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What water test kit brand s do you use?
- Thread starter lithivm
- Start date
Salifert and API ... API i got when I started and moved to Salifert ... but Salifert test are hard to find, although now that I know TFJ has them instock I'll be getting them there.
I've got access to all the brands mentioned thus far plus the Red Sea and another brand not worth mentioning.
The Sera kits seem to match very closely with the API test kits plus they have a couple of kits that API doesn't. They are very easy to use also and the bottle allows a more constant drip then say the API bottle which can drip just from turning it upside down. With the Sera bottles you have to squeeze them a bit which is nice.
As far as bang for the buck it's hard to beet the API kits as they are cheap and work well but for a buck or two more a kit the Sera are better IMHO just because the drop seems more "controlled".
Salifert kits are just plain over priced and overly complex for most tests and don't give any better numbers then other kits do. Salifert does make tests that others don't so unless you go with Hach or Lamotte things like Silica, Strontium, Iron, Iodine are going to probably best be served with Salifert kits.
For the basics like Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Alkalinity, pH save your money and go with API or Sera. For Calcium either of the first two or the Salifert is good. For Mg the Sera seems to work well and is what I'm currently using.
There are 3 test kits that are worthless IMHO after a tank is established and they are ammonia, nitrite and phosphate. Once past the initial cycle you probably never need the ammonia or nitrite kits again. Phosphate kits on the other hand are pretty much worthless or give you a false sense of what's really going on in the tank. The problem is that any algae will take out the phosphates from the water before you can test for it. Then even if you can test something it's off by 4x times since almost all test kits only test for one form of phosphates and not all of them. So I like to use my eyes for phosphates. If you see algae growing you got phosphates (short and sweet).
Just my 2 cents,
Carlo
PS I still typically use the Salifert Calcium test kit the most simply because I find it easy to use and think it's pretty quick. I don't trust the Salifert Alk test kit (even the new one) with a 10 foot pole as I STILL get different results from each box (BAD). It's also darn right hard to differentiate the color change on the new alk test kit! You can very easily overshoot the color change and think you have 12 dKH when if fact you only have 7 dKH. It's that bad!
The Sera kits seem to match very closely with the API test kits plus they have a couple of kits that API doesn't. They are very easy to use also and the bottle allows a more constant drip then say the API bottle which can drip just from turning it upside down. With the Sera bottles you have to squeeze them a bit which is nice.
As far as bang for the buck it's hard to beet the API kits as they are cheap and work well but for a buck or two more a kit the Sera are better IMHO just because the drop seems more "controlled".
Salifert kits are just plain over priced and overly complex for most tests and don't give any better numbers then other kits do. Salifert does make tests that others don't so unless you go with Hach or Lamotte things like Silica, Strontium, Iron, Iodine are going to probably best be served with Salifert kits.
For the basics like Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Alkalinity, pH save your money and go with API or Sera. For Calcium either of the first two or the Salifert is good. For Mg the Sera seems to work well and is what I'm currently using.
There are 3 test kits that are worthless IMHO after a tank is established and they are ammonia, nitrite and phosphate. Once past the initial cycle you probably never need the ammonia or nitrite kits again. Phosphate kits on the other hand are pretty much worthless or give you a false sense of what's really going on in the tank. The problem is that any algae will take out the phosphates from the water before you can test for it. Then even if you can test something it's off by 4x times since almost all test kits only test for one form of phosphates and not all of them. So I like to use my eyes for phosphates. If you see algae growing you got phosphates (short and sweet).
Just my 2 cents,
Carlo
PS I still typically use the Salifert Calcium test kit the most simply because I find it easy to use and think it's pretty quick. I don't trust the Salifert Alk test kit (even the new one) with a 10 foot pole as I STILL get different results from each box (BAD). It's also darn right hard to differentiate the color change on the new alk test kit! You can very easily overshoot the color change and think you have 12 dKH when if fact you only have 7 dKH. It's that bad!