Red Sea Magnesium Test Kit

[Chyendra]

I purchases the Red Sea Magnesium Test Kit so that I could track my Mg dosing for Bryopsis control.

 

It's not the easiest test kit to use. The first reagent needs to be added dropwise and swirled for 15 seconds in between each drop (5 drops). This is kind of time consuming...

 

The instructions say when the color turns from pink to blue then you measure the reagent used and calculate the ppm. Easy enough. However, As I was adding reagent, at about the 1200ppm mark it turned dark purple. I added more reagent and it turned back to pink.??? Figuring that it just wasn't a clear color change, and dark purple was close enough to blue. I continued to dose Mg in order to raise it to 1600. After a couple weeks of this, I still could not get my Mg higher than 1300! I decided to keep adding reagent to the test vial even after it turned back to pink. And I kept adding and kept adding and it FINALLY turned blueISH around the 2100ppm mark!!! 1200 and 2100 are too far apart to say that this is an "accurate" test by any means.

I bought a Salifert kit, and when I tested the water it was at 1650ppm, and the Salifert test kit clearly turned "blue" and was much more strait forward to use.

 

Don't waste you money on the Red Sea Magnesium kit

[Nano sapiens]

I have had similar experiences. My tank water was reading around 1100 with this kit, but when a LFS checked my water with a Salifert it was 1350. I bought a Salifert kit and the reading was consistent with the LFS's kit.

[StevieT]

Don't waste you money on the Red Sea Magnesium kit

 

DON'T WASTE your money on any Red Sea test kit