adding bicarbonate to medium...help please! - (Dec/13/2009 )

hi, i'm using dmem with hepes added b/c i am culturing out of co2 incubator for about a week. most mediums with bicarbonate have a concentration of 3.7 g/L, which would mess up the pH since I'm not using co2. however, I'm going to make a final concentration of 1 g/L bicarbonate for nutritional purposes.

The basic question is: can I add the bicarbonate just as a powder to the liquid medium? Or do I need to dissolve it in something first and then add?

Sorry for the silly question, I'm new to cell culture.

Thanks!

It should be fine to add as a powder. You will of course need to sterilise (by filtration) the medium after addition.