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Drop Checker Fluid

2K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  GrantF 
#1 ·
Hi all,

I'm halfway through the process of cycling (fishless) my first pressurized CO2 tank. I bought the UP Aqua Drop Checker Solution a little while back thinking that all I had to do was put 5 drops of the solution into the drop checker and then put it into the tank. I now just realized that people add a 4 dKh water solution and a few drops of pH test solution into their drop checkers. My question is then: is the drop checker fluid that I bought purely a pH test solution or is it something different?

Also, if I make my own drop checker solution with DIY 4 dKh solution and pH test drops, does it matter how much of the solution and how many of the drops I put in the drop checker?

Thanks
 
#2 ·
If you make your own 4 dKH water be sure you start with distilled water, not tap or tank water. You don't need it to be extremely accurate. If it is between 3.5 and 4.5 dKH that is accurate enough. Fill the drop checker bulb with that, then add 2-3 drops of pH test reagent to that. The pH test kit has to be the one where the color chart goes from about 6 pH at yellow to about 7.5 pH at blue. That means the solution is a bromothymol blue indicator solution. If you add to few drops you get such faint colors it is hard to judge the color. If you add too much, the solution is cloudy and is again hard to judge the color. The goal is to get a clear solution, with easy to see colors.
 
#4 ·
The drop checker fluid you have is probably a pre-mixed solution (of unknown quality) - it should definitely not be yellow.

The pH indicator solution is bromothymol blue, which is blue, as you mentioned.

The 4 dkH water is clear.

A premixed solution of the two should be blue.
 
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