1st time Salifert user

[guychoo]

hey guys,
like the title says. just making sure im doing it right. i checked my nitrates with salifert last night and i think it was to good to be true : 0.2 - 0.5.
is this how you do the test: put 1ml in the container, even though the first line in the container is 10 ml, then put the powders in order and compress it and then swirl for 30 seconds or until it melts then test the colors?
(its not that easy to check the colors with only 1ml of water in a 20+ml container.)
the dates on the tests are fine, in case your wondering.
Thanks.

 

[Henrye]

This is for a Salifert kit, right? The instructions for the nitrate kit (unless changed) have you place 1 ml of SW in the vial supplied, add 1 compressed scoop NO3-1, 1 scoop NO3-1, gently swirl for 30 seconds (it will not all necessarily dissolve), let stand for 3 minutes and compare to the color chart looking down, through the vial, on the white area. If the results appear to show a nitrate reading of <10 ppm, you can hold up the vial, and looking through the SIDE against the white background, match colors. Divide by 10 to get a low range nitrate result.

So, if looking through the SIDE of the vial, the color matches the 10 ppm shade, the reported nitrate would be 1 ppm. If looking DOWN, the matching shade reflects the ppm reported on the card, so if it matches 10 ppm, then it is 10 ppm.

If those are the steps you took your results would be correct, according to Salifert. If you swirled too long or vigorously to dissolve all the powder, or did not let it sit for 3 minutes to react, or didn't match up the colors and correct for the range tested, low or medium (looking from the side or down), then your results are wrong.

Salifert makes decent test kits. Some find it hard (including me) to always judge the shades in the nitrate test accurately. You're supposed to place an intermediate shade between the closest 2 and take the average, but I find myself going back and forth on that.

Regardless, if you didn't follow the steps as Salifert gives them, I'd repeat the test to be sure you really know your nitrate level.

Henry

(that's really a bad sign when I can post the instructions without a kit in my office...i think I'm testing too much:bigeyes

 

[guychoo]

henry,
thats exactly how i did it. just swirled not shaked.
checking the low range from the side, do you hold the vial up or do you lay it on the table to compare the colors?

 

[Henrye]

You have to hold it up. The idea is to increase the volume of water you're looking through. The vials are designed to ten times the depth of fluid you're looking though when viewed from the side vs. looking down through the fluid from the top. While I never measured it for absolute values, but the idea is if in looking down, you're viewing the color shade in fluid of only 1 mm depth, viewing upright from the side would allow viewing though 10 mm of depth, magnifying the perceived color shift for better identification at low levels (very slight changes in shade). If you lie the container down on its side, you'll be spreading that 1 ml of fluid across the entire surface of the container, and end up looking through essentially just a film, thinner than even looking down, and impossible to see any color change at all, at least in the absence of some superpower vision, in which case you should be able to see how much nitrate is in there to begin with:kidding: . :biggrin:

 

[meschaefer]

Something to keep in mind when checking any of the test kits that require you to differentiate between colors, is that the lighiting that your performing the test under is very important. If I do my tests anywhere near my tank, I need to turn off my Actinic lights. The blue in the lights screws with my color perception and my test readings are off.

 

[guychoo]

Henry,
im actually superman, but :shhh: dont tell anyone. j/k. thank you that explains it perfectly.

Matt,
yea the lighting is always hard. i usually go to the kitchen under flourescent lights rather than near my tank and the high hats always show a tint of yellow so i dont check under that either.

 

[russianmd]

So, has anybody tried the Hanna nitrate tester? I've heard great things about the phosphate machine.

It seems like it would be a good investment if one tests frequently.

 

[Henrye]

So, are your nitrates really 0.2-0.5?

 

[guychoo]

no, but still pretty i think. 1-2.

 

[Henrye]

I'd take 1-2. Maybe I'm really over-reading the test, rather than overfeeding the tankl:arg: