I don't know if this would affect your method, Karen, but perlite was terrible for me. My method is to put seeds in baggies with a quarter cup of vermiculite and just a tad less than 2 tablespoons of water. I then blow air in to make a "pillow" and leave them at room temp and they start germinating in about a week. (You can also put them in the fridge for damp chilling first, but I have gotten 90% or so germination without it so haven't bothered.)
The way I tell if seeds have germinated is seeing the little white shoot that first appears at one end. I try to plant them (I use promix in 12 oz Solo cups - 3 to a cup) soon after the first growth appears, though sometimes there are so many I don't get to them all in time, and some have roots several inches long by the time I get to them. Doesn't seem to affect growth, but it takes much longer to plant those long roots, and you risk breaking them.
Anyway, the stores were out of vermiculite last year when I had only started two third of my seeds, so I had to use Perlite instead. Not only did they not do as well, but, because Perlite is white, it was next to impossible to see the white shoots on the seeds when they had sprouted. Plus the Perlite didn't stay as uniformly damp as vermiculite.
You may be doing it using a totally different method where this wouldn't matter, but wanted to throw that in just in case.
