Reading Api Liquid Test Kits

[farmerhoggers]

hi
 
just wondering if i have been reading my test colours right. i have been holding mine up to natural light ie window to determine the colour of my test results and was wondering if this is correct as the colour can change dramaticly depending on what you view against ie white background of the test result card, natural light, work surface etc. want to check as when doing my nitrate today i could make it anything from 20ppm to 100ppm+ depending on were i viewed it! would be interesting to see what other people do.

 

[EllieJellyEllie]

You hold it up to the backround in a well lit area. At least the directions say to do that, so thats what I do

 

[Stimo]

I'm the same as you with this but i try to hold it against the white background of the test paper but not so close its touching as i find this makes it darker for me.
All whilst having natural light behind me

 

[farmerhoggers]

your right it does say 'against' the white background in the instructions but like stimo i hold it perhaps 10mm away but even that short distance can make quite a difference compared to actually touching it.

 

[PJPJ]

What do I do? Furrow my brow, screw my eyes up until they bleed, grind my teeth, trip over and bump into things trying to find the right angle for the 'little' natural sunlight we have in the UK, look to the sky and curse the clouds, ask everybody else for their opinion, search the net for an electronic variety of reader and curse the world for not developing the right test equipment at a good price and finally after too much time has passed decide it doesn't really matter as it's either somewhere near or definitely not the colour it should be and tip it down the sink and promptly forget the debacle until the next time. Ad Infinitum.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Lol

I went through the same dilemma when first tried to get consistent readings, like you say, UK weather does not make this particularly easy. Overcast days will give impression colours are darker whilst a rare sunny day will make colours brighter and soon and so forth.

In the end decided, rightly or wrongly, that I wanted consistent light and no variations, i started to use the under unit lights under kitchen wall cupboards, made a DIY test tube rack and every time I wanted a reading I would place this test tube rack with water test results in same place every time with the colour chart card slotted in the test rack.

That way, every time I tested i had consistent light, same area and method so you know for sure if water parameters are changing or not.

Hope that makes sense!