Testing help!!

joeyhatch11 · Mar 11, 2013

Anyone around the Burlington area and off tomorrow to help test my water? I think my test kits aren't reading correctly. Test kit really in question is my Red Sea Magnesium kit and here's why.
When you fill the 5ml syringe to 2ml as the instructions say to do, it's really more than 2ml. Now, using a API 5ml vial for something to test this against, I can use the 1ml syringe in the kit, with the cap off and fill it to the .9 mark 5 times and it fills the API vial perfectly to 5ml. So I assume that doing that twice will give me exactly 2ml of saltwater to test. When I test that 2ml I get 1400 but when I use the 5ml syrigne filled to 2ml I get 1600!!!

I called Red Sea and explain the above and they said to use the 1ml syringe with cap off to get my 2ml and test that way. I'd really like to make sure that it's a true reading. Id be very greatful if someone could help me out on this. I really dont want to over dose my take with magnesium.

downbeach · Mar 11, 2013

I'm in Mt. Laurel, if you want to bring some down here, we can do a battery of tests on it.

joeyhatch11 · Mar 11, 2013

Jim what time is good for you?

downbeach · Mar 11, 2013

Anytime after 8:00AM.

joeyhatch11 · Mar 11, 2013

Lets shoot for around 10am. Thank you very much Jim. Can't wait to see what these numbers come back at.

jverna1 · Mar 11, 2013

I dont like the Red Sea test kits either. When you go to buy your next Mg kit I would go with Elos. It is a little more expensive but it is accurate in my opinion.

joeyhatch11 · Mar 11, 2013

If the test for mag comes back the same as what Im getting now by using the 1ml syringe then I know it's spot on and will finish this kit off. Sad thing is I just bought this new Res Sea kit to replace my last one. So I have about 60 test left in it. LOL

downbeach · Mar 11, 2013

You might want to check the procedure, the test reagent 'A' has be be mixed between each of the five drops, it's a bit of a PITA, but if you don't do it that way, your going to get bad readings.
Here's a demo, if you haven't seen it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MofaqM-I6uM

joeyhatch11 · Mar 11, 2013

Yeah I do it that way. This is my second kit. It's just odd that 2ml in the 5ml syringe isn't a true 2ml. So if thats the case then the testing has always been off. But since I've started testing using the 1ml syringe filled to .9 twice, my readings are coming back low of course. But not crazy low, just around 1240-1280. I want to keep the tank at 1400 but again dont want to over dose and have it higher than that. That's why Im so curious to see what these readings will be tomorrow.