Need Help Reading my test!

[KatFish]

I wasn't exactly sure whether to put this in the Diseases section or not- so pardon me if I made a mistake! 

But I need help reading the color of my results from my Freshwater test kit. I'm just colorblind enough that the shades of color aren't different for me at certain levels. 
I took pictures of them with and without flash, so I hope this helps! 
If I need to redo any tests for you to get better pictures or something, please let me know, I am more than happy to do so!

 

High Range pH: 

 

Nitrate:

 

Nitrite:

 

Ammonia: 

[Blaha]

My thoughts:
PH 8-8.2
nitrate 0-5
nitrite 0.5-1
ammonia 2-4

That's comparing how they look on screen to the chart I'm holding. If you post it with the chart it could be easier for consistent lighting, but this hopefully is pretty close. 
A tip that may or may not be useful in your case: If you can take pics and have a way to put a grayscale filter on them, would that help? I'm not entirely sure how colorblindness works, but if it works that could save you some stress maybe

[KatFish]

On 9/20/2022 at 2:37 PM, Blaha said:

My thoughts:
PH 8-8.2
nitrate 0-5
nitrite 0.5-1
ammonia 2-4

That's comparing how they look on screen to the chart I'm holding. If you post it with the chart it could be easier for consistent lighting, but this hopefully is pretty close. 
A tip that may or may not be useful in your case: If you can take pics and have a way to put a grayscale filter on them, would that help? I'm not entirely sure how colorblindness works, but if it works that could save you some stress maybe

I didn't even think about adding the chart! Of course- 
The top one is with the flash, and the bottom without. I've tried it with the grayscale, and sadly even then still trying to compare them isn't helpful for me haha. 
I might need to my actual editing stuff instead of just my phone- so I'll try that instead. 

anyway! Here's the picture of the chart!
Chart w/ Flash 

 

Chart w/o Flash:

[Flumpweesel]

pH 8

Nitrate 10

Nitrite 1

Ammonia 4 

This is your goldfish fish in cycle isn't it?

If so I would be doing a massive water change just based on the ammonia for me it needs to stay as low as possible but definitely below one all the time to stop damage.

I would suggest only testing ammonia for awhile as it's presence alone is going to make you have to do water change and you'll be testing a lot so this will save you some money if you only need to replace the ammonia bottles down the road a bit when the other tests are more important when the cycle kicks in.

So when you see low or no ammonia start testing the other things again.

If you are still only half filling your tank you may want to re think that as filling it all the way up will dilute the waste a little more.

 

[KatFish]

On 9/20/2022 at 4:03 PM, Flumpweesel said:

pH 8

Nitrate 10

Nitrite 1

Ammonia 4 

This is your goldfish fish in cycle isn't it?

If so I would be doing a massive water change just based on the ammonia for me it needs to stay as low as possible but definitely below one all the time to stop damage.

I would suggest only testing ammonia for awhile as it's presence alone is going to make you have to do water change and you'll be testing a lot so this will save you some money if you only need to replace the ammonia bottles down the road a bit when the other tests are more important when the cycle kicks in.

So when you see low or no ammonia start testing the other things again.

If you are still only half filling your tank you may want to re think that as filling it all the way up will dilute the waste a little more.

 

This is the Goldfish tank, Yeah. throughout the water changes during the week we've been adding more water to get back up to the top ( mainly just to watch the HOB to see if it's gonna overflow on us again haha) after today's water change, we finally got the water to about 3/4ths-ish full to the top. I would say there's a good... maybe two and a half inches of air from the lid. 

I did steep some almond leaves in my dechlorinated water and throw that in, to help lower the ph- since I know that 8 is getting too high for goldfish. 
I didn't put in the actual leaves- mostly because I was kinda worried they'd eat the leaves- they already tried to eat the basil plant. 
 

[flyingcow]

On 9/20/2022 at 6:52 PM, Swampbones said:

This is the Goldfish tank, Yeah. throughout the water changes during the week we've been adding more water to get back up to the top ( mainly just to watch the HOB to see if it's gonna overflow on us again haha) after today's water change, we finally got the water to about 3/4ths-ish full to the top. I would say there's a good... maybe two and a half inches of air from the lid. 

