First, make sure you have both a negative (untreated) and positive (ROS-induced) sample to compare. A good positive control can be the use of 100 µM menadione for one hour or 50 µM nefazodone for 24 hours. H2O2 can also be used, though it does not work well for CellROX dyes. Some dyes, such as H2DCFDA, require esterase cleavage, so don't incubate in the presence of serum (which contains esterases that can prematurely cleave the dye). If your positive control does not show significant change compared to the negative control, try increasing the concentration and label time for the dye. Our manuals give starting recommendations. Be sure to image your live cells as soon as possible. Only two dyes (CellROX Green and CellROX Deep Red) are retained with formaldehyde fixation. Finally, make sure you are using filters and instrument settings to match the excitation and emission spectra of the dye.
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