Biolog GenIII plates test for a positive metabolic response to 71 different carbon sources and an negative metabolic response to 23 potentially inhibitory conditions. Cells are grown on an appropriate medium, suspended at low cell density in an inoculating fluid, and dispensed into a 96 well plate with reagents dried into the bottom of each well. A positive metabolic response is indicated by oxidation of dye which turns the well purple. The plate is scanned every 15 minutes for 36 hours and the pattern of response is compared to a database. Reports provided include a tentative identification based on similarity to the database, image of the plate, densitometric measurements, and spreadsheet with values for each well (scored from 1 to 100)