22
Water Action Volunteers – Level 2 Manual
Updated January 2016
Transparency Tube Monitoring Procedure
1. Remove large objects from the water sample.
a. If necessary, filter through a nylon stocking.
2. If the sample has settled, use a stirring stick to stir the
sample, or pour the sample into a clean bucket and
back into the transparency tube to suspend all
materials.
3. Stand out of direct sunlight and remove sunglasses if
you are wearing them.
a. If you cannot get to a shady place, use your
body to cast a shadow on the tube.
4. Looking into the transparency tube for the target
(black and white) disc on the bottom of tube.
a. If disc is visible,
record the length of the tube
(e.g., 60, 100, or 120 cm) on the datasheet.
5. If target disc is not visible, have your partner let water out a little at a time using the
valve at the bottom until disc is just visible.
a. Have them stop letting water out
immediately when you can just see the
contrast between black and white on
the disc at the bottom of the tube.
6. Read the level of water in the tube using the
measuring tape on the side of the tube.
a. Measurement will be in centimeters.
7. Record the
measurement
on your monitoring
datasheet in the appropriate column.
8. Dump contents of tube on ground.
9. Collect a new sample and repeat steps 1 through 8 in order to complete a second trial.
10. Record the
second measurement
in cm on your monitoring datasheet.
A refresher video for how to monitor water clarity with a transparency tube is available on the
WAV website (
http://watermonitoring.uwex.edu/wav/monitoring/video.html
). Please contact
your local coordinator or the WAV coordinator if you have any questions!
