Tips for reading PH?

[kgoldy]

Fun fact- Two out of every twenty five men in the world are in some way color blind. 1 in 200 women share the same "mild disability". So there is probably a pretty good portion of people who think their water parameters are perfect, who actually maintain something that may be working- but it's not what they think it is.

 

First off, I know for a fact that I'm not colorblind because of the extensive testing I had to make it through to be a Forward Observer in the US Army. That makes me wonder, how the heck does everyone monitor their PH with the API test? Exposed to the light coming from my MH lamp, the color may read 8.2... but under an incandescent bulb, it'll look like 8.8. Either way, it feels like a guess because the water color never seems to be right-on the same way as the other test included in reef and saltwater master kits. I do my best to do a dual exposure kind of thing between the lights and take my reading off that- which have been consistently 8.4.

 

1. Is there an easier to read, accurate way to monitor PH? (A home test, I know I can have the LFS do it for me).

 

2. Under what light should an API PH test be read? It says "bright light source" in the instructions, but the degree of color from various light sources (incandescent, sunlight, CFL) influences the color of the test water...

 

Thanks for any help!

[dday80]

I'm also very curious about this. I've been taking my readings from sunlight. It seems like a guessing game because its never the exact color. It seems like if you want an accurate reading you'd need a colorimeter but PH on that doesn't go above 8.4.

[gabe_j]

i use sunlight hitting the card and vile directly so theres no confusion, most standardized color charts are zreo'd in at 6500k. also i'll check the vile next the all the colors and which ever one i think is closer i roll the vile over that color if the colors match thats your reading if the liquid changes the color on the card then you've got a wrong match. now i dont mean that if the color is more vivid its not a match the same color with more saturation would be acceptable atleast to me it is.

 

also i'd like to mention that not all t5s rated at 6500k are true to color, so i perfer to use sunlight around mid day but thats just me.

[doctaq]

its easy, just make sure you have fresh batteries in your handheld ph probe from milwaukee instruments which you can find on ebay for 20 dollars i think