Gerry, We have run thousands of GF/F filters for freshwater and marine phytoplankton without seeing these problems, but we reduced the temperature of the combustion column to 850 C to avoid melting of filters. Above 850 C melted filters were clogging the insert and combustion tube and caused problems with the base line. The other option is to scrape the material off the filters but that is time consuming and non-quantitative. Bjoern -- Björn Wissel, PhD EQAL Manager, Faculty of Science Adjunct Professor, Department of Biology 265.2 Laboratory Building University of Regina Regina, SK S4S 0A2 Canada phone 306 585-4890 fax 306 337-2410 e-mail [log in to unmask] www.uregina.ca/biology/faculty/Wissel/Wissel.html