[Nhcoll-l] What water to use with spirit specimens

[Simon Moore]

Hi Tonya, I have found it okay to use tap for diluting formalin whereas alcohol produces a precipitate with tap so I use deionised or RO for diluting alcohol.
Best, Simon 

Sent from my Windows 10 device

From: Tonya.Haff at csiro.au
Sent: 27 September 2018 03:31
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] What water to use with spirit specimens

Hello all,

I’ve been thinking about the best water to use for diluting ETOH down to 70% for storing formalin-preserved vertebrates.  Early on I was taught to only every use deionised water, to avoid the introduction of other chemicals, impurities, etc. However,  I have recently heard that using good quality tap water may be in fact better than deionised/demineralised water, as deionised water is not in a stable state and so can in fact pull minerals out of the specimen. I would love to hear what other people use and what your thoughts may be on this. Thanks!

Cheers,

Tonya

---------------------------------------------------------
Dr Tonya Haff
Collections Manager
Australian National Wildlife Collection
National Research Collections Australia, CSIRO
Canberra, Australia 
Phone: (+61) 02 62421566


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