Alternative methods (by M. Terasaki)

Coverslip washing:
Get a 400 ml tripour beaker and fill with about 150 ml deionized water. Warm it up in a microwave almost to boiling. Sprinkle in some alconox (as with standard method) and swirl around to dissolve. Add cover slips one by one. Let sit for 20 min. Drain off detergent, rinse 3x with deionized water, then warm it up in the microwave once again. Drain off the water, rinse 3x with deionized water.

Get another beaker, or use a wide mouth screw top glass bottle if possible. Pour in 75 ml deionized water, then 75 ml concentrated hydrochloric acid. Add the cover slips one by one to the acid. Cover the acid and put in a place where no one can accidentally knock it over or come into contact with it. Let sit overnight. Pour off the acid, wash 5x in deionized water, then 3x in double distilled water. Transfer the cover slips one at a time into a 50 ml plastic centrifuge tube containing 70% ethanol / 30% double distilled water.