"Roy" wrote in message
...
Do it exactly by the directions in the kit in regards to the quanity
of water needed for each test? Some of you may already be doing this,
but when I brought it to the attention of a local fish store, who has
been in business close to 35 years it had never dawned on him to cheat
a bit, but not comnpromizse the tests results.

The test kits I have (all individual kits for each test is what I buy,
usually Aquarium pharmaceutical brand) have a 5 ml glass vial inside,
with a marked ring around the vial to give the proper level of wate
rneeded for the test.

For example on the Ammonia kit you fill it to the mark, and add 8
drops from each of the two bottles in the kit. Total tests you can
make this way is 130. HOwever if the vial is filled halfway with
2 1/2 ml of water and only 4 drops of test solution from each bottle
is added you can get 260 tests fromthis same kit. Same for the nitrate
kit........10 drops per 5 m of water = 90 tests or 5 drops per 2 1/2
ml of pond water gets you 180 tests. The Nitrite kit uses 5 drops per
5 ml of water so use 1 drop per ml of water.......you an get anywhere
from 180 tests using 5 drops to 900 using 1 drop per ml. YOu can
always use a graduated syringe to do the measuring. I played with it
for some time now and no matter how many drops I use the tests all
show the same results.

I much rather have the onhand test kits be used more often and thrown
away when shlf life hits them than skim on tests due to price or need
them and not have them as you did not get the replacement in yet.

So whats y'alls take on this concept? IMHO I think they just use the
standard vial (all kits I have use the same size and graduated vial)
thats in every kit they make and only alter the drops needed for the
tests, so it should not make any difference, except perhaps they may
not sell as many kits if foks adjust the water sample used accordingly
with lesser amount of test chemicals.

==============================================
Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!
"The original frugal ponder"
~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o

This is a perfectly acceptable way to do your test. Laboratories often
dilute samples they think are above the high range for their detectors when
then run an GS/MS analysis. Conversely, in order to measure minute
quantities of compounds in water, the sample is put through an extraction
process which essentially concentrates the compound they are looking for,
if it exists at all in the sample. Then they run a calculation in order to
calibrate their results. Using half the amount of water, and then cutting
the quantity of reagent in half is perfectly acceptable in most cases. The
important thing to remember is that you know exactly how much water you are
using so that you use an appropriate amount of reagent. Having said this,
keep in mind that these tests are colorometric tests that are designed to
use specific quantities in order to get specific colorometric results. As
such, there can be variations in the resulting test color of your sample
because of the amount of time it takes for the sample to change color. In
other words, theoretically, you should get the same result, but, depending
on the kit you use, this may not always be the case.