Nitrate test for color blind people

[zalick]

I'm colorblind and have difficulty with most color based test kits. Distinguishing the shades is hard enough for you color sighted folks!

I've used API and Salifert nitrate kits. Salifert is simply impossible for me to read on the low end. The API works OK, but generally I can only tell if its not 0. (which is mostly what I care about). I end up texting a picture of the vial and card to someone and ask them to interpret. Or have my wife do it when she's home.

Are there any other nitrates tests that anyone recommends for color blind people? I'm thinking of trying the seachem next.

 

[Larry L]

I really like the Nyos one - how good are you at distinguishing shades of yellow/orange?

 

[hllb]

I just ordered nyos to try. It has a reference to use so maybe that would help.

 

[zalick]

I really like the Nyos one - how good are you at distinguishing shades of yellow/orange?

Just looked at a video of the Nyos. I could probably distinguish between the 1,3,5,12,25. Above 25 they are all the same. But if I'm up there, I'm where I don't want to be.

Thanks! I'm going to give it a try.

 

[hllb]

Received mine today and used it. Much easier at higher levels than my Salifert so I’m happy.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

I'm colorblind and have difficulty with most color based test kits. Distinguishing the shades is hard enough for you color sighted folks!

I've used API and Salifert nitrate kits. Salifert is simply impossible for me to read on the low end. The API works OK, but generally I can only tell if its not 0. (which is mostly what I care about). I end up texting a picture of the vial and card to someone and ask them to interpret. Or have my wife do it when she's home.

Are there any other nitrates tests that anyone recommends for color blind people? I'm thinking of trying the seachem next.

There's a digital monitor from Marine Piont for nitrates.

 

[johnston]

same problem depending on your budget but im saving up for the reefbot

 

[Lithoman]

Feel your pain... 8% of Males are color blind... Me included.. I think my wife is too.... sucks with the color tests...

 

[PhiMX]

Hi, I am not color blind, but I can feel your frustration.
Many nitrate tests are based on two different colors, like shifting from yellow to red and as such are definately a problem for the color blind. (depending ton the form of color blindness, but I assume you are red-green blind)

Question: How good are you in distinguishig just a contrast, no matter which hue?

I ask because some tests, like the Tropic Marin Nitrate/Nitrite test are based on a-Naphtylamine/Sulfanilic Acid and therefore just range from colorless to pink.
So, even if you can´t distinguish pink from green for example, you just need to find out how strong the test is tinted, and as such you just need to determine the contrast in regard to the comparison card. No mater if you can see the color.

Would that be a solution for your problem? As I said I am not color blind and as such I just assume that you can at least distinguish a contrast no matter the hue?

 

[hllb]

Hi, I am not color blind, but I can feel your frustration.
Many nitrate tests are based on two different colors, like shifting from yellow to red and as such are definately a problem for the color blind. (depending ton the form of color blindness, but I assume you are red-green blind)

Question: How good are you in distinguishig just a contrast, no matter which hue?

I ask because some tests, like the Tropic Marin Nitrate/Nitrite test are based on a-Naphtylamine/Sulfanilic Acid and therefore just range from colorless to pink.
So, even if you can´t distinguish pink from green for example, you just need to find out how strong the test is tinted, and as such you just need to determine the contrast in regard to the comparison card. No mater if you can see the color.

Would that be a solution for your problem? As I said I am not color blind and as such I just assume that you can at least distinguish a contrast no matter the hue?

The nyos is the same, but uses yellow. I haven't used the test you mentioned, and am not color blind, but I had a hard time with upper ranges of Salifert, which is pink as well. That's what's nice about the hanna checkers - you don't have to read it with the human eye.

 

[taricha]

@Rick Mathew has got the nitrate test nailed down using Red Sea Nitrate test kit and running it through hanna checker so the color detection outperforms even perfectly normal eyeballs.
article: https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/test-meter-for-testing-nitrates.599/

Thread on the best version of this procedure:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/u...-hi-736-to-test-for-low-levels-of-no3.350062/

The procedure is quite simple:

1) Run the Red Sea Nitrate Pro Test according to the procedure.

2) After 7 minutes of the 9 minute reaction time (2minutes remaining) I place a cuvette of the unreacted test water into the Phosphorous Checker and measure this as a blank (C1).

3) I then empty the cuvette and wait for the reaction time to complete.

4) When it is completed I decant off 10mL of the reacted solution and fill the cuvette.

5) I pace the cuvette into the Hanna Phosphorous Checker (HI-736) and press the button (C2). I do not hold the button in to activate the 3 min timer…I just press the button and get the reading.

The short 7 min video below shows the test procedure. The video does not detail the Red Sea Test but only shows the procedure.

 

[PhiMX]

The nyos is the same, but uses yellow. I haven't used the test you mentioned, and am not color blind, but I had a hard time with upper ranges of Salifert, which is pink as well. That's what's nice about the hanna checkers - you don't have to read it with the human eye.

Yep, the two chemicals I stated are the most common nitrate reagents. When you have a test like the Nyos or the Salifert which start yellow and transition to red, It´s the same reagents but with some yellow dye to have a better contrast to red than the clear to pink type like the tropic marin I stated. Unfortunately color blind people struggle with yellow to red, so the clear to pink might be better.
The Tropic Marin test is a pretty good and acurate one, BTW.

Off course, having a spectrophotometer or just a photometer like the Hanna one is the best solution.period. But costly.

 

[hllb]

Yep, the two chemicals I stated are the most common nitrate reagents. When you have a test like the Nyos or the Salifert which start yellow and transition to red, It´s the same reagents but with some yellow dye to have a better contrast to red than the clear to pink type like the tropic marin I stated. Unfortunately color blind people struggle with yellow to red, so the clear to pink might be better.
The Tropic Marin test is a pretty good and acurate one, BTW.

Off course, having a spectrophotometer or just a photometer like the Hanna one is the best solution.period. But costly.

Nyos is just shades of yellow like Salifert is shades of pink. API goes from yellow to red.

 

[Js.Aqua.Project]

You can also try the method developed by @Rick Mathew and a couple others in this thread using a Hanna checker:

TEST METER FOR TESTING NITRATES

TEST METER FOR TESTING NITRATES Back in October of 2017 I posed about a DIY Test meter …The second post in Jan 2018 expanded the work to look at using the Hanna HI-736 PHOSPHOROUS Checker as the measuring instrument. As I mentioned at the end of the Jan post I was exploring the use of other...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Feet4Fish]

Would recommend the exact idip. Just have to read numbers...no colors!