Red Sea test kit shelf life/ or time limit to use?

[slimfitz]

Hello, I have used Red Sea test kits for a few years now. I was having problems with testing ammonia back in Dec with a new tank I was setting up. My test kit was expired. So I purchased another test kit that expires 12/18. Well I decide to test for ammonia this weekend and its high @ .8. Instead of doing anything drastic I let it be. And tested again today. It reads 1.2. I pulled out my old API test kits and tested they came up zero. I also had a new spare Ammonia Alert badge I stuck in my sump. It is showing zero also. Now I started thinking maybe this new Red Sea kit is bad. So I tested a vial of RODI water and another of my tank water. Sure enough the RODI came up showing ammonia. Here are both tests. My question is there a time limit once opened?

 

[dubmaneh]

Not sure about the ammonia kits but I had the same thing happen with one of their alkalinity tests. The reagent had gone bad before the expiry date.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[slimfitz]

Just seems weird that it only lasted 3 months open for me

 

[bertoni]

The kit might have been stored in poor conditions for a while, or something else might have happened, maybe a poor batch of reagents. I'd get another opinion, if that were easy, but I about 99% sure that the kit has failed.

 

[slimfitz]

Thats why I was asking about shelf life or a useable time period once open. I used my last one for over a year.

 

[bertoni]

Three months is an unreasonably short life. The manufacturer might replace it for you, although it might be more effort than it's worth.

 

[slimfitz]

Thats what I was thinking. I think Im going to order Salifert instead.

 

[Dan_P]

Additional thought...

In thinking over the chemical reactions involved, if the organic reagents were "œbad" then the test would tend to give false negatives. Two possibilities for a false positive are the presence of an organic amine (not in RO water though) and the catalyst that colors the test solution yellow to yellow green going "œbad" or being impure. I agree that the observations point to the kit reagents being the culprit.

 

[Brieninsac]

Just contact Red Sea, they'll replace it for you.

 

[slimfitz]

thanks guys. Im just going to go with another brand