Test Kits

[Underwurlde]

Hello,

I have 3 Nutrafin (tm) test kits for Ammonia, Nitrite & Nitrate. For each kit I take a measure of tank water, mix them with the special chemicals in the test kit, wait and then compare the colour of the liquid to that of a colour chart.

Great. Easy I thought, what could be simpler?

But.... I have come to the conclusion that I simply cannot judge or match the colour of the test result liquid to that of the printed colour chart! My wife, an artist by night, can. I just can't seem to do it!

Consider this analogy:
I have good hearing, but I am tone deaf. Play me two notes in a row & if they are similar it's impossible for me to tell if those two notes are the same, higher in pitch or lower in pitch. Like I said, tone deaf.

I guess it's the same with colour (I am NOT colour blind BTW): I have very good eye sight. But show me two similar colours and I cannot tell if they are the same, lighter in tone or darker in tone. I guess I'm colour deaf!

Anyone else experience this, if so, how do you guage the results of your testing

Thanks again,

Andy

 

[handsomeboy]

put the test tube up against a white sheet of paper, and look at it under light with a full spectrum.

 

[Underwurlde]

Yep, tried that (Engineer type here!)

Still, my tiny brain did not compute.

Thanks for the reply,

Andy

 

[wodesorel]

It's just the way they make them, I use full-spectrum lights against a white sheet of paper, and I still can't do it. I just know that if it changes any color, then it's time to do a water change - the stronger the color, the more water needs to be changed. As for the nitrate test, anything stronger than Crayola orange (20ppm) and it's time for a water change becuase the shrimp can't handle it!

 

[Underwurlde]

and it's time for a water change becuase the shrimp can't handle it!

LOL... Boy did I find out that the hard way. All 3 of them managed to jumped out of my tank, WITH the bloody lid ON I hasten to add. Eeeejits.

Glad to see though that I am not the only 'incapable' out there.

Cheers,

Andy

 

[Egmel]

Short of asking your wife every time how about taking photos of them and comparing the RGB values on the comp!!

Other than that have you tried looking at them under different coloured lights? You may find that if you can reduce the colour spectrum to just a few dimensions that you'll be able to see a difference more clearly.

Good luck.

 

[Underwurlde]

@Egmel,

Good ideas. I think the camera trick may be flawed because you are comparing a reflective shiny colour (liquid in a glass) to a colour printed on glossy photo paper. It is this basic difference that is causing such confusion in my simpleton's brain - that the mediums therein 'containing' the colours are so different!

Does that make any sense?

Anyway, not one to dish an idea before I have actually tried it, I will definately try it next time I do a test.

Thanks,

Andy

 

[Mauve]

I hope they are gonna make a cheap electronic device that shows numbers.........

 

[Underwurlde]

Yeah I agree, you see being a boring ol' electronics engineer I have kind of looked into that.

Trouble is the transducers required (the things that are used to convert levels of Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Ph & KH into an electrical signal). Not understanding chemistry, I am without clue on how to do this. Searching for such transducers on the internet suggests that the combination would be rather more expensive than 10 quids worth of test kits.

Andy

If any one DID come up with a cheap device to do all this, he or she would make a fortune.

Oh, Patent Pending ©, ® & (tm) me.

 

[discus dreamer]

Sorry to hear that you find the colour matching difficult, but i would recommend you keep trying. Colour vision can be trained i would suggest you try the best you can to guess and then ask your wife and you could find that it starts getting easier. You would probably need to do this more often than when taking samples but you could try with anything any time of day. Dyed objects are easiest - is this jumper more blue than that one, this curtain more orange than that one etc. Also trying to be more descriminating in describing colour helps, OK it's orange but is it like an orange you eat or more like a lobster claw or a clay flowerpot and so on. Sounds crazy i know but the world does start to seem more colourful if you do this for a while.
DD