Revision history [back]

I am not sure why you are looking to test with coliforms other than by culturing at temperature you can evaluate. To get a starter culture that is calibrated and you know how many there are you probably need to look at bacteriophages. These are widely used in testing membrane and other filters and UV systems for validation purposes and cultures are commercially available. There is also a difference between validation testing for getting approval and QC testing of production samples. The former really needs to be done by an outside agency to have the validity and protocol required. Routine QC testing is a more in house activity but I would suggest does not need to involve bacteria. For safety reasons if nothing else try either using a dust of suitable size or even depending on the type of filter and the arrangement bubble point testing of a filter assembly using low pressure air on a wetted filter is quick cheap and effective and results are readily recorded.