JamesC
Member
There are lots of posts around how to make your own 4dKH solution and how important it is to be accurate, but does it really matter?
When you add a couple of mls to your drop checker and then add some drops of bromothymol blue you are in effect diluting the 4dKH solution. I've seen it mentioned on here that some people add a 50:50 mix of 4dKH solution and bromothymol blue so in effectt making the solution 2dKH. This could explain why some people run their drop checkers yellow and don't have any livestock issues.
I always try to have as much solution with as little bromothymol blue as possible so as to minimise the diluting of the 4dKH solution. As long as people are aware of the drop checkers limitations then they are a valuble piece of equipment, just don't believe that the colour you have is a direct value for CO2. They are great for a quick and easy check to make sure that CO2 is working OK. From experience I know what the colour of my drop checker should be so I just need to have a quick glance at it every now and again. To achieve this though I did have to experiment with different flow rates.
So does accuracy matter? Probably not that much as long as it's close. What does matter is that it is consistant so the colour of the drop checker remains the same after each change of solution. I've made up a litre of the 4dKH solution which should last me years.
Food for thought
James
When you add a couple of mls to your drop checker and then add some drops of bromothymol blue you are in effect diluting the 4dKH solution. I've seen it mentioned on here that some people add a 50:50 mix of 4dKH solution and bromothymol blue so in effectt making the solution 2dKH. This could explain why some people run their drop checkers yellow and don't have any livestock issues.
I always try to have as much solution with as little bromothymol blue as possible so as to minimise the diluting of the 4dKH solution. As long as people are aware of the drop checkers limitations then they are a valuble piece of equipment, just don't believe that the colour you have is a direct value for CO2. They are great for a quick and easy check to make sure that CO2 is working OK. From experience I know what the colour of my drop checker should be so I just need to have a quick glance at it every now and again. To achieve this though I did have to experiment with different flow rates.
So does accuracy matter? Probably not that much as long as it's close. What does matter is that it is consistant so the colour of the drop checker remains the same after each change of solution. I've made up a litre of the 4dKH solution which should last me years.
Food for thought
James