Best tools for water testing?

[Hookdlikeafish]

Hello all! I'm new to the saltwater hobby, but have dealt with fresh water for years! What is the most accurate test for ph? Currently i am using API, but depending on the ambient light, and how close I hold the tube to the white background, my tube appears to show 7.8 to 8.4! Frustrating because I don't know which to go with. All the colors are so close! Thanks in advance!

 

[Timfish]

API definitely gets a bad rap. As for Hanna I recently compared mine to a friend's. Testing the same sample of water and running both reagents on both testers we got 4 different numbers that amounted to about .75 dKH variation (141 - 159, both reagents less than 4 months old).
Get wjth other aquarists and see what you find to be the easiest to use then alway double check against standards or at least other test kits regularly

 

[zsuman101]

i like red sea pro kits, i test alkalinity twice daily, everything else weekly