Color Blindness And Aquarium Test Kits

Hello,

I'm wondering if some of you experts can answer a question for me. Is there some other system for testing water besides the strips? My problem is that I am partially color blind - I can see blue and red, but telling the difference between different shades of blue or red or green is almost impossible for me. Someone told me there may be some sort of digital water tester...does anyone know anything about that? Or any other way to do a water quality reading without looking at those stupid tiny strips that I can barely read? Thanks in advance for any info you have. (Interesting factoid - did you know that 92% of people with color blindness are men?)

Signed,

Visually Differently Abled (and going blind tryin to read these strips....)

 

There are digital testers, but I believe they run for 100s each.

 

We had one that tested for ph for our pool. It wasn't very accurate. I don't know if the ones for fish are different.

The strips aren't very accurate and most here use the API master kit, but the colors will probably give you trouble there too.

The other alternative would be to take a sample to your LFS. They will usually test it for free and ask them to write the readings down for you.

Good luck.

 

o my! that's gotta be so hard ....test strips aren't reliable either even if you werent color blind.....and trusting your LFS is almost like test strips IMO LOL...can you borrow a neighbor or some buddy for testing ? offer a nice take out dinner or something for a few hours of their time the best IMO is the apI liquid master test kit..it has it all! goodluck!

 

That's so bad, do you have anyone that can see the tests for you?

 

Trusting your LFS is like a color-blind person reading the strips. They use the strips, and they're in a hurry, so they're likely to make mistakes that will affect the reading.

There are some of the digital testers, but they're expensive ($150-260 for a nitrate tester), and they don't have them for all of the chemicals. What I saw were nitrate, pH, total dissolved solids (probably not important unless you're doing a really specific reef tank), salinity, conductivity, and temp.

Reading most of the tests, if you did the bottles, should be doable for you, as they go from yellow to another color and you wouldn't have to look at all of the different colors at once. But the nitrate test, I think, goes from blue to red, which, if I'm reading you right, would look all the same to you.

All I can think of is to have someone else read the numbers. Once your aquarium is cycled (if it isn't already) and you figure out how much of a water change you need to do to keep your nitrates down, you can get away with not testing the water constantly. I haven't done a test in about two months (not ideal, but none of my tanks have been showing any signs of illness, and all are well established). I try to do them once a month, just to keep an eye on things.

 

Sorry, my LFS is accurate in testing, thought it was a good alternative.
I have a digital ph tester and it is way off compared to the API, I don't trust it.

 

I've seen the digital pH testers before. They have them for something like $30 at garden stores. I don't trust them at all. On the other hand, the $300 pH tester that I saw at Drs Foster and Smith are likely much more accurate. I'm not positive of that, but the company would likely go out of business if they sold something that expensive that didn't work.

You've probably got the only LFS in existence that uses accurate tests, then. Every LFS that I've been to just uses the little strips, which are notorious for being inaccurate, and can be made more so if someone is in a hurry to do the test.

 

Yeah, it was a shocker, they used the liquid test.
I actually knew my water parameters before I went in .

I even over heard the guy tell someone their water was not ready for fish.

It was new guy, I wonder how long he'll last. lol

 

Hopefully a long time. Hopefully this is just normal for the store.

That's awesome, Lucy.

 

You could use the Tetra test for NO2 -nitrites- since you could tell yellow (OK) from red (Spike). As for Ph, you could get one pocket-meter like the Milwaukee Instruments Digital pH Meter, battery operated, with digital readings (around 40USD); for Nitrate and Ammonia, but only for freshwater use, there are digital meters: the Fishlab digital Nitrate meter (very expensive: around 500 UK pounds) and the Fishlab digital Ammonium meter (same price).
I guess you could use someone else's help and get the API test everyone in this forum seems to use (me included as soon as I'm done with my Tetra Laborett).
Keep it up! Pepe

 

I can see fine but it struck me to wonder how a color blind person could perform the tests based on color comparison.
Are there other devices? I bought a general warning dial today for ph and ammonia. Uses a suction cup to stick to the tank and for a month it tells you of the general condition.

But is there anything else?

 

Good question. From what I remember about color blindness (from college decades ago) it usually comes in one of two varieties (yellow-blue, or red-green). So a colorblind person could probably read at least one or two of the tests.

 

We’ve had some come here and ask the users to tell them, I think Dave125g did that awhile ago, so maybe we can ask him how he tells now(if you don’t mind us asking).

 

If you live close to the fish store they can test it, you could even bring in your API Master to get a better result than the strips. Or maybe a friend or neighbor?

 

I’m kinda curious as well. My grandpa is color blind, but can look at any color and tell you what it is. I’m kinda curious now.

 

And just fired off a text to my grandpa. he’s crazy good with colours, but pastels get him. So now curiousity must be satisfied.

Ok! And the verdict is!

“Ok. He can see yellow. He can see shades of colour but can’t tell what they are. Red looked green to him. Green looked brown. He could see differences but couldn’t see what colour they were. And often if he sees lime green he thinks it’s yellow. Blue looked like brown. Many just a mix of shades which I think just look grey to him.”

 

My wife and kids usually reed my results for me. If there not around I post a picture on 1 of my threads to get the results.

 

It is so weird that I just came across this topic now. I was looking for test kits on Amazon earlier and came across the following;



If anyone has used this test, please let us know how it rates!

 

Sure but don't sweat it. This is just a curiousity

We’ve had some come here and ask the users to tell them, I think Dave125g did that awhile ago, so maybe we can ask him how he tells now(if you don’t mind us asking).

Ok! And the verdict is!

“Ok. He can see yellow. He can see shades of colour but can’t tell what they are. Red looked green to him. Green looked brown. He could see differences but couldn’t see what colour they were. And often if he sees lime green he thinks it’s yellow. Blue looked like brown. Many just a mix of shades which I think just look grey to him.”

And this is the thing, I know there is a color variation but wasn't sure if the test he gets and the chart they use might all balance out.

I love the response where dave125g puts it online for the global help.
That's creative thinking which never occurred to me.

And of course the fish stores help.

I was doing some researc to see what's availble digitally and there seems to be some systems which are buggy or else expensive.

I have to thank every one for their input