Bacteria and water purification

[deleted-539070]

Hi, I am doing a science experiment on different ways to purify water in emergencies. I did the different treatments and using a qtip to transfer the water from each treatment to individual petri dishes. There is a lot of bacetria growth on 2 of the petri dishes, actually there is so much it is hard to count all the colonies. Is there any other way to show the results of the bacteria?
Thanks

[pharrast]

The simplest way I think to remedy that would be to repeat the experiment but let the bacteria grow for less time.

[deleted-547689]

Are you using sterile Q-Tips? The ones you buy at the supermarket aren't sterile unless they are labeled as such. Another way to do it would be to use a sterile dropper and drop a single drop onto the plate, then spread the drop across the plate's surface with a sterile loop or glass rod.