Test kits for aquarists…

nwrogers

nwrogers

Got gorgs?
I wanted to share something I have been going through with you guys since it has opened up my eyes in a very disturbing way. I discovered my parameters must be out of whack after losing a purple digitata I got from tubs to STN. After I tested my water I realized something must be wrong with my test kits because with the numbers it was giving me I shouldn’t be having any problems. I asked Vince to bring his test kits over and I was amazed at how different they were! So I called Jerry right away and he offered to test my water for me that night! I was also amazed at the results from his test kits. So the next day I went out and bought a new set of test kits so I could do some more tests. Here are the results from the kits…

Calcium:
My old test kit: 370
Vince’s test kit: 550
Jerry’s test kit: 470
My new test kit: 520

Alkalinity:
My old test kit: 7.5
Vince’s test kit: 6.7
Jerry’s test kit: Normal (around 7.8, he has a cheep kit)
My new test kit: 10

Magnesium:
My old test kit: 1335
Vince’s test kit: 1530
Jerry’s test kit: 1380
My new test kit: NA

PH:
My old test kit: 8.1
Vince’s test kit: NA
Jerry’s test kit: 8.4
My new test kit: 8.2

As you can see these tests are all over the chart!!! The thing that plagued me the most is how much my Salifert calcium test kit was off!! (The Salifert kit is my old test kit, only about 9 months old) I did a 50 gallon water change and dosed 1 cup of the alkalinity part of my randy’s two part. I got in this situation from a bad test kit and my corals for the first time in two years are looking like crud and dieing on me. I haven’t had a problem keeping corals in years until now. It’s like a nightmare watching my tank die from messed up parameters. Last night I lost another coral I got from tubs, my pink smootie digi :( I wanted to warn you guys about putting too much faith in your test kits. Even the ones that people claim to be accurate can be really off!! For example look at Vince’s magnesium test kit. All three of us have the Salifert magnesium test kits but Vince’s is about 200ppm higher than mine or Jerry’s. Who’s is right? Who the hell knows!! I am really disappointed with Salifert right now :( The fact is we need some kind of fluid to test our kits against to verify their accuracy. After some research I found a product by Fauna Marin that does just that and there is one place in the US that carries it, Aquarium Obsessed!

http://www.aquariumobsessed.com/mm5...=AO&Product_Code=FM-MR100&Category_Code=FM-SI

I just placed an order for it so I will let you all know what the results of tests conclude. Assuming these Fauna Marin reference solutions are accurate, which at this point I have to do since I am so far away from the ocean, we will finally see who rules and who stinks.


To be continued…
 
Nate, thanks for the post... I never trust my kits... for me, the corals have always been the best indicator of parameters being off. Maybe I'm missing it, but did you find something that was way out of whack causing the problem? Even though the readings are all over the chart, none of them look terrible, at least bad enough to kill.
Adam
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10103076#post10103076 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Piazzon12
Nate, thanks for the post... I never trust my kits... for me, the corals have always been the best indicator of parameters being off. Maybe I'm missing it, but did you find something that was way out of whack causing the problem? Even though the readings are all over the chart, none of them look terrible, at least bad enough to kill.
Adam
Click to expand...

Well if my calcium was at 550 that would explain what caused my calcium precipitation making my 150 tank look like a giant snow globe. And if calcium isn't a problem than I would think a Magnesium of 1530 would certainly burn the tips on my acros and digis. And if my alk is as low as I expect it is with a calcium level of 500+ that could easily kill my SPS as well. Basically my tank may be ticking time bomb right now and I am lucky to have only lost 2 SPS corals. My soft corals and LPS corals look fine and so do the fish. I guess the only thing that can be said for this mess is that at least I have been proactive about it enough to hopefully save most of my corals. Other people seem to be having bad luck as well and a lot of it seems to be because of bad test kits (In most cases Salifert kits)…

