Testing water – here’s how

The water in your aquarium is outstandingly significant because it is a life-giving element for fish and plants. The water and its quality influences the fish and plants living inside, while conversely the life processes of these fish and plants also influence the water quality. Ideally water looks crystal-clear, but this also means that any toxic substances and minerals inside cannot be seen. That’s why the monitoring of the most important water values (more about that under Keeping an eye on the most important water values ) with water tests is a real must. We will help you to make the invisible components visible.

Not even tap water, which is actually a foodstuff in Germany, is always suitable for fish without additional treatment, since the required bacteria are missing and the parameters possibly don’t meet the requirements of your animals.

By testing the water you will receive valuable background knowledge about that and you have the possibility to choose the right course of action. The water test is not only required when problems in the aquarium arise, it should be an integral part of the aquarium routine.

That’s why we would like to tell you about water testing and show how easy it is.

Here’s how testing works

  • Be sure to rinse the cuvettes several times in the water you want to test.
  • Please follow the instructions and differentiate between the small and large spoon end when adding a powder (nitrate test large spoon end, phosphate test small spoon end).
  • Please also differentiate between swivelling and shaking the cuvette in accordance with the instructions.
  • ALWAYS keep the reagent bottles in a vertical position when adding drops. The drop size changes when holding the bottle in an inclined or in horizontal position.

With the drop tests for aquariums we distinguish between three different types which we will explain in detail to you below:

Colorimetry

During the colour comparison test (colorimetric test) please follow the instructions closely and add the prescribed number of drops of one or several reagents into the prescribed amount of water of the cuvette. This results in colouring which is then compared to a colour chart and shows you how much of the substance is present in the water. This same principle is used in the JBL PROAQUATEST pH 3.10-10.0 , JBL PROAQUATEST pH 6.0-7.6 , JBL PROAQUATEST pH 7.4-9.0 , JBL PROAQUATEST Mg Magnesium Fresh water , JBL PROAQUATEST Fe Iron , JBL PROAQUATEST PO4 Phosphate Sensitive , JBL PROAQUATEST PO4 Phosphate koi , JBL PROAQUATEST O2 Oxygen , JBL PROAQUATEST SiO2 Silicate , JBL PROAQUATEST Cu Copper , JBL PROAQUATEST NH4 Ammonium , JBL PROAQUATEST NO3 Nitrate and JBL PROAQUATEST NO2 Nitrite . What makes the JBL colour comparison tests special is that you fill a second cuvette at the same time with sample water and put it on the colour chart with the colour field. If you now look from above through your water sample onto the colour field, the printed colour changes due to the inherent water colouring which then is taken into account in the result. This JBL comparator system facilitates the colour comparison for you and has laboratory-standard precision.

Turbidity

In the turbidimetric test you add indicators into your clear water sample to create turbidity. Add this “cloudy” water millilitre after millilitre into the special test tube until a cross on the underlying colour chart is no longer recognisable because of the increasing layer of cloudy water inside the test tube. That’s how the JBL PROAQUATEST K Potassium works. Although during the JBL oxygen test turbidity arises too, you still need to compare the colouring with a colour comparison chart at the end.

Titration

In the drop counting test (which is called titration) you count from the first added drop of the reagent the number of drops until the colour changes into another defined colour. At the JBL PROAQUATEST GH General hardness this would be from red to green, in the JBL PROAQUATEST KH Carbonate hardness , in the JBL PROAQUATEST CO2 Direct from colourless to pink and in the JBL PROAQUATEST Mg-Ca Magnesium-Calcium from red to green or red to blue.

Finally, it must be mentioned that there is another method to determine the water values, the test strips ( JBL PROAQUATEST EASY 7in1 ) . With them you can monitor up to seven water parameters in one go and display them in an overview. A special opportunity for that is offered by the JBL PROSCAN which can deliver precise measurement results after 60 seconds via smartphone and which offers a much finer scaling than conventional test strips on the market.

How you test is your choice. Keep an eye on the water values!

© 28.09.2016
Matthias Wiesensee
Matthias Wiesensee
M.Sc. Wirtschaftsinformatik

Social Media, Online Marketing, Homepage, Kundenservice, Problemlöser, Fotografie, Blogger, Tauchen, Inlineskating, Aquaristik, Gartenteich, Reisen, Technik, Elektronische Musik

About me: Seit Teenagerzeiten mit Aquarien in Kontakt. Klassische Fischaquarien, reine Pflanzenaquarien bis hin zum Aquascape. Aber auch ein Gartenteich und Riffaquarien begleiten mich privat im Hobby. Als Wirtschaftsinformatiker, M.Sc. bin ich als Online Marketing Manager bei JBL für die Bereiche Social Media, Webentwicklung und der Kommunikation mit dem Anwender der JBL Produkte zuständig und kenne die JBL Produkte im Detail.

Comments

A word about cookies before we continue

The JBL Homepage also uses several types of cookies to provide you with full functionality and many services: We require technical and functional cookies to ensure that everything works when you visit this website. We also use cookies for marketing purposes. This ensures that we recognise you when you visit our extensive site again, that we can measure the success of our campaigns and that the personalisation cookies allow us to address you individually and directly, adapted to your needs - even outside our website. You can determine at any time - even at a later date - which cookies you allow and which you do not allow (more on this under "Change settings").

The JBL website uses several types of cookies to provide you with full functionality and many services: Technical and functional cookies are absolutely necessary so that everything works when you visit this website. In addition, we use cookies for marketing purposes. You can determine at any time - even at a later date - which cookies you allow and which you do not (more on this under "Change settings").

Our data protection declaration tells you how we process personal data and what purposes we use the data processing for. tells you how we process personal data and what purposes we use the data processing for. Please confirm the use of all cookies by clicking "Accept" - and you're on your way.

Are you over 16 years old? Then confirm the use of all cookies with "Noticed" and you are ready to go.

Choose your cookie settings

Technical and functional cookies, so that everything works when you visit our website.
Marketing cookies, so that we recognize you on our pages and can measure the success of our campaigns.

PUSH messages from JBL

What are PUSH messages? As part of the W3C standard, web notifications define an API for end-user notifications that are sent to the user's desktop and/or mobile devices via the browser. Notifications appear on the end devices as they are familiar to the end user from apps installed on the device (e.g. emails). Notifications appear on the end user’s device, just like an app (e.g. for emails) installed on the device.

These notifications enable a website operator to contact its users whenever they have a browser open - it doesn’t matter whether the user is currently visiting the website or not.

To be able to send web push notifications, all you need is a website with a web push code installed. This allows brands without apps to take advantage of many of the benefits of push notifications (personalised real-time communications at just the right moment).

Web notifications are part of the W3C standard and define an API for end user notifications. A notification makes it possible to inform the user about an event, such as a new blog post, outside the context of a website.

JBL GmbH & Co. KG provides this service free of charge, and it is easy to activate or deactivate.