SPS and Test Kits

meshwheel

meshwheel

New member
Hi Guys,
I decided to give the new RedSea Coral Pro test kits a try! WOW! What a quality kit. And you can purchase refills for them at a much cheaper price!
I compared them to brand new Salifert kits. They are dead on with Calcium and KH once I got the hang of using them.
I was confused on the Magnesium until I figured out you count whats left of the reagent solution in the syringe, NOT WHAT THE NUMBERS SHOW on the Syringe where the plunger has stopped!
The Magnesium seems to consistenly read a tad higher then the Salifert so I am at odds at which in more accurate on that test. Nevertheless, its very consistent.
I have been in the hobby a long long time. I remember when Salifert test kits first came out! IT was like................THANK GOD!!! Finally kits that you can read and are consistent!
I have tried one Elos test kit and still prefer the Salifert better so far. However, the RedSea Pro test kits are awesome!!!!
Anyone else using the RedSea Pro kits??
 
That's great input! I tried them years ago with horrible luck. I am talking 15-20 years ago! Maybe they are better now? I would love to purchase USA made test kits!


Thanks
 
Ive tested the Red Sea Pro along with Salifert and Elos. As long as you follow the directions properly they are all pretty close in their final numbers. I run nothing but the Red Sea kits now.
 
if you did 4 different tests and got 4 different readings.....................read the directions. Sounds like your reading/doing the tests wrong.
 
meshwheel said:
Hi Guys,
I decided to give the new RedSea Coral Pro test kits a try! WOW! What a quality kit. And you can purchase refills for them at a much cheaper price!
I compared them to brand new Salifert kits. They are dead on with Calcium and KH once I got the hang of using them.
I was confused on the Magnesium until I figured out you count whats left of the reagent solution in the syringe, NOT WHAT THE NUMBERS SHOW on the Syringe where the plunger has stopped!
The Magnesium seems to consistenly read a tad higher then the Salifert so I am at odds at which in more accurate on that test. Nevertheless, its very consistent.
I have been in the hobby a long long time. I remember when Salifert test kits first came out! IT was like................THANK GOD!!! Finally kits that you can read and are consistent!
I have tried one Elos test kit and still prefer the Salifert better so far. However, the RedSea Pro test kits are awesome!!!!
Anyone else using the RedSea Pro kits??
Click to expand...

Yep, been using the reef foundation kit for sometime now and I have been very happy with it. I was using the Salifert tests for Alk, CA, and MG and they both read very close in numbers. The saliferts are gone now and I've been using the Red Sea pros exclusively for about 2 mos now. At first I did not like them, but the more I have used them the more I like them, they are easy and the you tube videos are very helpful when getting started. Plus like you stated the refills are half the price of a new salifert. Plus the quality of all of the materials in the red sea kits are def top notch.

Gotta agree with you that these are great test kits, and FWIW, I would def recommend them to anyone looking for a good test kit.
 
Redsea test kits and crap. If you dose anything that not redsea products and you try testing with there kits it will read wrong all the time will never buy there test kits ever again.
 
batt600 said:
Redsea test kits and crap. If you dose anything that not redsea products and you try testing with there kits it will read wrong all the time will never buy there test kits ever again.
Click to expand...

So just out of curiosity what would you recommend??

I dose B-ionic on a daily basis and did a head to head comparison with the Red Sea and the Salifert. I found that there was a minor deviation between the two brands, but it was less than 10%.
 
batt600 said:
Redsea test kits and crap. If you dose anything that not redsea products and you try testing with there kits it will read wrong all the time will never buy there test kits ever again.
Click to expand...

What!!! How can the additives be dependent on which test kit you use with?
 
I've the RSP reef foundation and the coral color kits. The ALK, CA, and MAG matched up well with my Elos and therefore, I rarely use my Elos kit anymore.
Their potassium kit is the only kit I find useful because it actually give you a number at the end instead of some color matching like other kits. I actually like it a lot.
I haven't used the Iron and Iodide kit yet because it's based on color matching.
 
Thats a new one to me!!! If that where the case I am sure they would state that in their literature so you would purchase their products for their test kits.
HOWEVER, that would be in my opinion shooting themselves in the foot! As many people mix up and use their own supplements.
There is only one kind of Sodium Bicarbonate(the last time I checked) and only one kind of calcium chloride(last time I checked) and so on.
I would recommend getting the booklet out and "READING IT" that comes with their test kits. It is superbly laid out and VERY well written!
DO NOT just look at the quick test card and go off that! Read the directions.
They do seem to read a tad lower then Salifert, and a tad higher then Elos. I wonder who is dead on?????
 
meshwheel said:
Thats a new one to me!!! If that where the case I am sure they would state that in their literature so you would purchase their products for their test kits.
HOWEVER, that would be in my opinion shooting themselves in the foot! As many people mix up and use their own supplements.
There is only one kind of Sodium Bicarbonate(the last time I checked) and only one kind of calcium chloride(last time I checked) and so on.
I would recommend getting the booklet out and "READING IT" that comes with their test kits. It is superbly laid out and VERY well written!
DO NOT just look at the quick test card and go off that! Read the directions.
They do seem to read a tad lower then Salifert, and a tad higher then Elos. I wonder who is dead on?????
Click to expand...

Well I think that with these test kits, none of them are dead on accurate, but they are close enough for what we need them for. When I compared the saliferts and Red Sea, I found the Alk and Mag read lower than the Salifert's, but the calcium test kit read higher.
 
Great Points Rob! As long as they are consistent is what I have learned over the years! They do not have to be dead on!
However, I do run a ULNS on my 34 gal max tank. So I like to keep my params as close to natural seawater levels as possible. My max for KH is 8 but I prefer 7-7.5.
Calcium Is 420-450 and mag around 1280-1300.
When I get a reding of 7.2 w/ salifert its 6.8 with Red Sea Pro. Thats darn close! I have noticed with Vodka dosing that the closer to NSW the better.
It's really a combo of a little experience with the test kits and using them enough to get familiar with the color changes.
I even have a pink lemonade Acro that if the calcium gets down to about 380-390 I get a big vecrease in polyp extension. That's kind amy "Go to" coral for observation......lol
 
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