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Re: Tried glycerin to slow down fast movers

Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2019 5:52 am
by mnmyco
For methylcellulose, bring water to near boil and add in metheylcellulose. Do this while mixing and mix rapidly until no large clumps can be see. This prevents clumping as methylcellulose is actually insoluble at higher temps. Cool with rapid, constant stirring and you will get a nice solution. Methylcellulose is more soluble at lower temps, so it will typically gel on the outside in less than near boiling water and become a huge pain to get into solution.

I make a 2.5% stock and the final solution on the slide should be .5% or so for use.

Re: Tried glycerin to slow down fast movers

Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2019 1:17 pm
by mintakax
75RR wrote:
Tue Oct 08, 2019 5:30 am
mintakax wrote:
Tue Oct 08, 2019 5:22 am

For the MC I mixed 50/50, 1.5% MC and spring water. Under the stereo scope I could see the organisms swimming around in the tiny drop of sample water surrounded by the MC mixture. When I put a cover on and the suspensions mixed, there was no movement of the parameciums and high magnification confirmed they were dead. This happened twice.
Could it have been the spring water or the MC or my technique ?
What is the source of your methyl cellulose? See quote below ...
tgss wrote:
Sun May 26, 2019 12:03 pm
Note that, as used in wallpaper paste, it typically has a fungicide added.
Tom
See link: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6752&p=60342&hilit#p60342
Yes, I should have stated the source:
https://www.homesciencetools.com/produc ... ose-30-ml/
Its a product made for slowing down protozoa, although how this was made, I can not be sure. One would think this is a reputable source.

Re: Tried glycerin to slow down fast movers

Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2019 1:38 pm
by 75RR
I am sure that source is fine. Just thought that you might have mixed your own

Re: Tried glycerin to slow down fast movers

Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2019 2:32 pm
by mintakax
75RR wrote:
Tue Oct 08, 2019 1:38 pm
I am sure that source is fine. Just thought that you might have mixed your own
I'm not sure if it matters, but I checked the ingredients on the bottle and they are:
water, MC, and salicylic acid. Not sure about the purpose (or effect) of the last ingredient.

Re: Tried glycerin to slow down fast movers

Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2019 2:44 pm
by 75RR
I'm not sure if it matters, but I checked the ingredients on the bottle and they are:
water, MC, and salicylic acid. Not sure about the purpose (or effect) of the last ingredient.
It seems to have quite a lot of uses, among them:

"Salicylic acid is used as a food preservative, a bactericidal and an antiseptic.[15] " :shock:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salicylic_acid

I am sure there is a moral there somewhere about making assumptions:
75RR wrote:
Tue Oct 08, 2019 1:38 pm
I am sure that source is fine.
:oops:

Re: Tried glycerin to slow down fast movers

Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2019 4:27 pm
by mintakax
Here is an example where I questioned whether or not the PSH jelly was doing any slowing down. I don't know how fast this organism (P.Caudatum ?) normally travels but it was quite a "video game " sensation to have one hand on the fine focus and two fingers of the other hand on each of the x-y stage controls trying to keep it centered and focused.

https://vimeo.com/365075633

Re: Tried glycerin to slow down fast movers

Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2019 3:49 pm
by mintakax
I experimented some more with the MC solution, and did not have the same tragic results as the first two times. What I did find is that the protist were slowed down, but due to the increased vertical thickness under the slide cover, they were swimming in and out of focus so much I was unable to record them. I am using #0 slide covers so maybe their weight isn't sufficient to compress the more viscous media ?
I've given up on the PSH.