test kit question

[torpedo101]

hey I am new so looking for a not to hard to use test kit ..I have some live rock and when I had fresh water It was easier to test as far as ph range.. I used amer..pharm back when but was looking at the multi test by sechram and can t seem to decide which test to get..I see in the post that some test s have been out of date and off on reading.. newebie needs advice..thanks

 

[crumbletop]

I was cleaning up yesterday and have some test kits I am not using. I have a Red Sea pH and Alkalinity test, a Red Sea Nitrite test, and Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Ammonia and Nitrate test kits. You can have them if you want them.

For a newb I think these would be fine because you don't really need to have a precise reading for things -- just ballpark.

If you want to get more accurate results, then the tests you will need for keeping corals (stonies mostly) are alk, calcium, phosphate, and nitrate, +/- magnesium. For these I'd get Salifert or Seachem. I like the Salifert alk, phosphate, and nitrate tests. Their calcium and mag are okay too, but I don't like their scoops. The reef status seachem tests are nice, IMO. I like the seachem pH test as it is super-dee-duper easy to use. I use one on my QT tank. I use a pH probe in my display.

 

[torpedo101]

Thanks alot i will be glad to take what you have ..I know now what I didn t know then.. . Just let me know and I ll pick them up.thanks mary

 

[Angela Short]

FWIW I had some red sea kits gave to me that were out of date by just a little bit and tested them against my new saliferts and they were way off. ALK in particular said my tank was real low so I go dose the tank and come to find out I had way overshot it when I tested with a brand new test kit. This all went on when I was trying to figure out why I was having problems with my corals then it turned out to be red buggs not my tank params. My out of date salifert nitrites or traites (always get them confused) tested almost 0 and then I tested the same sample with the new salifert kit and it was very elevated so I feel out of date kits can be very off from my experience. Good kits can be picked up pretty cheap if you shop around. Hear is a link to a comparison for saliferts....

http://www.geocities.com/hans1976/Salifert.html

But I also seem to get the same basic readings with the Ammonia and PH I have used from American Pharm. also when I tested them against saliferts and they can be picked up local to save shipping.

 

[gflat65]

A fan of Salifert almost all the way around. LaMotte is the easiest one I've used for PO4 (not many have much accuracy on PO4, though).