Karay
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I quickly threw together a drop checker today with things I had laying around the house. 
It's upside down there.
Starting to turn green.
It's upside down there.
Starting to turn green.
My own diy drop checker
- Thread starter Karay
- Start date
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OP
OP
Karay
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Thank you. It is working well. I was also concerned about getting 4dKH solution correct but is seems to be indicating fine. I enjoy the diy aspect of this hobby just as much as the plants and fish! 
hippy guy
Aquarium Advice Addict
Nice job!
20long hitech/10gal shrimptech
20long hitech/10gal shrimptech
OwduaNM
Aquarium Advice Activist
What exactly is a drop checker?
hippy guy
Aquarium Advice Addict
It is a container placed inside the tank with one of several various solutions inside. The general purpose of the solutions is to show the level of co2 in the tank.
You can buy indicator solutions, or DIY your own, which probobly works better.
20long hitech/10gal shrimptech
You can buy indicator solutions, or DIY your own, which probobly works better.
20long hitech/10gal shrimptech
OP
OP
Karay
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I made my own solution as well but have say that I'm not 100% sure of its accuracy as I don't have a scale that goes into the decimal points. It's indicating green and the plants are pearling so that's a plus
If you are using a standard KH test you can double the accuracy by doubling the sample size of the water so that each drop is half a degree. You can further improve it to 0.25 degrees by quadrupling the sample size.
OP
OP
Karay
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Ok now I'm confused ? which is easy to do. I made the solution by mixing 3 liters of distilled water with 3.6grams of baking soda giving me 40 dKH solution I them took 50 ml of the 40 dKH and diluted it with 450ml of distilled water giving me 4 dKH. I put 5ml in the drop checker and added 3 drops of ph tester. That gave me blue which turned to blue/green when adding the co2 to the tank. Of course trying to find the link to the info again is not easy task.
Alan79
Aquarium Advice Freak
Is this the link Karay? I just read that and it seems like the info you used.
DIY: 4dkh standard solution for drop checker
DIY: 4dkh standard solution for drop checker
OP
OP
Karay
Aquarium Advice FINatic
That's exactly where I found how the prep the solution. As you can see to doesn't say what drops to put in it to cause the reaction with the co2 so I found that elsewhere. That sited stated 3 drop of ph indicator per 5ml which I did. So am I to use ph indicator or kh?
