Lighting/test kits

[Frogspawn]

i have a test kit that i think is junk. i do weeky PWC's so i know i keep my ammo, nitrite and nitrate at Zero ppms and keep my PH as close to 8.2 as i can. i do 5g every sunday on a 30g reef tank. i dont always test my water because of that. i know thats a bad habit and its going to kick me in the butt. but i am color blind with some colors and it just so happens to be yellow/green and orange/red. every thing else i am fine on. its a pain in the butt when i try to test my water. my question is what kinda lighting is best to view your test tubes. i have a master kit i bought from my lfs and i dont think its a very good one. if its true all my corals and fish would be dead. not to mention i have pods and mutiplying like rabbits and my mushrooms are looking brighter every day that goes by. my toadstool leather has grown 1/2 the size since i have had it and my torch coral its showing new growth. my pulsing xzina has tripled in size and ready to be moved to a larger rock instead of its little plug its on now.
how could all this stuff be doing so great and looking better every day if my ammo the most lethal is even slighty high.
how could i curve this. i dont trust my LFS and hate going to them they just like to try to rip me off and charge 2-3 times the amount what i could buy something on-line for. i have looked for digital measuring stuff and i have a PH one but i cant seem to find anything for ammo, nitrite and nitrate. thanks for your time

 

[melosu58]

I always take mine outside and look at it in the sunlight. One thing I need to bring up is just because you do PWC`s does not mean that everything is at 0. You need to check your PWC water as well as it could have any of those three as well as phosphates. I know what you mean as I have a hard time reading them as well.

 

[Frogspawn]

yea i know need to start doing that. i never though to take it out side. thats a good idea. the lighting i have in my home is not a white light its a regular 60watt light bulb and with the lamp shade kinda changes te color of the light as well. i will try taking it out side this evening. its nice day.

 

[MT79]

Using a white background helps. Either a white wall or a piece of paper if your looking down at the sample works (my water heater provides a white background and is near my tests so I use it). Also I've found better test kits give more easily recognizable color shifts. I really like Seachem and Salifert kits for this reason. HTH
BTW I don't test for ammo, trite or trates either. I see my tank enough to know immediately by looking if something is wrong. Ca, Alk, PO4 are different(and NO3, but it is not an issue in my tank). Ammo, nitrite should only show up if there is a problem- something dies and rots in the tank, etc.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Wherever you end up reading your tests, I've found it's best to read them there consistantly. In other words, keep your light source the same all the time. That way, you can get to know what colors you're looking for. My "testing room" is the laundry room. I would think that depending on time of day, cloud cover, etc., reading the colors outside you might get varying interpretations of the color.

 

[KurtsReef]

Which tests do you own? I was not one for testing, but have decided differently and recently bought some redsea test kits which quite frankly am not too keen on. Have ordered some other brands to replace them (Seachem and API) hoping they are more precise and on target.

 

[tecwzrd]

Anyone else in the family not as color blind? I'm fairly color blind myself and am always asking my wife which color best matches mostly on the PH test which is harder for me to read. I assume it's the API test from you description. Looking straight down helps me also to tell if I'm not sure as Mike said.