Here are just a few threads…

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1117617

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1136955

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1048871

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1137084

BTW Using your corals as a reference as to if your water parameters are good may work sometimes and may work for Softies or LPS corals but if you have ever seen an SPS coral RTN you would know that using an SPS coral as indicator of water quality is a lost cause or should I say a lost coral :) Also I am glad you never trust your kits, apparently that is the only safe way to be but if you don’t believe what they tell you then why even buy them or use them? Either way for $20+ dollars I should be able to get a calcium test that is accurate within 100ppm, right? :lol:
 
Good threadfs Nate. Very curious about habib. Hmmmm. Looks like alot of people are having issues with those expensive Salifert kits. I have been perferctly happy with my cheapo Aquarium Pharmaceutical kits from Pet Depot. The key to those is to use them while they are fresh since at least the Calcium test starts to lose some sensitivity over time. May be time to try some of the electronic monitor probe devices nate. After all you are the tech guy! plus they come with calibration fluids.
 
So with all these problems with Salifert test kits, What is ht next best option for reliable test kits.....? Seachem? Lemott? Anyone know?

Geo
 
yea those elso are supposed to be good. i ordered the ALK and the customer service was great, the guy who you talk to in Cali, jessie, he seems like a really good guy, we talked for about 20 mins...i guess they blind test there products every 3 months i think he said and he had just gotten the results back and taold me them. and he said that the NIST validation was for each individual regent, not just the test, which was kinda interesting. but ill let ya know how it compares the my salifert alk and then see how it compares to the test solutions.
 
I hope to get the test kit today from aquarium obsessed. I will do some tests this weekend and post the results as soon as I can…
 
Ok here are the test results I promised…

Fauna Marin Test Solution: (These are what the values should show up as for the tests below)
Calcium: 415
Alk: 6.6
Mag: 1295

Original Salifert Test kits:
Calcium: 320 (off by almost 100ppm!)
Alk: 6.6
Mag: 1125 (off by over 150ppm!)

New API Test kits:
Calcium: 400 (changed 1 drop too soon but way closer than the Salifert kit)
Alk: 7 (only reads in whole numbers, seems pretty accurate)

I will probably stick with my original Salifert alk test since it is dead on but I will be throwing out the calcium test. Also the magnesium test is really off but because it is so expensive I find it hard to throw it out! It really is no good. I like my new aquarium pharmaceuticals test kits. They are really cheep, $7 for the calcium test and $5 for the alk, and the seem fairly accurate. In all fairness though my Salifert test kits are about 1 year old. The tests above seem to show that calcium and mag Salifert test kits I have degraded severely over time. I think this may be caused by their design. Salifert uses more chemicals and things that can go wrong than the aquarium pharmaceuticals test kits. I may do some more tests on a few different kits but for right now I am going to stick with the API kits. Oh and by the way I have lost one more coral since the first two I lost but after 115 gallons of water changes I think I have things back on track. No more losses since early this week…
 
All I use is API and I love them. Cheep and seem to work very well. I also feel your pain Nate. I watched as my 44 gallon rapidly killed all my coral a few years ago. Turned out to be the ballast went bad and I never saw it. 1 250w mh over it made it impossible to see a drop in preformance. But any way, As far as those kits go, in my limited experience they are ALL off. There is no way in hell anyone can say with any certainty that 1 kit is right and another is wrong. Even with testing fluid who is to say that the fluid is acurate. I always take as many reading as I can with as many peoples test kits and draw up and average. It really matters very little what the actual reading is as long as it is with in range. Its stability, thats the key to keeping things long term. Corals are hardy and can adapt to a wide range of perameters. But forcing them to change all the time will IMO be the death of many of them. It seems my tank does the best when I leave it alone. Drip kalk for all top off and adjust for alk and calc with randys 2 part. Screw the mag testing. IMO if you do regular water changes the mag will be fine. So say Randy any way. And I believe him. I adjusted my mag once and damn near lost my tank.
Never again. Water changes and kalk and all is good. IMO
 
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