jbl for a long time now but it's not cheap.
Any other reliable liquid at a cheaper price please?

Thanks

Mick


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I think I'm right in saying that the JBL liquid is just 4dkh water mixed with Bromothymol blue? Have a look on ebay, probably be cheaper to buy them separately. All you do is fill the DC to the normal level, then add 2 drops of bromo blue and give it a little shake.
 
Beat me too it. :D this one.
6c2bceb0b88df7e74dc4f24f76e9f719.jpg
It will last for ever, I got these second hand from forsales on here. Previously I was using jbl but it was a bit too pricey, especially if you have a few tanks.
 
I think someone has asked that question recently good question, all that I remember is that I took from the thread I'd been wasting the stuff changing regularly. Every few weeks. Im going to do mine when I knock the dc off the side of the tank and it fills with tank water , co2 art say minimum of one a mth to change it. I'd still like to know weather yoy need to or weather it is just to make you use it all up:D
 
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Change it when it starts to go clear. Agreed, changing every month is a waste - marketing ploy to get you to buy more often.
 
Cool thanks guys :) I've just had a bit of a disaster in my big tank :( the solution had been in there for about a month or so but I have been messing around with the flow, I added a new filter but it was disturbing the surface a little more than usual, I looked at the drop checker and it was the darker colour to normal so I upped the bubble rate by milliseconds, no change so I upped it again, still no change.. Apart from my fish gasping and 2 deaths:( .. I changed the fluid reset everything and added an extra jbl checker .. All is perfect now .. So just be careful guys


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I change it when I clean the filter which is once a month... But sometimes I miss a change so it lasts 2 months.

Jordi

Me too but i clean my filter every 6months too ;) I have a hang on one but luckly i haven't managed to drop it or contaminate it yet
 
Bromothymol blue, the indicator used is decomposed by light, which is why it fades in the drop checker. So lifetime depends on drop checker type and power of lighting.

I found it lasts ages and ages longer in this type of drop checker (JBL), being partially shaded from the light, compared my glass drop checker.
2894705820038170470S600x600Q85.jpg
 
Sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) is really cheap, and the workings are in this thread <"4dKH Solution">.
I think most hobbyists cannot measure accurately the amount of NaHCO3 needed (unless you use a lot of water for making your solutions) and the resulting stock solution will last for so long that you will never know if it is still ok... I did it once but then I bought even an already mixed Bromothymol-4dKH solution as I only change my DC liquid from time to time (I said every month in a previous post but to be honest it is rather every two-three months) and I use just a few drops. I'm still using the first pre-mixed solution I bought more than one year ago.

Jordi
 
Hi all,
I think most hobbyists cannot measure accurately the amount of NaHCO3 needed
Point taken, I'd always prefer to work with larger amounts and dilute down. This should be OK for any-one with digital kitchen scales.
How about starting with 6g in in 500cm3? This would be a 400 dKH stock solution, but this is still quite a dilute solution, so 1cm3 would weight ~1g meaning that you don't need to be able to measure volumes accurately. Dilution by 5 in 500 (stock sol:H2O) would give you 4dKH, and you would only need a balance that can weigh 5g fairly accurately.

You could always use KHCO3 and used the spare as a potassium source. The workings are very slightly different for KHCO3, but details here: <http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/RO.htm>.

cheers Darrel
 
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