Best digital test kit

[NicoB0817]

I'm new to this hobby and don't want to continue coming to the fish store every week to get my water tested, but I don't want to have to deal with looking at all of those colors. I have seen 2 digital test kits, the Hanna test kit and the idip, the Hanna test kit is very expensive and I've heard the idip is inaccurate. I'm not made of money but I don't want something that's too inaccurate. Wich should I get (unless you know of any other ones)?

[jservedio]

51 minutes ago, NicoB0817 said:

I'm new to this hobby and don't want to continue coming to the fish store every week to get my water tested, but I don't want to have to deal with looking at all of those colors. I have seen 2 digital test kits, the Hanna test kit and the idip, the Hanna test kit is very expensive and I've heard the idip is inaccurate. I'm not made of money but I don't want something that's too inaccurate. Wich should I get (unless you know of any other ones)?

Only certain parameters have a colorimeter even available for hobbyist use and other than alkalinity and phosphate the others are entirely useless (except maybe calcium, but how often are you testing calcium to justify it). That means you are going to need to deal with titration test kits (the color change ones) for all of your other parameters.

 

Also, the Hanna checkers are only like $50/ea. - that's only 2-3x the cost of a typical titration kit, they last forever, and reagents aren't very expensive (around $0.36 per test in the US).

 

Once your tank is established and stable, you don't need to be testing all of your parameters weekly. For a tank that's at least a year old and not dosing, I'd be checking my alkalinity weekly; nitrate and phosphate monthly; calcium every couple of months; and magnesium twice a year. Obviously, to troubleshoot problems, you would test more if needed, but no need to be constantly testing everything if it's stable.

[Clown79]

I use hanna for phosphates and alk and i check alk 2 times a week, phos rvery 2 weeks.

 

The ease of use and speed of the hanna makes it worth while.

 

The rest i use salifert. I only test everything else monthly.