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Post by arnaud75 on Sept 17, 2020 12:58:32 GMT
What product to use to avois mold in the relaxing box? Thank you
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Post by Paul K on Sept 17, 2020 17:17:06 GMT
I keep one naphthalene ball and had no mold so far.
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Post by exoticimports on Sept 17, 2020 21:29:55 GMT
Dash of rubbing alcohol.
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jhyatt
Aurelian
Posts: 224
Country: U.S.A.
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Post by jhyatt on Sept 17, 2020 22:26:40 GMT
I dab in a bit of a 5% ethanol solution of thymol or chlorocresol, but those excellent antifungals may be tough to obtain if you're not a lab chemist like me. I don't think napthalene has much antifingal activity; alcohols however do... they just don't last long before evaporating.
jh
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Post by arnaud75 on Sept 18, 2020 7:03:19 GMT
I keep one naphthalene ball and had no mold so far. Thank you for your response but it is not anymore allowed for sale
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Post by exoticimports on Sept 18, 2020 12:03:45 GMT
I dab in a bit of a 5% ethanol solution of thymol or chlorocresol, but those excellent antifungals may be tough to obtain if you're not a lab chemist like me. I don't think napthalene has much antifingal activity; alcohols however do... they just don't last long before evaporating. jh
Alcohol won't much evaporate from a fully closed container. In my experience, refreshing a relaxing box with alcohol once a month is sufficient. You can smell the alcohol to tell when more needs to be added. And, at only a couple dollars per bottle, a bottle lasts years if used only for this purpose.
Chuck
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jhyatt
Aurelian
Posts: 224
Country: U.S.A.
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Post by jhyatt on Sept 18, 2020 12:17:15 GMT
Chuck,
For some reason I've got the habit of leaving my relaxer open to dry out when I'm not actually relaxing something, so I like to use a less volatile antifungal.
jh
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Post by exoticimports on Sept 20, 2020 15:14:18 GMT
Chuck, For some reason I've got the habit of leaving my relaxer open to dry out when I'm not actually relaxing something, so I like to use a less volatile antifungal. jh I tend to relax in spurts, meaning the relaxing containers are in heavy use for a period (one month, two months) then idle for a while. When they are idle I like to dump the contents and dry them; that said, I'm just as likely to let them sit empty until I see mold (since I can be lazy). It really doesn't matter either way, when it's time to do some relaxing the container gets cleaned and updated with fresh materials and alcohol. The only real problem comes if one gets inattentive and mold grows on specimens. On more than one occasion I've set a relaxing box aside and forgotten about it, with devastating results. Now I make sure the box(es) is in my sight as a reminder. For many years I used Tupperware, which will retain the alcohol for roughly two weeks.
A few years ago, while setting many specimens, I added those "give away" plastic food containers; they are terrible and don't seal well.
Recently I stole from the wife's new storage containers this Rubbermaid Brilliance. It's gasketed and locking. I know from other uses it's not 100% airtight, more like 99.995%. But it's a heck of a lot better than the old tupperware.
Chuck
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Post by arnaud75 on Sept 21, 2020 12:00:38 GMT
Thank you all for your contributions, i tested THYMOL and it's working very well
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Dexter
New Aurelian
Posts: 8
Country: Australia
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Post by Dexter on Nov 27, 2021 17:33:41 GMT
I’m trying vodka… would you believe I have nothing else 😅
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Post by exoticimports on Nov 28, 2021 0:40:48 GMT
Chuck, For some reason I've got the habit of leaving my relaxer open to dry out when I'm not actually relaxing something, so I like to use a less volatile antifungal. jh For measure, I’d not opened my relaxing box since August. I just opened it. No smell of alcohol but no mold either. Added a dash of alcohol and in went specimens. Chuck
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