In need of a good digital nitrate tester

[jevolk]

can anyone recommend a decent digital nitrate tester. I have issues with seeing the colors with the regular kits

[bertoni]

The nitrate meter that American Marine sells seems to be reasonably accurate most of the time, although it is pricey. I don't know of any alternatives that work in saltwater.

[jevolk]

Thank you I will give that a look see. I just can not see the colors in some of these test kits so I am trying to go digital.

[Dan_P]

Strictly for FYI'ers and daring souls. It is possible to use a digital camera to "read" colors and you could probably use a Hanna checker as well. Neither option is straightforward though.

The digital image colorimetry approach is something I regularly use to read kits. I have not gotten around to writing up instructions to share. I am still pondering what lighting to suggest, something easy to use and that everyone has.

I am currently using the Hanna phosphorous ULR Checker to read the low end (<0.2 ppm) of the Salifert NO3 test, but I have not run a calibration curve, so, I can't comment on accuracy and precision. Just collecting numbers right now.

I mention both approaches just in case other experimnters, hackers and DYI'ers want to give it a try.

[jevolk]

Thank you I will give that a look see. I just can not see the colors in some of these test kits so I am trying to go digital.

[Crusinjimbo]

I experience the same issue with interpretation of shades but have found the Red Sea Pro kit works well. It uses an untreated vial of water beside the test vial in a holder with a rotary color wheel that is view top down. It changes reading a sample to matching your sample to a color on a wheel. Big difference for me.

[jevolk]

I experience the same issue with interpretation of shades but have found the Red Sea Pro kit works well. It uses an untreated vial of water beside the test vial in a holder with a rotary color wheel that is view top down. It changes reading a sample to matching your sample to a color on a wheel. Big difference for me.
Shades of color with slight variations are a problem, but maybe I will try that kit. You say you can distinguish the colors better.

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[2una]

I'm still following up on this but a lfs owner of a reasonably large store is telling me the Hanna Nitrate Photometer works fine for them on salt water.
They use it in store for their No3 testing.

One of these 2 is what he's using
http://hannainst.com/products/portable-photometers/parameter/nitrate.html

Is anyone using that could confirm they do work okay or not?

Yes i do know they're supposed to be for f/water.
His example was where a redsea kit would show 2ppm this would show maybe 1.8 which surprised the hell out of me - i thought they weren't supposed to work on s/water

[jevolk]

I'm still following up on this but a lfs owner of a reasonably large store is telling me the Hanna Nitrate Photometer works fine for them on salt water.
They use it in store for their No3 testing.

One of these 2 is what he's using
http://hannainst.com/products/portable-photometers/parameter/nitrate.html

Is anyone using that could confirm they do work okay or not?

Yes i do know they're supposed to be for f/water.
His example was where a redsea kit would show 2ppm this would show maybe 1.8 which surprised the hell out of me - i thought they weren't supposed to work on s/water
A bit pricey for me

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[bertoni]

I would ask about the nitrate test kit before buying it. It probably will work with saltwater, but I am not sure.