I did steep some almond leaves in my dechlorinated water and throw that in, to help lower the ph- since I know that 8 is getting too high for goldfish. 
I didn't put in the actual leaves- mostly because I was kinda worried they'd eat the leaves- they already tried to eat the basil plant. 
 

If this is a fish in cycle, I wouldn't worry one bit about the pH, but that ammonia level is pretty much an emergency. 50% water change to start with and test again tomorrow. Not the end of the world, but action now is warranted.

[KatFish]

On 9/20/2022 at 6:21 PM, flyingcow said:

If this is a fish in cycle, I wouldn't worry one bit about the pH, but that ammonia level is pretty much an emergency. 50% water change to start with and test again tomorrow. Not the end of the world, but action now is warranted.

Yeah I've been tackling the ammonia levels with 50% water changes every day.

I think what happened was, when the HOB on my old tank made us think it leaked (because further testing has proven no leaks) even when I tried to save some of the old water- it ended up having to restart the cycle.

😮‍💨 Live and learn, you know? Now I'm just tackling ammonia burns as I lower the levels and get things back on track.

that's why I'm doing the tests as often as I am, so I can keep a record.

[flyingcow]

On 9/20/2022 at 8:20 PM, Swampbones said:

Yeah I've been tackling the ammonia levels with 50% water changes every day.

I think what happened was, when the HOB on my old tank made us think it leaked (because further testing has proven no leaks) even when I tried to save some of the old water- it ended up having to restart the cycle.

😮‍💨 Live and learn, you know? Now I'm just tackling ammonia burns as I lower the levels and get things back on track.

that's why I'm doing the tests as often as I am, so I can keep a record.

then you're all over it!

[Flumpweesel]

Honestly I don't worry about the exact numbers but if they look more than I want I change water. Any sign of ammonia or nitrite I do a change and like @Pepere anything looking darker than 40 Nitrate .

I've been in the same boat with goldfish and one of the fish has severe fin rot from the ammonia burn. I was water changing before work each morning and often again when I got home from work to keep the ammonia down, turned into the longest cycle ever because I couldn't leave it to let the bacteria kick in. 

If you have a spare filter set it up in a bucket full of dirty tank water and leave that to cycle then when media has established it's bacteria swap it with the media in the tank you can even readd the now cycled bucket water. 

It might speed up the process a bit.

[KatFish]

On 9/21/2022 at 2:06 AM, Flumpweesel said:

Honestly I don't worry about the exact numbers but if they look more than I want I change water. Any sign of ammonia or nitrite I do a change and like @Pepere anything looking darker than 40 Nitrate .

I've been in the same boat with goldfish and one of the fish has severe fin rot from the ammonia burn. I was water changing before work each morning and often again when I got home from work to keep the ammonia down, turned into the longest cycle ever because I couldn't leave it to let the bacteria kick in. 

If you have a spare filter set it up in a bucket full of dirty tank water and leave that to cycle then when media has established it's bacteria swap it with the media in the tank you can even readd the now cycled bucket water. 

It might speed up the process a bit.

That's a smart idea! I'll give that a shot, thank you so much!

[KatFish]

On 9/20/2022 at 7:47 PM, Pepere said:

I have always aced the color blind tests whenever I have taken them…

Some of the API master test kit gradations leave me wondering…

 

discerning between 40 ppm and 80 ppm Nitrate is guesswork to me.  But that is ok because anything over 40,  am anting to do a water change regardless to lower… And the difference between 40 and 20 ppm are easy enough…

 

Same story with Nitrites above 1 ppm…. And ammonia between 2 ppm and 4 ppmbut again, I am likely doing a water change at those levels if there are fish in the tank…

 

 

 

I used to ace all those online color tests, and then I went into the eye doctor this year... 
I got absolutely bamboozled by similar shades of color, it drove me bonkers! 
I do art for a living- I can't not see different shades, you know?? 

Hearing the nice doctor lady tell me that "No, this is in fact green, and the other is blue" made me re-evaluate everything a little 🤣

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/21/2022 at 12:58 PM, KatFish said:

I used to ace all those online color tests, and then I went into the eye doctor this year... 
I got absolutely bamboozled by similar shades of color, it drove me bonkers! 
I do art for a living- I can't not see different shades, you know?? 

