How to get started, right but cheap?

[Jude]

I have a used Nikon S-series scope in the mail and intend to begin working on protozoa and other pond life.

I would like to know what stains, slides, coverslips, and other ancillary items should be on hand, but I don't want to spend a lot of money on some fancy kit that doesn't have much in it. These seem to abound.

This stain kit seems to be about the best deal I can find:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IB ... 46SR&psc=1

Is this "bang for the buck for protozoa", or will something simpler and cheaper work as well?

What about slides?

Ground, beveled edges?

Concave wells?

Any and all advice greatly appreciated!

[MicroBob]

Hi Jude,
I would suggest that you have a look at the posted photos and videos in this forum. You will see that nearly no stains are used for observing pond life. The kit you linked seems to be assembled to give a nice range of colours for the advertisment pictures but for most of these chemicals I don't see any use in microscopy.

This would be a good starter kit for pond observing:

- plancton net or sieve with about 50µ mesh size
- pipette
- ordinary slides, don't need to be ground, should not be too old as they tend to deteriorate inside the box
- ordinary cover slips 18x18mm
- starter literature to identify what you find
- plancton aquarium (2 liter glass jar, 2cm soil, paper tissue, fine gravel, pond water, water plants) to release samples in


Bob

[BramHuntingNematodes]

A note about the cover glass I see you are on Amazon looking at some stain you might see the box of Amscope cover slips-- really cheap and convenient. I think Nikon uses #1.5 slides at about .17 mm. The Amscope cover glass are frequently much thinner, like .12 mm. This probably works but will cause some very noticeable problems in high power dry objectives (think 40-47x). As this is a useful magnification for pond critters, you might do well to skip those cheap slips and look for something better suited to your objectives. Heck, I don't know if the Amscope slips are optimal even for the Amscope objectives.

[Jude]

Thanks BHN & Bob.

Dummy me, I figured this was a message board, didn't even know there were videos.

$28 not wasted on useless stains!