drop checker
 

what is a good solution to use for a drop checker i made a d.i.y and not sure what to use i bought some distilled water and a ph test kit is that all i need or or do i need more

To accurately estimate the levels of CO2 within your aquarium, you have to use a reference solution whereby bicarbonates are the only thing contributing to kH. Most people choose to use a 4 dkH reference solution, along with the pH indicator (bromothymol blue) that you already mentioned, as the indicator will turn green when there is about 30 ppm of CO2 in the water.

is there a recipe that i could use or would it be easier to just buy it

It's a fairly simple solution to make. The catch is that you need to be able to measure fairly accurately...

Mix 6 grams of sodium bicarb (Baking Soda) into 1 liter of distilled water. You'll have a liter of 200 dKH solution. Now all you have to do is dilute the solution. Take 10 milliliters of the 200 dKH solution and mix that with 490 milliliters of distilled water. This gives you 500 milliliters of your 4 dKH reference solution. Of course, you'll need the pH indicator solution (bromthymol blue...i believe) to make it all work. Add the 4 dKH solution to your drop checker and put in a couple drops of the blue pH indicator stuff.

I've never had issues with this recipe. However, the fact that I am exposed to a bio-chemical laboratory on a daily basis helps.

Good luck to you!

Thanks for the recipe!

You should be able to do it on a much smaller scale then ;)

im kinda a nubie at this whole co2 thing is there a simpler version or should i just buy the stuff online for 5 bucks i have a rather small tank thankx though

Just buy it. It's cheap enough that you don't need to play around making it.

yah thats probably what im gonna do i dont think i can find it at petco so ill probably order it online

Good point! I guess that I'll never have to worry about making that particular solution again, though.:icon_wink

How much bromthymol blue would I need to add to the solution? I think I may have access to all of this in my pharmaceuticals lab.

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4-5 drops

Got my 4dkh solution on Ebay - $7.50 shipped for a bottle that will probably last forever.

It doesn't matter how many drops you add. Add enough so that the colour is easy to see, but not so much that the solution is opaque.

4-5 drops is usually enough, as nilocg mentioned.