Dissolving methylparaben/nipagin

[oviparous]

Hello all,

I want to use Methyl 4-hydroxybenzoate as a preservative in my macro and micro mix. The recommendation is 1gr/l.
But i find very little info on how to dissolve it. It has to be dissolved in ethanol because that is the only way it will dissolve and become active, as i read. But i can't find how much ethanol is needed to dissolve 1gram.
Anyone?

 

[alto]

Reference - just scroll down for the Solubility

 

[zozo]

But it also has antifungal properties, so be sure it's safe to use for aquatic life forms.. Like antifungal in kit is a nono..

 

[oviparous]

Thanks!

There are commercial fertilizers like Drak that use it in their mixture, and it is considered biodegradable and safe.
Hope the fish don't get drunk from the ethanol.

 

[zozo]

few months back i had a fluke infection.. Used Praziquantel from Dr. Bayer. this is also dissolved in ethanol, i noticed after the second dose that the green algea like it they got brighter in color and started blooming. So rather go easy on the alcohol.. I don't know the mix ratio of that bayer prazi stufff. But it contaisn ethanol.

 

[alto]

Solubility in ethanol is 52g mp in 100 g ethanol (which has a density of 0.789g/ml at 20C, so 100g X 1ml/0.789g ~ 127ml), so assuming you have the "dry powder" & a decent scale, measure
41g methylparaben & add 100 ml ethanol - this will be close to the point of saturation, so add another 100 ml ethanol for an "easier" working solution, which now contains 0.2 g mp/ml, so you want to add 5ml to your 1litre of fertilizer mix.

If you have a premeasured 1g amount of mp (not many home scales are meant to accurately measure these amounts), then just dissolve in 5 ml ethanol (again this should give you "easy" solubility) etc

 

[oviparous]

Thanks Alto!

I dissolved 25gr. in 100ml ethanol 96%.
So now I've got about 115ml solution, going to measure it accurately tomorrow.
115 : 25 = 4,6 So 1gram in 4,6ml.