Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2014 23:56:58 GMT -5
This is just to share a little idea I came up with that has made working with the liquid water tests a lot easier and nicer for me, so I thought some others may find it helpful too.
It's a separate holder for the tubes, a simple foam block with holes in it and it's a breeze to make. I've found it solves every little frustration I've had with using these tubes, so here's some directions with pics.
All you need is:
-a new block of filter foam
-some straight pins
-an exacto knife
PIC 1
The foam you use can be whatever size suits your needs. The one here is 3.75" long and perfect for 6 tubes, but you could use a larger size for more tubes, or to have a spot for your dropper or even an open area for lids, which I think I'll do on the next one. You could even make a separate one with holes to hold lids so as not to lose them. Note: my foam is orange as I had used bleach on it, new ones are white of course.
Decide where you want to make holes to stand your tubes in, and mark the positions on the foam. I used lids and just eye-balled it to space them out evenly. Markers don't work great on this coarse foam, so instead I inserted pins to define each 'circle' then removed the lids. Simple straight pins would be more exact I guess, but these are what I had.
PIC 2
Using an exacto knife, cut a cross into the foam in the centre of each circle. I found holding the blade almost vertical worked best and some sawing was needed.
IMPORTANT: Try to keep the size of your cross a bit smaller than the size of circle marked (it's just to allow the tube to go in for now, and the tube will shape the hole from there). Also, try to go only half way through the depth of the foam, not more.. you'll see why in a bit. Remove pins.
Insert the tubes into the holes. As they sit for a bit the foam will take the shape of the tube and stay like that.
PIC 3
You now have all your tubes seated firmly and upright on the one block. It's easy to hold the block up to eye level to fill the tubes. If you get a fairly large dropper like the one shown here, it holds more than enough to fill a tube, so it's easy while holding the tubes up to eye level, to fill slowly and often avoid the overfilling, dumping out and repeating routine! You can fill all your tubes at once, then go to run all your tests.
The block makes it easy to transport the used tubes to the sink. No clanging of tubes, no broken tubes! As you rinse them out, return them to the block INVERTED ie facing down. Drops of water left in them will drain down into the foam usually without wetting the surface below (the reason you left some thickness there) and the tubes will dry quickly...way faster than if left in the kit's holding spot or laying down. If you left a space for them, the lids can sit on the block to dry.. or on some tissue. Once dry they can go on the inverted tubes for safe keeping til the next use.
The tube I'm holding in this pic is one from a Hagen kit with a lid that fits into not over a tube. It will stick on your finger which I've found is fantastic for running the GH/KH tests where you have to add a drop, shake, add a drop, shake ... very easy to quickly close and shake the tube, open and add a drop and repeat etc..
So that's it, hopefully a few at least will find this helpful... cheers!
It's a separate holder for the tubes, a simple foam block with holes in it and it's a breeze to make. I've found it solves every little frustration I've had with using these tubes, so here's some directions with pics.
All you need is:
-a new block of filter foam
-some straight pins
-an exacto knife
PIC 1
The foam you use can be whatever size suits your needs. The one here is 3.75" long and perfect for 6 tubes, but you could use a larger size for more tubes, or to have a spot for your dropper or even an open area for lids, which I think I'll do on the next one. You could even make a separate one with holes to hold lids so as not to lose them. Note: my foam is orange as I had used bleach on it, new ones are white of course.
Decide where you want to make holes to stand your tubes in, and mark the positions on the foam. I used lids and just eye-balled it to space them out evenly. Markers don't work great on this coarse foam, so instead I inserted pins to define each 'circle' then removed the lids. Simple straight pins would be more exact I guess, but these are what I had.
PIC 2
Using an exacto knife, cut a cross into the foam in the centre of each circle. I found holding the blade almost vertical worked best and some sawing was needed.
IMPORTANT: Try to keep the size of your cross a bit smaller than the size of circle marked (it's just to allow the tube to go in for now, and the tube will shape the hole from there). Also, try to go only half way through the depth of the foam, not more.. you'll see why in a bit. Remove pins.
Insert the tubes into the holes. As they sit for a bit the foam will take the shape of the tube and stay like that.
PIC 3
You now have all your tubes seated firmly and upright on the one block. It's easy to hold the block up to eye level to fill the tubes. If you get a fairly large dropper like the one shown here, it holds more than enough to fill a tube, so it's easy while holding the tubes up to eye level, to fill slowly and often avoid the overfilling, dumping out and repeating routine! You can fill all your tubes at once, then go to run all your tests.
The block makes it easy to transport the used tubes to the sink. No clanging of tubes, no broken tubes! As you rinse them out, return them to the block INVERTED ie facing down. Drops of water left in them will drain down into the foam usually without wetting the surface below (the reason you left some thickness there) and the tubes will dry quickly...way faster than if left in the kit's holding spot or laying down. If you left a space for them, the lids can sit on the block to dry.. or on some tissue. Once dry they can go on the inverted tubes for safe keeping til the next use.
The tube I'm holding in this pic is one from a Hagen kit with a lid that fits into not over a tube. It will stick on your finger which I've found is fantastic for running the GH/KH tests where you have to add a drop, shake, add a drop, shake ... very easy to quickly close and shake the tube, open and add a drop and repeat etc..
So that's it, hopefully a few at least will find this helpful... cheers!
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Well, at least Seapetal111's strategy can minimize the tubes breaking in most cases. 