Hi Lauren, Thanks so much for your reply. I've seen the precipitate you refer to, but this looks really different. Many of the flakes are large (5-7 mm) and were at the bottom of the bottle. The bottles were previously unopened and I didn't notice the flakes until preparing fixative for a study this morning. Am wondering if adding NaOH will help (similar to dissolving paraformaldehyde for EM fixative).
Thanks again! Carla Carla Conway Histology Technician Western Fisheries Research Center, USGS 6505 N.E. 65th Street Seattle, WA 98115-5016 USA Phone: 206-526-2042 Fax: 206-526-6654 E-mail: cmcon...@usgs.gov ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Lauren Sweeney <lmari...@uga.edu> Date: Tue, Aug 22, 2017 at 8:02 AM Subject: RE: [Histonet] Dissolving precipitate in formalin? To: "Conway, Carla" <cmcon...@usgs.gov> I've always been told that that is the salts flaking out and that you can't dissolve them, usually found accumulating around the spigot or opening of wherever it is poured out, we always just brush it off and if re-using the container, can dissolve after running under very hot tap water. Hope this helps! -----Original Message----- From: Conway, Carla via Histonet [mailto:histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu] Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2017 10:39 AM To: histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu Subject: [Histonet] Dissolving precipitate in formalin? Hello, I have 4 bottles of formalin which contain white flakes of paraformaldehyde precipitate. I tried to dissolve the flakes by heating to ~65 degrees C for 45 min (with stirring). Has anyone been successful in dissolving this type of precipitate? Thanks very much, Carla Carla Conway Histology Technician Western Fisheries Research Center, USGS 6505 N.E. 65th Street Seattle, WA 98115-5016 USA Phone: 206-526-2042 Fax: 206-526-6654 E-mail: cmcon...@usgs.gov _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet