Api Master Test Kit And Colour-Blindness

[JDs4me]

I am cycling at present, and have issues with the API master test kit NO2 shades of colour - to me, the 1, 2 and 5ppm shades are identical! I want to know where I am with it obviously, and was recommended to try the Salifert NO2 test kit. This uses different depths of shading in one colour, rather than having to compare different colours...its a lot easier for me - there are significant differences in the depth of shading for the area I am having trouble with; on the Salifert the relevant levels are for 1, 2 and 4ppm.

The lower end of the scale is a little more sensitive too; it has a 0.1ppm shade which is absent with the API. Salifert also gives you the option to read more sensitively by a factor of 10 by looking through the side of the vial rather than down on it; i.e. 0.1ppm becomes 0.01ppm if read this way. Apart from that the API serves me well. I am not sure if the other Salifert kits use shade depths of just one colour - if so they may help people having problems with other areas of the API colour chart.

 

[Livewire88]

I like you am also colourblind! it is a nightmare (or impossible) to tell the difference between the different shades.

I get the other half to help me out, so I would just say your best bet is to do the same and ask someone who is not colourblind to help you out.

 

[JDs4me]

I like you am also colourblind! it is a nightmare (or impossible) to tell the difference between the different shades.

I get the other half to help me out, so I would just say your best bet is to do the same and ask someone who is not colourblind to help you out.

with you there! when the kids (girls; better at it than us blokes...if nothing else!) are here they get roped in

The Salifert chart is shown below

BTW I love the avatar you have of that super green fishy

 

[AXIS]

Yeah its #40## near impossible. Colour blind myself too.

I have to get my wife to look at the things.

 

[OldMan47]

If you are color blind, I have no idea how you can match a chart. Some of the color shifts are subtle at best. I am not at all color blind, heck I will work a jigsaw puzzle using color alone to find the right piece for the sky, but I must use a consistent approach or I do not trust my own results with a color chart. I always use sunlight over my shoulder to read a chart while holding the test tube against the white part of the card and matching the lightest color of the tube to the chart colors. I can get consistent results that way and it means my results are meaningful to me, even if not exactly what the manufacturers intended.

 

[Man of fish]

I'm also colorblind, but the worst part for me is I just get SIMILAR colors confused vs full color blindness where at times you can even mix up completely different colors. That's why it's awful to read the vial. Always have the parents and sister helP me with it

 

[OldMan47]

JD, it is a fact that female humans are never color blind. Since it is a sex linked genetic malfunction and the girls simply have no Y chromosomes, they never suffer from it. In males it is not universal but is fairly common to be color blind to one degree or another. Red / green is the one most often cited in studies. I managed to duck that through no real merit of my own but I know that many people I have worked with over the last 40 years have had exactly that problem.

 

[Man of fish]

Not sure if this is correct, but we actually learned in school that color blindness is a sex-linked trait as you said, but it has to do with the X chromosomes not the Y. The reason why females are usually most likely not colorblind is because for them to be colorblind they're genetic formula would need to be XcXc to have the trait, but XcX to be a carrier of the trait, (the c stands for colorblindness, whereas boys only have one X chromosome so for us to be colorblind we just need to have XcY. or at least that's what were taught in school

JD, it is a fact that female humans are never color blind. Since it is a sex linked genetic malfunction and the girls simply have no Y chromosomes, they never suffer from it. In males it is not universal but is fairly common to be color blind to one degree or another. Red / green is the one most often cited in studies. I managed to duck that through no real merit of my own but I know that many people I have worked with over the last 40 years have had exactly that problem.

 

[OldMan47]

I'm sorry. It has been over 45 years since I attended any school. I may have messed up the genetic linkage on it.

 

[AXIS]

Yeah I'm pretty sure that it is X linked and that it is recessive.

As a male only has one X, if he gets the colour blind one, then he is guaranteed to be colour blind.

A woman however would have two Xs, so in order for her to be colour blind, she'd need two X's with the colour blind gene, as if she only had one, then the good one would overide.

So while its possible for a woman to get it, its much rarer as you need the double up.

 

[JDs4me]

If you are color blind, I have no idea how you can match a chart. Some of the color shifts are subtle at best. I am not at all color blind, heck I will work a jigsaw puzzle using color alone to find the right piece for the sky, but I must use a consistent approach or I do not trust my own results with a color chart. I always use sunlight over my shoulder to read a chart while holding the test tube against the white part of the card and matching the lightest color of the tube to the chart colors. I can get consistent results that way and it means my results are meaningful to me, even if not exactly what the manufacturers intended.

This is my method exactly; I can see the difference in colour, just not how it measures up to the chart, so pointing me in the right direction - hence keeping nitrites low with water changes so that I will hopefully detect an eventual drop without help from me as I cycle away.