Water Test Kits

[boris]

I don't know weather it is just me, but no mater what I test I get the same result, I've just brought a new phosphate test kit, I think I have to much phosphate because I have a lot of red hair algae. I tested the tank and I get a reading of zero, Test tap water I get the same colour reading and zero (I have two test cards one for fresh water one for salt) I have the same with the big tank fresh water tank, The water test always reads perfect (even if I am over due for water changes) I don't know weather the test kits are expired when I have purchased them or what. In the last 5 or so years that I have bother to test my water I have never had a test that was not perfect (even when cycling new tanks) and I know dam well that the water is not! :oops:

Love to no others experiences with test kits

[Aquila]

Personally the nitrate scale in these kits always bothers me.

It has an almost white colour for 0ppm, then the next one up is 20ppm (which also looks almost white) ...and you can't even tell which colour the pad has really changed into anyway!

Is there not a kit that has a smaller scale? Like 0, 5, 10, 15, 20ppm, etc? When keeping fish which are sensitive to a build up of nitrate and not ever knowing when it is at 1ppm or 30pm is really frustrating. It is always recommend that nitrate be kept below 10ppm...yeah well goodluck monitoring that!

[reef]

I've just brought a new phosphate test kit, I think I have to much phosphate because I have a lot of red hair algae.

What make of test kit is it??

[boris]

they are API Aquarium pharmaceticals, master test ki,t calcum and phosphate

[reef]

get some decent test kits,

salifert, - http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/prtest ... erttki.htm

[boris]

not much choice in wellington, we only have two companies that have marine proucts, only one of those ,in my opinon, is worth going to

[suphew]

There are at least 4 shops in the Wellington area that stock Marine, admittedly two are the same company but have quite different marine set ups. I'm sure if you asked any one of these they would get a Salifert test kit in for you.

P04 is really hard to test for, I don't know that there are really any hobby test kits that will measure the low enough to pick up levels that will still cause algae.

Do you use tap water for your salt and top up? Do you use a PO4 remover? Basically you need to look at what is putting P04 into your tank, frozen food, poor quality water, bad quality carbon, rock leaching; and what can do to minimise/control it, P04 resin, macro algae, algae scruber, RO/DI water

[boris]

petone and miramar are the same company and lower hutt and porirua are owned by the same guy

I do use a po4 remover, carbon would be about a year old so probably over due to be replaced, I use nsw with filtered water as top up

[livingart]

they are API Aquarium pharmaceticals, master test ki,t calcum and phosphate

get some decent test kits,

salifert, - http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/prtest ... erttki.htm

so reef are you saying Salifert kits are decent and API kits are not?

[camnbron]

In general for Salt water reef aquariums test kits need to be more accurate.

A lot of the generic test kits are not able to provide results accurately to the levels that owners of these types of tanks prefer them to be. Especially in the case of phosphate and nitrate. There is better methods of testing than the titration test kits available at the LFS, but they are more expensive (eg hanna phosphate meter)

The preferred brand of test kits in use in NZ are:

Salifert, JBL, Red sea.

I use JBL, I'd prefer to use salifert but it never seems to be available at the LFS's in Tauranga or Rotorua and there is not an online NZ based shop that sells them. There are other brands but they are either not as accurate or are not as available as the above 3.

[N1CK]

Have you tried calibrating the test kits first? I know it is possible for freshwater but not sure for saltwater...

[reef]

o reef are you saying Salifert kits are decent and API kits are not?

Salfert, THE very best choice, especially with reef keepers.

API po4 test is below average

not much choice in wellington,

Try Hollywood fish farm. they will courier them.

[Caryl]

I hope you aren't saying that just because you import the Salifert kits :-?

[suphew]

petone and miramar are the same company and lower hutt and porirua are owned by the same guy

I do use a po4 remover, carbon would be about a year old so probably over due to be replaced, I use nsw with filtered water as top up

That's 4 shops plus the one up the coast, by my count, 2-3 more marine stocking shops than Auckland has? The stock in Wellington also come from 4 different importers that I know of (it could be more). That's plenty of competition, options, and stock to choose from, I'm not really sure how much more choice you could have?

BTW Petone and Miramar may be owned by the same company but they are managed quite separately. The Porirua and Hutt stores aren't owned by the same guy, however the four owners are all related.

Carbon should be replaced pretty regularly if you're going to use it, at least monthly. I'm guessing that if you don't replace your carbon your P04 resin has been in there a while to? It depends on how much P04 it's removing, but I'd be replacing it at least every month as well.

[reef]

I hope you aren't saying that just because you import the Salifert kits

You aren't saying that because you don't use them

Facts are , they are better than most hobby test kits, especially the phostphate test.