Forgot my test kit...

[johnny85]

I have my tank set up now and running with the exception of live rock which I am picking up today after work. In all the excitement I forgot to buy a water test kit. I see Amazon has an API master saltwater test kit on sale for $22 right now. Is this a sufficient test kit or should I look at other options?.

[Jmevox]

I would buy the Red Sea kit instead. They are higher quality and worth the extra money

[Clown79]

2 hours ago, johnny85 said:

I have my tank set up now and running with the exception of live rock which I am picking up today after work. In all the excitement I forgot to buy a water test kit. I see Amazon has an API master saltwater test kit on sale for $22 right now. Is this a sufficient test kit or should I look at other options?.

For cycling I'd buy the ammonia and nitrate of api. Its accurate enough.

 

 

For alkalinity and phos- the best is hanna checkers, so easy and convenient.

 

Ca, mag, nitrate- red sea or salifert.

 

When you are done cycling buy the kits you need.

 

Hanna checkers

Salifert

Red sea

[johnny85]

I would buy the Hanna checkers if they made them for everything! I will definitely buy them for the alkalinity and phos. Where would you recommend getting the red sea and or sailfert kits from?

[Clown79]

4 hours ago, johnny85 said:

I would buy the Hanna checkers if they made them for everything! I will definitely buy them for the alkalinity and phos. Where would you recommend getting the red sea and or sailfert kits from?

They have other testers from hanna like Ca but it doesn't have good reviews.

 

The alk and phos hanna's are great. Easy and fast to use.

 

You can get them pretty much anywhere, I'm in Cda so I order them from stores here.

[Seadragon]

I really love the Hanna Instruments Checker Test Kits including the Calcium one.  If you look on Amazon, it has 3.5 stars out of 5.  If you go through the reviews that hate it, it really comes down to a few things, either:

 

1. They don't like how it may cost more on Amazon compared to place X.  I find these reviews utterly nonsense and it doesn't truly rate how good the product actually is or not.

2. Some don't think it's accurate.  And I can tell you why.  If you follow the instructions, it says to use deionized water.  In the reviews, some of them are not even doing that so they're starting off with a bad base sample.  Personally, I use ERS Deionized Water which is the Purest form of H2O.  Second, they don't put all of the powder from Reagent B into the cuvette.  They end up leaving some within the packet or spilling some.  So of course, you will get inaccurate results.  How about cutting the packet open on the dotted line, pouring it into the cuvette, and then opening up the packet and pouring in the remaining?

3. They can't follow too many instructions.  Granted, it's a few more steps than the Alkalinity tester, but it isn't THAT hard.  I've done it a few times already, got accurate results as many others have per their positive reviews on Amazon, and I have the steps memorized already.

 

[Clown79]

11 hours ago, Seadragon said:

I really love the Hanna Instruments Checker Test Kits including the Calcium one.  If you look on Amazon, it has 3.5 stars out of 5.  If you go through the reviews that hate it, it really comes down to a few things, either:

 

1. They don't like how it may cost more on Amazon compared to place X.  I find these reviews utterly nonsense and it doesn't truly rate how good the product actually is or not.

2. Some don't think it's accurate.  And I can tell you why.  If you follow the instructions, it says to use deionized water.  In the reviews, some of them are not even doing that so they're starting off with a bad base sample.  Personally, I use ERS Deionized Water which is the Purest form of H2O.  Second, they don't put all of the powder from Reagent B into the cuvette.  They end up leaving some within the packet or spilling some.  So of course, you will get inaccurate results.  How about cutting the packet open on the dotted line, pouring it into the cuvette, and then opening up the packet and pouring in the remaining?

3. They can't follow too many instructions.  Granted, it's a few more steps than the Alkalinity tester, but it isn't THAT hard.  I've done it a few times already, got accurate results as many others have per their positive reviews on Amazon, and I have the steps memorized already.

 

Have you tested the hanna results against other Ca kits?

[Seadragon]

18 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

Have you tested the hanna results against other Ca kits?

 

Initially, I was using the API Calcium Test Kit.  Every drop was a difference of 20 PPM.  On 11/8/19, it measured 22 drops or 440 PPM.

 

On 11/10/19, I started using the Hanna Instruments Calcium Checker Test Kit and got a reading of 468 PPM.  I started adjusting the dosage then it went to:

11/13/19: 455

11/17/19: 416

11/19/19: 420

and 420 was my target.  Every time I adjusted accordingly, the reading looked appropriate the next time I tested.  Although I didn't test it against some other big brand name, if it was very off, it wouldn't keep giving me consistent results around my target of 420 PPM.  I'd expect it to be all over the place.  The only way I could make it give inaccurate results would be to not follow the instructions and to not use all of Reagent B like others have done per their review and then complained that it's not working.

 

[Clown79]

Accuracy not in your readings using the kit but ppl found the kit not accurate compared to other kits.

 

Example being 

 

Red sea got readings of 420, salifert 422, api 420 and hanna was way off the mark. 

 

My first hanna alk checker was way off compared to the other kits I tested it against. My second checker was spot on. 

[Seadragon]

It's possible.  I also know when someone sees a shade of red, purple or blue, it can be subjective whether it's "blue" enough or needs 1 more drop.  It gives that human error element to the whole equation not even counting the big range of 20 PPM per drop for the API test.  I'm more looking for consistency; I'm just not seeing inconsistent results like some reviewers complained of.

[mcarroll]

On 12/13/2019 at 1:15 PM, johnny85 said:

I have my tank set up now and running with the exception of live rock which I am picking up today after work. In all the excitement I forgot to buy a water test kit. I see Amazon has an API master saltwater test kit on sale for $22 right now. Is this a sufficient test kit or should I look at other options?.

What do your local stores carry?

 

I'm mostly in agreement on other kits....though I haven't used the new (not so new anymore I guess...but not their old kits) Red Sea kits.

 

Hanna is especially nice if you're color blind since it'll interpret colors for you on something like a phosphate test.

 

My only beef against the Hanna's is how much time it takes to run a test...as a result they are my backups that I reach for if I need more precision.

 

I don't think there's any problem with them, however. 

 

I was a beta-tester for them when they came out with the Calcium kit, which is by far the most complicated/hardest kit of theirs to use.  I was testing it against Salifert and Hach tests on every sample.  It took me a fair amount of practice to get the test down without futzing it up in one of the MANY steps, but once I got it down pat I could consistently get very good results with it.  Comparable to the Salifert and Hach kits. 

 

They're just difficult, not defective.  With lots of steps come lots of ways to mess up -- and every way counts into the digital result at the end of the test.

 

And on the flip side with Salifert, they're almost TOO EASY.  (only humor....can't be too easy)  Once you're good with them (practice) you can knock out a whole set of tests FAST.  They're also very EASY and not very expensive.  All good.

 

You can work around the color issues on kits like phosphates and nitrates a couple of different ways:

1) Keep higher levels of nitrates and phosphates so the kits are easier to read.  Your system will probably be healthier too.  (Just for example: My system is around .25 ppm PO4 and 25+ ppm NO3.....no problems discerning color at that level.)

2) If you're really loopy and want to keep nutrients near-zero, that's where they get hard to read.  In that case, use a second test vial filled just with tank water and compare that to the actual test vial -- even a very faint color should be discernible this way.

[WilliamBowman]

The API water test kit only focuses on the main issues in saltwater tanks that are ammonia, high pH, nitrite and nitrate.