Conductivity is only one measure of good water. Organics are another
problem you may want to consider. Here is one a way to check your water
for HPLC-GPP (ghost peak potential): Install a C-18 column on your
HPLC. Wash the column with 95% acetonitrile:water. Pump through at
least 1 liter of your "good" water. Immediately after the water start a
30 minute gradient up to 95% acetonitrile. Repeat this test with the
water from the new lab. If you monitor at a low UV wavelength (as low
as you can go) you can get a good idea of the organic contaminants in
your water. These usually do not increase conductivity but can cause
real problems in analytical runs.
Harry
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
------ __o
---- _ \<,_ I'd rather be biking!
--- (_)/ (_)
---------------------------------------
http://www.neptune.net/~whatley/
=======================================
>From abrf-request@aecom.yu.edu Fri Jul 24 14:18:17 1998
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>Message-ID: <n1310843312.56882@MacMailGW.dfci.harvard.edu>
>Date: 24 Jul 1998 11:14:43 -0400
>From: "Paul Morrison" <Paul_Morrison@macmailgw.dfci.harvard.edu>
>Subject: misc: Lab Water Quality
>Old-To: "abrf list" <abrf@aecom.yu.edu>
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>
>Dear compulsive ABRF'ers,
>
>Our facilities will be moving to new quarters by Christmas and I am
evaluating
>how the move is going to impact the facility. Nothing scares me more
than
>moving and then finding for some unkown reason we can't get a signal
out of
>the noise.
>
>I've tested the central (reverse osmosis) water and my current location
has a
>conductance of less than 1 microseimen, the new space is testing at 50
>microseimens. Boston tap water tests at 150 microseimens.
>
>So do I install an expensive set up to feed the stainless steel
dishwashers
>etc. or do I convince them they need to figure out what is wrong with
the
>central water supply.
>
>Please send me all of your anecdotal stories that explain how water
quality
>impacted on data. The more horrific the better. Before and after
numbers
>detailing the quality would also be good. Any molecular biology process
will
>do but if it's fluorescent DNA sequencing, HPLC, acrylamide gel, mass
analysis
>or protein sequencing that was impacted so much the better. Should I be
>testing for something else besides conductance?
>
>If I live through it I'll post a follow-up on how to survive moving
your
>facility.
>
>thanks, Paul
>
>Paul Morrison
>Molecular Biology Core Facilities
>Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
>44 Binney Street
>Boston, MA 02115
>
>p_morrison@dfci.harvard.edu
>http://mbcf.dfci.harvard.edu
>tel: 617-632-3082
>fax: 617-632-4814
>
>
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