I need advice on how to maintain the water bath in my cell culture incubator. What materials or methods should I use? I have to use Aquaguard 1, but I see that it has been discontinued. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
If the incubator is made from stainless steel, you can use diluted copper sulfate (0.1% m/v or so) to prevent microbial growth. Or use a tray made from stainless steel. If it is made from copper, just use dd autoclaved water.
Hello Denise Hiltonrg
Use of deionized or ultrapure type 1 water is very aggressive because it contains few ions as a result the water will actively pull ions from the stainless steel, pure copper, glass door and other incubator components, causing pitting and corrosion. On the other hand, RO water can vary significantly in terms of quality.
Thus the best results are obtained using double distilled, 0.1um filter sterilized water with a pH between 7 and 9. Highly pure water can be slightly acidic because carbon dioxide in the air readily dissolves in it, forming weak carbonic acid. This can lead to corrosion. The pH of 7-9 of water will help to compensate for the carbon dioxide.
For best operation and long life, a resistivity of 50 K-1 M Ohm-cm is recommended. If the water you use falls outside these parameters (namely, resistivity of 50 K-1 M Ohm-cm with pH 7-9), then you need to add a sterile solution of weak sodium bicarbonate to raise the pH and add ions.
Also, add commercial antimicrobial agents to the pan water to prevent microbial growth.
Best.
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