Old pH Calibration Solutions Wanted

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It was recently suggested to me by Lou Dell (owner of Amercian Marine/Pinpoint) that some of the commercial calibration buffers sold to aquarists may not be very accurate, especially the pH 10 solutions (which are known to suck CO2 from the air and drop in pH).

So I thought that I would buy a bunch of pH calibration buffers and test them (then publish the results at reefkeeping.com ). At the same time, I thought it might be worth testing some old (but unopened) buffers that folks might have around. Any brands are acceptable.

Anyone have an old but still sealed calibration fluid that they'd be willing to donate for the test? Especially pH 10?

TIA

Randy

 

[Aquadiva]

Randy,

Are you interested in 1/2 used bottles (Coralife) of ph 7 or 10 solutions. This is a very timely topic for me, as I have recently had a very difficult time calibrating my pinpoint meter. You are more than welcome to have these if you would like....otherwise, they will probably got dumped.

BTW, bottles were purchase less than two weeks ago.

Linda

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thanks very much, but I think I better stick to sealed bottles. I wouldn't want to publish something critical of a manufacturer if someone had simply contaminated it with another fluid somehow (like carryover on a pH probe tip).

 

[Aquadiva]

That's what I thought, but I thought I would make the offer anyway. Any idea on a time frame? You scientist types always seem to measure things in months and years, rather than days and weeks.

Linda

 

[JustDavidP]

I'll search all my SeaChem test kits. I'm sure I have some.

Dave

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You scientist types always seem to measure things in months and years, rather than days and weeks.

Well, to be honest, I was thinking of sending in the article in mid January, so testing would take place over the next couple of months.

It can be hard to come up with an article that I'm satisfied with every month, so I try to plan out at least a couple of months in advance.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Any idea on a time frame? You scientist types always seem to measure things in months and years, rather than days and weeks.

Perhaps I musunderstood the question in my answer above. I'm looking for samples old enough that they may have gone "bad". So 6 months to 10 years old.