Dear fellow histonetters:

Bubbles in your water bath are just dissolve gases coming out of 
solution.  Water being your solvent and air being your solute.  The 
idea is to get as much gases out of your water bath before you use 
it.  I know of several ways to get gases out of your water.  

You can get most of your gases out by adding a stress to your water 
(ex. shaking of a soft drink) or applying a vacuum.  These two ways are
impractical as with both ways you will lose water.  One could add 
another solute that will decrease the solubility of the gases.  Such as
adding ETOH to your water bath.  This is impractical because of 
safety concerns (flammability).

I found that boiling water for 10 minutes and then let it cool down to 
the temperature of your water bath before using works quite well.  The 
water can be stored in a tightly closed container without leaving any air
space.  
Then it can be used at a later time.

The idea of using coins in your water bath is to introduce more surface 
area inside your water bath.  This method is used to induce the gases to 
form on the coins.  In any case, you will still have bubbles on the bottom 
of your water bath just waiting to float up and ruin your sections.  
This method works as well as placing coins in a Wishing Well.

Adios, from Texas.

Donald G. Awbrey, HT(ASCP) QIHC
Electron Microscopy / Image Analysis
Donald Awbrey@TexasHealth.org
donaldawbrey@hotmail.com
(817)-878-5647