Studies of stream meiofauna require efficient, accurate methods of quantitatively collecting them.  The swirl and decant method typically involves adding 250 ml of water to a 250 ml core sample, swirling it in a 1-liter container, then promptly pouring the liquid through a Wisconsin bucket with appropriate mesh.  This procedure is usually repeated three times.  We decided to try using saturated CaCl₂ solution for the second rinse to detach and float organisms out of the substrate, and follow with a distilled water rinse to counteract shrinkage of soft-bodied organisms by the salt.  This study compared the original method with the CaCl₂ and distilled water treatment.  We collected ten pairs of core samples from an area of stream (ca. 2 m²) with uniform flow, depth, and substrate composition.  After analyzing seven of the ten pairs of samples, results indicate that we did not obtain significantly more total meiofauna (p=0.097) using the CaCl₂ treatment (1729 vs. 1121 n/l).  The treatment did produce more bivalve juveniles (745 vs. 430 n/l, p=0.024), but not most other taxa.  Although it appears that we collected more organisms using the flotation technique, the meiofauna are quite patchy in distribution resulting in high variances.