Hearing the nice doctor lady tell me that "No, this is in fact green, and the other is blue" made me re-evaluate everything a little 🤣

I definitely can relate.  I spend off days editing audio / video for the fun of it, whenever I find a project that actually is interesting.  I don't have the setup I used to, but spending the time to calibrate everything has really given my eyes (and ears) the training to see things a specific way.  Light, ambient light, colors, it all varies and definitely messes with your eyes and interpretation.  The easiest thing for me is to compare two things and then discerne between those two selection.  I think we can all relate to how "fine" of a scale some of these tests can be.  "Is it more orange or turning red, etc."

I always struggle with some tests and often I have to re-test because I just struggle with it. 

I don't use flash because it messes with the colors too much.  I would recommend always having the color test and the chart in the same shot, even on a white piece of paper works and helps also.  Use a flashlight instead of a flash if you need more light because that you can keep common.  Flash isn't precise and can skew things based on how the phone reads the object.  I also tend to mess with the iso / white balance just to make sure it looks like what I'm seeing in person. 

BUT.... after all this, if you still have issues, I go to a colorblind simulator (usually top result on google with those two words), and then I'll remove blue or red or green based on whatever test I'm looking at.  Some tests are also easier to see black and white as well. 

All useful tools!  Hopefully that helps 🙂

PH: Looks like ~8.1
Ammonia: ~5.0 ppm
Nitrite: ~2 ppm (more purple than blue, but the clarity (opaqueness) of the purple would indicate higher value, doesn't seem very high, but hard to tell)
Nitrate: 5-10 ppm (perfect)

[KatFish]

On 9/21/2022 at 5:10 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I definitely can relate.  I spend off days editing audio / video for the fun of it, whenever I find a project that actually is interesting.  I don't have the setup I used to, but spending the time to calibrate everything has really given my eyes (and ears) the training to see things a specific way.  Light, ambient light, colors, it all varies and definitely messes with your eyes and interpretation.  The easiest thing for me is to compare two things and then discerne between those two selection.  I think we can all relate to how "fine" of a scale some of these tests can be.  "Is it more orange or turning red, etc."

I always struggle with some tests and often I have to re-test because I just struggle with it. 

I don't use flash because it messes with the colors too much.  I would recommend always having the color test and the chart in the same shot, even on a white piece of paper works and helps also.  Use a flashlight instead of a flash if you need more light because that you can keep common.  Flash isn't precise and can skew things based on how the phone reads the object.  I also tend to mess with the iso / white balance just to make sure it looks like what I'm seeing in person. 

BUT.... after all this, if you still have issues, I go to a colorblind simulator (usually top result on google with those two words), and then I'll remove blue or red or green based on whatever test I'm looking at.  Some tests are also easier to see black and white as well. 

All useful tools!  Hopefully that helps 🙂

PH: Looks like ~8.1
Ammonia: ~5.0 ppm
Nitrite: ~2 ppm (more purple than blue, but the clarity (opaqueness) of the purple would indicate higher value, doesn't seem very high, but hard to tell)
Nitrate: 5-10 ppm (perfect)

thank you very much for the idea about the paper and the chart! I wrote it down on a sticky note and put it in my test kit for next time! 

and yeah- I normally use a flashlight when I read the tests on my own, Honestly I don't know why I didn't think to just grab my flashlight to take the pictures too haha. I think I've gotten used to the convince of technology. 

I definitely do make my artwork (and my tech) more accessible for me to use. Like, I will spend hours color mixing skin tones for my art and still not be happy with it because I can't end up seeing the highlight shades 😅 

thankfully when I do my abstract art, it doesn't matter when I just throw neons and rainbows on a pallette!

[modified lung]

On 9/21/2022 at 3:10 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Light, ambient light, colors, it all varies and definitely messes with your eyes and interpretation.  The easiest thing for me is to compare two things and then discerne between those two selection.

All this is key. When possible I try to do multiple tests at a time. Then I can compare the colors to the chart and to each other. Consistency is also key. I always hold the vials under the same light. If I'm still unsure I pull out my camera and blur the vials out of focus next to the color chart.