During our Venezuela expedition ( Expedice 2016 Venezuela ) we investigated many rivers and streams and their respective fish diversity. But they were just running waters and we knew, of course, that stagnant waters had a totally different fish fauna!
In reply to a question about lakes or ponds the indigenous people lead us to a small puddle on a site which also served as a cow's pasture. With great scepticism we pulled a fish net through the “cattle trough” and were totally surprised how many fish did live inside!!! Swamp eels, knifefish, catfish and leaffish were caught. Now we also wanted to know what water values the puddle had. The water temperature was at a comfortable 35.1 °C. When we had to mix the sample water with reagents and to compare the resulting colour, viewed from above, with a colour scale, we found ourselves at our limits. The water was so turbid and muddy so that the conventional water tests didn’t work anymore.
But we still had our JBL ProScan with us. Here a special test strip is dipped into the water to be tested which is horizontally shaken off. This way a water moistened colour field is left, which then can be measured with the smartphone and the colour chart. And this had been workíng! The cattle trough, rich in fish, had a KH of 8 °dKH, a GH < 3 °dGH, a pH of 7.2 and a calculated CO2 content of 15 mg/l. And another advantage: you always have your smartphone with you, the JBL ProScan colour chart takes up no space and you always can keep a few test strips somewhere on you. Thus you really can always and everywhere carry out a water test within 60 seconds. Now there is no excuse not to carry out a measurement anymore!
