Water quality is essential to many different industries and activities. Our specialists assess the health of the water and carry out regular tests to determine and maintain its quality, in order to ensure successful production and the sustenance of flora and fauna life.
Commonly conducted water quality tests include:
- Temperature testing – Testing the temperature helps determine the rate of biochemical reaction in an aquatic environment and indeed whether they are able to occur at all. If the water temperature is too elevated, this can limit the water’s ability to hold oxygen and decrease organisms’ capacity to resist particular pollutants.
- pH testing – Measures the acidity of water. Most aquatic organisms are only able to survive within a pH range of 6 to 8.
- Chloride test – Chloride is usually present in fresh and salt water. However, its levels can be exacerbated as a result of minerals dissolving and industrial pollution
- Salinity testing – Measures the total of all non-carbonate salts dissolved in water. Measuring groundwater salinity indicates how salty your topsoil may become if the watertable rises.
- Dissolved Oxygen Test – Measures the amount of oxygen dissolved in water. Without this, aquatic life is unable to conduct cellular respiration and is thus a key indicator of water health.
- Turbidity test – Measures the amount of particulate matter that is suspended in the water, or more simply, how clear the water is. If high levels of turbidity are present, photosynthesis is affected as light is unable to penetrate, increasing water temperature.
- Nitrate and Phosphate – The presence of these essential nutrients is a good indicator of strong plant life. However, the addition of artificial nitrates and phosphates through detergents, fertilizers or sewage can be harmful and result in eutrophication, generally in the form of unwanted algal blooms.
- Pesticides – We measure whether any pesticides are present and their concentration levels.
- Redox – The measurement of the reduction-oxidisation potential of a solution, which indicates the electron activity. Micro-organism growth is highly dependent on these levels.
- Electrical conductivity – Estimates the total amount of solids dissolved in the water. This can be a good indicator of the level of salinity.
- Metals – Testing that indicates the presence of a suite of metals which are not naturally occurring in water. Heavy metals (Aluminium, Antimony, Arsenic, Beryllium, Bismuth, Copper, Cadmium, Lead, Mercury, Nickel, Uranium, Tin, Vanadium and Zinc) can find their way into water bodies through natural processes or human activities such as mining, processing of minerals, use of metals as containers and transportation through metallic pipelines. Heavy metals are known to harm kidneys, liver, nervous system and bone structure.
We also supply user-friendly and inexpensive water testing tools and equipment like:
- Portable turbidimeter for testing turbidity (cloudiness caused by particles in the water)
- Test strips and colorimeter with appropriate reagents for testing chemical water quality parameters such as hardness, iron, manganese, nitrate/nitrite, phosphate, and sulfate
- Handheld Pocket Pro for testing pH, conductivity, TDS, and salinity
- Portable membrane filtration kit with a portable incubator that we assemble in-house for testing microbiological water quality
- Test strips, color wheel test kit, and colorimeter with appropriate reagents for testing total and free chlorine concentration
Tools
Our Mobile laboratory for onsite water quality testing includes
Fridge ( sample storage)
Incubators ( for microbiology setting) at 37
Cool boxes
Consumables
Sterile bottles
Quanty trays
Ethanol for sterilizing
Cotton
Colorant ( food for microbiology)