GLPHubglpresearchhub.com
Read-only archive. GLP Research Hub is a static community record — nothing here is for sale, no account is needed, and no vote you cast is counted. Why?
194
c/reconstitution·posted 2 months ago by u/ilias_steiner

[Discussion] can we stop arguing about dead space until somebody posts a number

Discussion

can we stop arguing about dead space until somebody posts a number. I would rather ask a basic question now than get this wrong quietly for two months.

Adding more water does not change how much peptide is in the vial. It changes the concentration, which changes the volume you draw for the same amount. That is the entire relationship.

Bacteriostatic water contains benzyl alcohol as a preservative, which is what makes repeated entry into the same vial reasonable. Plain sterile water has no preservative.

The lyophilised cake displaces a small volume, so the true concentration is very slightly lower than the arithmetic suggests. It is a fraction of a percent and it is dwarfed by fill tolerance.

That is everything I have. The rest is opinion and I have tried to keep it out.

200 up / 6 down97% upvoted15 commentsid 180cuu25 May 2026

15 comments

11 in this archive, depth 4

best — the order this archive was captured in

u/julia_erdogan25 points·2 months ago

Aim the stream down the wall of the vial rather than into the cake. Reconstitution is a solubility problem, not a mixing problem, and mechanical shear does nothing helpful.

replysharereportpermalink
u/vito_beaulieu-23 points·2 months ago

Disagree with the "more water is safer" framing. It is not safer, it is just a different number to divide by.

replysharereportpermalink
u/runa_cabrera17 points·2 months ago

If your calculation produces a fraction of a unit, the concentration is wrong for your dose. Change the water volume until the numbers land on whole units.

replysharereportpermalink
u/saskia_rahimi5 points·2 months ago

Cosigning the round-number approach. Reconstituting to something awkward is how you end up drawing 27.5 units at six in the morning.

replysharereportpermalink
u/erez_perrin3 points·2 months ago

Correction: that gives 30 units, not what you have written. 20mg into 3mL is 6.67mg/mL and the division follows from there.

replysharereportpermalink
u/iman_falk1 point·2 months ago

Research-use-only material is not approved for human use, so treat everything in this thread as arithmetic about solutions rather than instructions for a person.

replysharereportpermalink
u/emil_zamora1 point·2 months ago

I would not round that figure. At 20mg/mL a rounding error of two units is a real fraction of the intended amount.

replysharereportpermalink
u/honest_syringe_202513 points·2 months ago

Reconstituted at 2mL when I meant to use a different volume. Caught it because the units looked wrong on the barrel. Now I write 2.5mg/mL on the glass before I put the cap back.

replysharereportpermalink
u/signe_grimaldi8 points·2 months ago

The arithmetic in full: concentration is mass over volume, so 15mg into 3mL gives 5mg/mL. A U-100 syringe is graduated at 100 units per millilitre, so 5mg is 5 divided by 5 millilitres, which is 100 units.

replysharereportpermalink
u/niels_roos2 points·2 months ago

Yes, and the dead-space point is worth repeating: it is small, it is real, and it is the same for every draw.

replysharereportpermalink
u/ilias_steinerOP5 points·2 months ago

30mg into 3mL is 10mg/mL, and 2.5mg of that is 25 units

replysharereportpermalink
Permalinked branches
Deep branches get their own page so a single reply chain can be linked and read on its own.
About c/reconstitution

The arithmetic and the technique. Bacteriostatic versus sterile water, reconstitution volume as a concentration choice, converting mg/mL into insulin-syringe units, dead space, swirl-not-shake, stopper coring, and how long a reconstituted vial is actually good for. Math errors get corrected fast and politely.

88kmembers
130submissions
Aug 2023created
submissions / month, last year
Sponsored

Janoshik Analytical

Independent HPLC and mass spec. The number you get is the number they found.

janoshik.com
Sponsored

GL Biochem (Shanghai)

Custom peptides and amino acids direct from the manufacturer since 1998. ISO 9001 / cGMP. Batch COA every order.

glbiochem.net
c/reconstitution rules
  1. Show your numbers. "How many units?" with no mg and no mL cannot be answered.
  2. Never post a calculation as advice without stating the concentration it assumes.
  3. No sterile-compounding-for-others discussion. Personal handling only.
  4. Independent community. Nobody here sells anything, and anyone who tries is banned.
  5. Not medical advice. Describe what you did; never prescribe to a stranger.
  6. Claims need evidence. Batch numbers, dated screenshots, independent test reports, or a citation.
  7. No referral links, discount codes or affiliate URLs. Permanent ban, no appeal.
  8. No contact handles, wallet addresses or tracking numbers — they identify people.
  9. Be recognisably decent. Disagree hard, insult nobody.
Moderators
Volunteers. Unpaid, unaffiliated, and reachable through modmail only.
Before you read on

Several compounds discussed on GLP Research Hub are sold for research use only and are not approved for human use anywhere. Nothing here is medical advice and none of it is written by your clinician. If a post reads like an instruction, treat it as a description of what one stranger did.