Professional Water Testing

[hans1976]

I have tested my water and everything seems to be fine. Salinity 1.027, alk 7.7, ca is 400, nitrates <5, PO4 is near 0. Yet the tank is not doing well. Seems like years ago, there was a lab I can send my water too. Does anyone know if they are still around?

I am getting red slime algae, the green lps are almost white. The bulbs are new. There is something I am missing and I want ti figure it out.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There are some labs around, like www.enclabs.com but if you do not know what you are looking for it will be very expensive.

I would not attribute cyano (red slime) to anything other than available nutrients, regardless of what a kit says. Exporting more phosphate before the algae gets it is almost always a good plan. Use something like GFO for that purpose.

 

[SueAndHerZoo]

Here's who I use

Here's who I use

Hi there.... fancy meeting you here.

Here's who I use -- I have always been very pleased and impressed with their services.

http://www.aqua-medic.com/aquariumwatertesting/

Sue

 

[bertoni]

There have been issues with AWT in the past. There are a lot of threads, if anyone wants to do some searching and reading.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yes, I'd be wary of some of their results.

 

[billsreef]

Keep in mind, with cyano organics are major player and hard to test for at the hobby level.

 

[Nanook]

How are you measuring your salinity? If that instrument is off, that 1.027 could be considerably higher.

 

[SurlyT]

Does anyone know if AWT is still in business? The link above goes nowhere now, as does http://www.aquariumwatertesting.com (their previous domain).

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The links to another related site are also down.

www.aqua-medic.com/aquariumwatertesting/

Maybe they went out of business, or are just having suite troubles.

 

[SueAndHerZoo]

The links to another related site are also down.

www.aqua-medic.com/aquariumwatertesting/

Maybe they went out of business, or are just having suite troubles.

I just tried it and the link works.....maybe it was a temporary glitch.
Sue

 

[yardboy]

GFO, activated carbon and water changes will all be less expensive than lab tests, which might or might not tell you anything.

 

[SurlyT]

I just tried it and the link works.....maybe it was a temporary glitch.
Sue

Confirmed. Go figure.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Doesn't work for me right now, so if it did work for you perhaps they are having ongoing web problems.