Am I colour blind...?

[marie]

I'll tell you a secret


... after trying to read the salifert ph tests and failing miserably, I didn't test my ph again for years. It wasn't until I got my calcium reactor and a ph monitor that I knew what the ph was doing in my tanks

I did drip kalk at night on all my tanks though so I knew my ph had to be on the high side

[Delphinus]

Don't bother testing pH with a testkit!! First of all it doesn't really tell you much anyhow. If you're trying to dial in a calcium reactor, you need a monitor, forget trying to compare greens and yellows, you'll only give yourself a headache!

Some test kits are better than others. Ca and Alk test kits can come in a titration style (add dropwise into solution until you get a colour change from blue to red or vice versa ... pretty hard to miss even if slightly colourblind). Just count the drops to the change and viola'.

Some don't come in titration though, and for those (eg. nitrate) you just kinda need to try the various brands until you find one you like. Seachem, Elos, Salifert, etc.

Monitors and controllers are nice too, if you can stomach the startup cost. The nice thing though is that it should be a one-time cost (purchase of the unit), not so much an ongoing cost.

[ed99]

I had one of those Hagen test kits a few years ago and I also struggled reading the pH. The colour often didn't match any of the ones on the card.