What are /r/crystalgrowing's favorite Products & Services?

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Indeed, but evaporation is not good here, since ammonia is more volatile than water. So, only slow cooling or anti-solvent (alcohol) precipitation could work here. Crystals could be very different, since they are absolutely different compounds. Here is tetraamino copper sulfate photo on sciencemadness.org (see post by Xenoomrph)

And here is hexaamino nickel nitrate, for example (vk.com link, in russian). Really beautiful color.

Personally I use two Walimex Pro Niova 150 bi-color lights, which are a bit more expensive (50€) but very bright, reliable and robust. You do need to buy batteries for them if you don't want to plug them in somewhere.

I haven't tested this one, but if you just want to make your pictures a bit better without spending much, it seems like a good deal:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GK6F9C7/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?crid=13RUKVSUXS0VX&keywords=bi+color+led&qid=1650538275&sprefix=bi+color+led%2Caps%2C206&sr=8-4

It's got an integrated battery as well as a diffusor, which seems pretty good. It's not going to be as bright or versatile, but you can still adjust the color temperature.

Don't put it on your camera though. There will be no shadows in the picture which just looks weird/unnatural. Instead, experiment with the location and angle a bit, as well as incorporating other light sources (which you can match the temperature with).

For compounds that can be produced by the reaction of two water-soluble reagents, there is a classic technique that I'm fond of: The two reactants are allowed to diffuse towards each other in a gel (typically silica hydrogel) and the crystal grows in the gel where the reactants meet.

See "Crystal Growth in Gels" by Heinz K. Henisch

https://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Growth-Gels-Heinz-Henisch/dp/0486689158/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1647799064&sr=8-1

Actually, the opposite happens. If you make a ball from a crystal and put it into the solution, it would eventually return to its "default" shape.

Because crystals are not isotropic, surface energy depends not only on area, but also on orientation of the surface. As result, minimization of this energy produces not sphere, but a different shape, known as Wulff shape of a crystal: http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Wulff_shape_of_crystals

5mV isn't an amperage, that's a voltage. Did you set your current to 5mA?

From what I understand, the sulfuric acid helps make copper grow more uniform for things like electroforming. I haven't used it for my copper crystals and I've gotten decent results, but I can't say if I would've gotten better results using it.

Lastly, I wouldn't recommend batteries for this, especially 9V batteries. Once the copper starts to grow, you need a decent amount of current (50-200mA in my case), which batteries hate. 9V batteries especially have very low capacity because they're made of 9 AAAA batteries in series, which only have a few hundred mAh of capacity. Instead, I'd recommend getting an adjustable buck converter from amazon or ebay such as this one with some alligator clips. You'd have to get a wall-wart power supply for it and cut off the connector since it uses screw terminals. With a multimeter you can set the voltage, but the current you get at any set voltage will change dramatically over time. I had a crystal start at 20mA at 1.2V go to 250mA about 2 weeks later due to the large increase in surface area of the copper.

I use a long cigarette lighter for the bubbles that come to the surface. I graze them with the flame about two hours after I cast when they have mostly all risen to the top. The flame makes them pop. Otherwise, if you want absolute perfection I can see using a vacuum. I cast some of my element collection in resin though, and I think they took pretty good even though i didnt use a vacuum. I'm not telling you what to do of course. I just dont want you to be discouraged.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Q1X3LF4/ref=cm_sw_r_u_apa_glt_fabc_60PP667T9X342BEDE12Z?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

This is the brand I use. It is low viscosity so bubbles dont get trapped.

Regards and good luck.

First: Use ArXiV to search papers, it's the actual source of all scholarly preprints.

https://arxiv.org/

Second: No, I didn't base my statement off of anything except my very basic education in solid state physics. If you want the book I used, here's a link to an American bookseller.

https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Solid-Physics-Charles-Kittel/dp/047141526X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=kittel+solid+state+physics&qid=1605235330&sr=8-1

I got my potassium ferricyanide from Amazon. It is a chemical used in cyanotype printing, so maybe you can find it in photography hobby shops. You can also get chemicals from ebay, but I haven't personally tried that.

This is the product I used to grow these crystals: https://www.amazon.com/Jacquard-6285854-Potassium-Ferricyanide-4Oz/dp/B010MN2O7G